Vietnam

A Chronology of America’s Longest War

February 1930

The Indochinese Communist Party is formed in Hong Kong under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. The party opposes French colonial rule. Born Nguyen Sinh Cung, “Uncle Ho” embraced Communism while living abroad in England and France from 1915-23; in 1919, he petitioned the powers at the Versailles peace talks for equal rights and self-determination in Indochina.

September 22, 1940The French government agrees to allow

the Japanese to use Vietnam to station troops. The Japanese troops, allegedly ignorant of the Franco-Japanese agreement, cross into Vietnam from China and take French-held cities. Japan continues to occupy more of Indochina, but permits Vichy French administration to continue.

May 1941

Ho Chi Minh forms the Viet Minh during the meeting of the Central Committee of the Indochina Communist Party. Ho returns to Vietnam and declares the nation’s independence from France. The Viet Minh’s purpose is to fight the French and the Japanese.

March 1945

Japan overthrows Vichy, imprisons their civil servants and renders Vietnam “independent” under Japanese “protection,” with Bao Dai as emperor.

August 13, 1945

Japan surrenders North Vietnam (above the 16th parallel) to Nationalist Chinese. On August 19, the Viet Minh take Hanoi and four days later, Hue, forcing Bao Dai to abdicate.

September 2, 1945

Ho Chi Minh announces the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), proclaims himself as president and prepares to negotiate for the independence of Vietnam.

September 13, 1945

British forces arrive in Saigon to begin disarmament of the Japanese and to assume control of South Vietnam.

September 26, 1945Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey, head of the Office of

Strategic Security (OSS) mission in Vietnam is the first American killed there. He was killed by Vietminh troops while driving a jeep to the airport. Reports later indicated that his death was due to a case of mistaken identity -- he had been mistaken for a Frenchman. The OSS is the precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency.

January 1946

The Viet Minh win majority of seats in the National Assembly. France recognizes the DRV as a free state within the French Union, bt not independent.

December 19, 1946

Following months of steadily deteriorating relations, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam launches its first consorted attack against the French, first in Hanoi and later against French garrisons in the South, and the Franco-Vietnamese War begins.

June 1948Bao Dai becomes chief of state of Vietnam

under French control. Vietnam's last emperor, he had ascended to the throne in 1924 (at age 12), gone to school in France, returned to Vietnam in 1932, and cooperated with the Japanese occupying Vietnam during World War II. After the war, he briefly joined ranks with Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh, only to flee into exile in Hong Kong and France.

January 14, 1950

Ho Chi Minh proclaims the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as the only legal government of Vietnam. Four days later, China recognizes the DRV over Bao Dai’s State of Vietnam.

February 7, 1950

The United States and Great Britain recognize Bao Dai’s State of Vietnam as the legitimate government of Vietnam.

June 27, 1950

President Harry Truman announces that the United States

will send $15 million dollars in military aid to the French for the

war in Indochina. Included in the aid package is a military

mission and military advisors. By 1954 the U.S. is shouldering 75%

of the cost of the war, and has contributed $2.6 billion.

December 23, 1950

Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement is signed by the United States, Vietnam, France, Cambodia, and Laos.

April 7, 1954

At a news conference, President Eisenhower outlines the Domino Theory: "You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly."

May 7, 1954

Some 40,000 Viet Minh forces defeat 13,000 French at Dien Bien Phu, a remote outpost the French had chosen as a bulwark against the Viet Minh since November 1953.

June 16, 1954

Bao Dai selects Ngo Dinh Diem as prime minister of the State of Vietnam.

July 21, 1954Delegates from nine nations convening in

Geneva end hostilities in Indochina. Vietminh General Ta Quang Buu and French General Henri Delteil sign the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam. As part of the agreement, a provisional demarcation line is drawn at the 17th parallel which will divide Vietnam until nationwide elections are held in 1956. The United States does not accept the agreement, neither does the government of Bao Dai and Diem.

September 8, 1954

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is formed by the United States, France, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines.

January 1, 1955

The United States begins to send aid directly to Bao Dai’s government in Saigon.

February 12, 1955

The US Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG-1) assumes responsibility, from the French, for training South Vietnamese forces.

October 26, 1955

After defeating Bao Dai in a rigged election, Diem announces the formation of the Republic of Vietnam, and proclaims himself its first president.

May 1957

Diem visits the United States, addresses a joint session of Congress and receives a declaration of support from President Eisenhower.

May 1959

U.S. advisors are ordered to Vietnam to assist South Vietnamese infantry, artillery, armored and marine forces.

