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- Communist leader Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam free of colonial rule (from the French)
- war breaks out as a result
- Ho Chi Minh had been a founding member of the French Communist Party
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- President Truman sends 35 U.S. military advisers to Vietnam to aid the French military
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- domino theory - Eisenhower predicts that if South Vietnam falls to communism, then the rest of Southeast Asia would fall as well
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- The Viet Minh (Communist forces from the North) defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu
- French withdraw their forces setting the stage for U.S. involvement
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- Geneva Conference held
- Vietnam split at 17th parallel
- Ho Chi Minh = North Vietnam
- Ngo Dinh Diem = South Vietnam
- U.S. pledges to aid South Vietnam
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- 2 American service men are killed in an attack by the Viet Cong (1st soldiers to die in Vietnam)
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- President Kennedy increases the number of advisers in Vietnam
- By late 1962, there were about 11,300 advisers, increasing U.S. presence
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- U.S. diplomats urge the removal of Diem as leader of S. Vietnam
- felt he was more interested in protecting himself than fighting Communist forces
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- November 1: Diem and his brother are murdered in a successful coup by the South Vietnamese military
- 21 days later, JFK is assassinated
- Lyndon Johnson becomes President
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- U.S. destroyer "Maddox" reports being attacked by a Vietnamese patrol boat in the Gulf of Tonkin
- Johnson asks Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which they did
- authorized military force in Vietnam
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- Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater for Presidency
- begins to look at alternatives for Vietnam
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- "Operation Rolling Thunder" - sustained bombing of N. Vietnam
- lasts until October 1968
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- A battlion of Marines, the first American combat troops arrive in Vietnam
- mission = to protect the Danang Air Field
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- Johnson authorizes use of ground troops in S. Vietnam
- offers N. Vietnam aid in exchange for peace, they refuse
- by the end of the month, McNamara states the war effort is costing $1.5 billion a year
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- 1st war rally is held in Washington D.C.
- organized by Students for a Democratic Society
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- Johnson approves General Westmoreland's request for more troops
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- Johnson suspends bombing in an effect to convince N. Vietnam to negotiate
- bombing resumes on January 31, 1966
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Term
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- a major escalation in the war occurs
- Australia, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines join the war
- by the end of the year, there are more than 400,000 U.S. troops in Southeast Asia
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- McNamara testifies before the Senate that the U.S. bombing in N. Vietnam is ineffective
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- anti-war rally in Washington D.C. draws 50,000 people
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Term
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- Tet Offensive begins with major attacks by North Vietnamese forces against cities in S. Vietnam
- this was a surprise attack as both sides had agreed to cease fire during the Asian holiday of Tet
- 2,800 civilians were massacred in the city of Hue
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- My Lai Massacre: Americans kill more than 300 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in presumption that they are Viet Cong
- The person in command is sentenced to life in prison
- He claims people higher then him ordered the entire village slaughtered
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Term
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- Johnson announces a partial bombing halt
- tells a stunned nation that he will not run for re-election
- Americans could not believe he was deserting them in the middle of a war that he escalated
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- North Vietnamese and American delegations arrive in Paris for peace talks
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- Richard M. Nixon wins the election to the Presidency
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- Nixon orders secret bombings of Cambodia
- Vietnamization - strategy by which the U.S. reduced its troop strategy by which the U.S. reduced its troop levels and trains the South Vietnamese to fight their own war
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- Ho Chi Minh dies at age 79
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- 250,000 demonstrate against the war in Washington D.C.
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- National Guardsmen kill four unarmed students protesting the war at Kent State University
- riots break out at hundreds of colleges
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- The U.S., North, and South Vietnam sign the Paris Peace Accords, ending the U.S. military involvement in the war
- draft is ended 5 days after Johnson's death on January 22
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- the fall of Saigon
- The last U.S. military and diplomatic personnel are evacuated by the U.S. navy (also orphans, journalists, refugees, etc.)
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- "The Wall", Vietnam Veterans Memorial designed by Maya Lin is dedicated in Washington D.C. on Veteran's Day
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- Communist Vietnam promises full cooperation in locating all Americans still listed as missing in action
- U.S. establishes diplomatic ties with its one-time century
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- In the first presidential visit to Vietnam since 1969, Clinton and his family arrive in Hanoi to discuss relations between the new nations
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