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

December 20, 1960

National Liberation Front (NLF) is formed in South Vietnam with Hanoi’s support to overthrow the Saigon government. Diem’s government dubs them "Vietcong" or Vietnamese Communists. North Vietnam forms Group 559 to begin infiltrating cadres and weapons into South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Trail will become a strategic target for future military attacks.

May 5, 1961President John F. Kennedy announces it may

be necessary to send U.S. troops to Vietnam. In his inaugural address four months earlier, Kennedy had declared that Americans will be ready to "...bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." There were already 800 U.S. advisers in Vietnam; by November 1963 there were 16,700.

December 8, 1961

U.S. State Department publishes a “white paper” claiming that South Vietnam is threatened by “clear and present danger” of Communist aggression.

February 7, 1962

Two U.S. Army air support companies arrive in Saigon, bringing total of U.S. troops in South Vietnam to 4,000.

May 1, 1963Buddhists gather in the city of Hue to protest a decree

prohibiting them from flying their flag. Several months of rioting break out. Tensions between Buddhists and the Diem government are further strained as Diem, a Catholic, removes Buddhists from several key government positions and replaces them with Catholics. Buddhist monks protest Diem's intolerance for other religions and the measures he takes to silence them. In a show of protest, Buddhist monks start setting themselves on fire in public places.

May 8, 1963

Diem’s troops fire on 20,000 Buddhists gathered in the city of Hue to celebrate Buddha’s birthday, killing 8 children and 1 woman.

August 24, 1963

Washington cables Saigon embassy, recommending that Diem be removed.

November 1, 1963

With tacit approval of the United States, operatives within the South Vietnamese military overthrow Diem. He and his brother Nhu are shot and killed in the aftermath. Diem is replaced by Vice President Nguyen Ngoc Tho and General Duong Van Minh.

November 22, 1963

John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Kennedy's death meant that the problem of how to proceed in Vietnam fell squarely into the lap of his vice president, Lyndon Johnson.

November 23, 1963

President Lyndon B. Johnson announces continued U.S. support for the South Vietnamese government.

January 30, 1964

In a bloodless coup, General Nguyen Khanh seizes power in Saigon. South Vietnam junta leader, Major General Duong Van Minh, is placed under house arrest, but is allowed to remain as a figurehead chief-of-state.

August 2, 1964Three North Vietnamese PT boats allegedly fire

torpedoes at the USS Maddox, a destroyer located in the international waters of the Tonkin Gulf, some thirty miles off the coast of North Vietnam. The attack comes after six months of covert US and South Vietnamese naval operations. A second, even more highly disputed attack, is alleged to have taken place on August 4 against another U.S. destroyer, the Turner Joy. The U.S. retaliates with an air strike in North Vietnam.

August 7, 1964The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizes

President Lyndon Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." The resolution passes unanimously in the House, and by a margin of 82-2 in the Senate. The Resolution allows Johnson to wage all out war against North Vietnam without ever securing a formal Declaration of War from Congress.

February 7, 1965Johnson orders bombing of North Vietnam (excluding

Hanoi and Haiphong) after 8 American soldiers are killed in a Viet Cong attack on Pleiku. Sustained American bombing raids of North Vietnam, dubbed Operation Rolling Thunder, are nearly continuous for three years. In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, appearing before a Senate subcommittee, testifies that US bombing raids against North Vietnam have not achieved their objectives. McNamara maintains that movement of supplies to South Vietnam has not been reduced, and neither the economy nor the morale of the North Vietnamese has been broken.

March 8, 1965

The first American combat troops, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, arrive in Vietnam to defend the US airfield at Da Nang. Scattered Vietcong gunfire is reported, but no Marines are injured.

April 12, 1965

In an effort to disrupt movement along the Mugia Pass -- the main route used by the NVA to send personnel and supplies through Laos and into South Vietnam -- American B-52s bomb North Vietnam for the first time.

November 14, 1965The first conventional battle of the

Vietnam war takes place as American forces clash with North Vietnamese units in the Ia Drang Valley. The US 1st Air Cavalry Division employs its newly enhanced technique of aerial reconnaissance to finally defeat the NVA, though heavy casualties are reported on both sides.

January 10, 1967

Johnson requests a 6 % income tax surcharge to finance U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

April 4, 1967

At a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City, Martin

Luther King publicly speaks out against US policy in Vietnam. Calling the US "the

greatest purveyor of violence in the world," King later encourages draft evasion and suggests a merger between antiwar and

civil rights groups.

April 15, 1967

Over 100,000 people in New York and San Francisco demonstrate against the war in Vietnam.

January 31, 1968In a show of military might that catches the US

military off guard, North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces sweep down upon several key cities and provinces in South Vietnam, including its capital, Saigon. Within days, American forces turn back the onslaught and recapture most areas. From a military point of view, Tet is a huge defeat for the Communists, but turns out to be a political and psychological victory. The US military's assessment of the war is questioned and the "end of tunnel" seems very far off.

March 16, 1968

As Johnson’s popularity plummets, Sen. Robert Kennedy announces that he will run for the presidency. On the same day in Vietnam, Lt. William Calley orders his men to fire on the village of My Lai, killing nearly 500 villagers. "This is what you've been waiting for -- search and destroy -- and you've got it," said their superior officers. When news of the atrocities surfaced, it sent shockwaves through the US political establishment, the military's chain of command, and an already divided American public.

March 31, 1968

With his low approval ratings and dismayed by Senator Eugene McCarthy's strong showing in the New Hampshire primary, President Lyndon Johnson, in a televised address, stuns the nation and announces that he will not be a candidate for re-election. http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/ra_archive/speech_148.ram

April 3, 1968

North Vietnam offers to participate in peace talks.

August 26-29, 1968As the frazzled Democratic party

prepares to hold its nominating convention in Chicago, city officials gear up for a deluge of demonstrations. Mayor Richard Daley orders police to crackdown on antiwar protests. As the nation watched on television, the area around the convention erupts in violence.

October 31, 1968

Johnson halts bombing of North Vietnam. Seven days later Richard Nixon, running on a platform of "law and order," defeats Hubert H. Humphrey to become U.S. president.

March 15, 1969In an effort to destroy Communist supply

routes and base camps in Cambodia, President Nixon gives the go-ahead to "Operation Breakfast." The covert bombing of Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia, conducted without the knowledge of Congress or the American public, will continue for fourteen months.

June 8, 1969

Nixon announces first U.S. troop withdrawal of 25,000 soldiers.

July 25, 1969The president announces the “Nixon Doctrine.”

He calls for sending more economic and military aid to South Vietnam to strengthen the South Vietnam military. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird described the policy of "Vietnamization" when discussing a diminishing role for the US military in Vietnam. The objective of the policy was to shift the burden of defeating the Communists onto the South Vietnamese Army and away from the United States.

October 15, 1969

Thousands of Americans participate in demonstrations against the war. Two weeks later, Nixon appeals to what he calls the “silent majority,” Americans who support the war, claiming that total withdrawal from Vietnam would harm U.S. interests.

April 29, 1970

U.S. forces invade Cambodia to attack North Vietnamese and Viet Cong sanctuaries.

Soldier Blue (1970)

May 4, 1970National Guardsmen open fire on a crowd of

student antiwar protesters at Ohio's Kent State University, resulting in the death of four students and the wounding of eight others. President Nixon publicly deplores the actions of the Guardsmen, but cautions: "...when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy." Several of the protesters had been hurling rocks and empty tear gas canisters at the Guardsmen.

June 24, 1970

Senate repeals 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution, by a vote of 81 to 10.

June 13, 1971A legacy of deception concerning US policy in

Vietnam on the part of the military and the executive branch is revealed as the New York Times begins publication of leaked portions of the Pentagon Papers. The Nixon administration, eager to stop leaks of what they consider sensitive information, appeals to the Supreme Court to halt the publication. The Court decides in favor the Times and allows continued publication.

May 8, 1972Nixon announces that the U.S. will mine North

Vietnamese harbors, in Operation Linebacker. “The bastards have never been bombed like they’re going to be bombed now,” he says privately. 114 U.S. aircraft are lost. Meanwhile, the North Vietnamese economy is ruined, transportation system paralyzed, and air defense system exhausted.

October 21, 1972In secret peace talks in Paris since August

1969, Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s national security advisor, and North Vietnamese military leader Le Duc Tho reach agreement in principle on several key measures leading to a cease-fire in Vietnam. The view that "peace is at hand" is dimmed somewhat by South Vietnamese President Thieu's opposition to the agreement.

December 18-28, 1972In an attempt to force North Vietnam to make

concessions in the ongoing peace talks, the Nixon administration orders heavy bombing of supply dumps and petroleum storage sites in and around Hanoi and Haiphong. The administration makes it clear to the North Vietnamese that no section of Vietnam is off-limits to bombing raids . Operation Linebacker II kills more than 1500 civilians, levels a hospital, and destroys large part of Hanoi. Some 15 B-52s and 11 other aircraft are lost.

January 27, 1973A cease-fire agreement that, in the words of

Richard Nixon, "brings peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia," is signed in Paris by Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho. The agreement is to go into effect on January 28. Later that year the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Kissinger and Tho. Kissinger accepts the award, while Tho declines, saying that a true peace does not yet exist in Vietnam.

March 29, 1973

North Vietnam releases 60 American prisoners of war, who leave Vietnam along with the last remaining U.S. forces.

August 8, 1974Nixon resigns to avoid being impeached for

his role in the Watergate scandal. In May, impeachment hearings against Nixon had begun by the House Judiciary Committee. Among the articles of impeachment introduced was a resolution condemning Nixon for the secret bombing of Cambodia

Spring 1975

The North Vietnamese initiate the Ho Chi Minh Campaign -- a concerted effort to "liberate" Saigon. Under the command of General Dung, the NVA sets out to capture Saigon by late April, in advance of the rainy season.

April 23, 1975

Anticipating the fall of Saigon to Communist forces, President Gerald Ford, speaking in New Orleans, announces that as far as the US is concerned, the Vietnam War is "finished."

April 30, 1975South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh

delivers an unconditional surrender to the Communists in the early hours. North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin accepts the surrender and assures Minh that, "...Only the Americans have been beaten. If you are patriots, consider this a moment of joy." As the few remaining Americans evacuate Saigon from the roof of the U.S. embassy, the last two US servicemen to die in Vietnam are killed when their helicopter crashes.

January 21, 1977

In a bold and controversial move, newly inaugurated President Jimmy Carter extends a full and unconditional pardon to nearly 10,000 men who evaded the Vietnam War draft.

Spring 1978The VA first reports health problems in Vietnam

veterans related to Agent Orange-- a defoliant first used by the U.S. Air Force in 1962 that came in metal orange containers --to expose roads and trails used by Vietcong forces. Between 1981-1983, 16,000 Vietnam veterans and their families file a class-action lawsuit against seven major chemical companies for Agent Orange poisoning. The companies agree to pay 180 million dollars to settle the suit. A CDC study in 1990 concludes that Agent Orange did not harm U.S. soldiers in Vietnam.

December 1978Determined to overthrow the government of Pol

Pot, Vietnam invades Cambodia. Phnompenh, Cambodia's capital, falls quickly as Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge followers flee into the jungles. Vietnam installs Hanoi-backed Cambodian National United Front for National Salvation. Cambodia is renamed the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. Ten years later, Vietnam finally bows to pressure from the U.N. and agrees to withdraw troops from Cambodia, with all troops gone by 1990.

February 17, 1979

China attacks Vietnam to protest Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia. Sixteen days later, China withdraws.

1981Swarms of Vietnamese refugees take to the sea

in overcrowded and unsafe boats in search of a better life. The ranks of the "boat people" include individuals deemed enemies of the state who've been expelled from their homeland. The U.S. provides $2 million to protect “boat people,” Indochinese refugees who fled the war-torn region. After pirates attack more than 3/4ths of the boats, the U.S. and Thailand announce a joint force to protect the boat people.

November 11, 1982

Designed by Maya Ying Lin, a 22 year-old Yale architectural student, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial opens in Washington, DC. The quiet, contemplative structure consisting of two black granite walls forming a "V", lists the names of the 58,183 Americans killed in the Vietnam War. The memorial itself stirred debate as some thought its presentation was too muted and somber, lacking the familiar elements of war-time heroics found in most war memorials.

September 30, 1986A Pentagon panel concludes that there still are

Americans held prisoner in Southeast Asia. For the family members of those still listed as Missing-In-Action, the war is not over. In an address to the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, President Ronald Reagan pledges to make the finding of these individuals one of the "highest national priority." In July 1987 a special envoy to President Reagan visits Hanoi to discuss the status of American pows.

January 1988

Congress passes the Amerasian Homecoming Act, which allows Vietnamese children whose fathers were American servicemen to come to the U.S. with their mothers.

November 4, 1988

Vietnam returns the remains of 23 servicemen missing in action since the Vietnam War. During Reagan’s term in office, the remains of 196 MIAs are returned.

April 30, 1990

Vietnamese Communist Party leader Nguyen Van Linh appeals for friendship and economic cooperation with the United States.

July 11, 1995

As Communist Vietnam inched toward market reforms and pledged full cooperation in finding all Americans listed as still missing-in-action, President Clinton announces the formal normalization of diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

May 23, 1996Ushering in a new era of cooperation between the

two former enemies, the United States and Vietnam exchange ambassadors. Douglas "Pete" Peterson, a prisoner of war for 6 years during the Vietnam War, is named by President Clinton US ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, while H.E. Le Van Bang assumes the position of Vietnamese ambassador to the United States.

September 7, 1999

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, commissions the new U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, as "a symbol of America's commitment to continued progress towards full reconciliation and normalization" with Vietnam.

July 13, 2000President Clinton announces a bilateral trade

agreement between the US and Vietnam, that "will dramatically open Vietnam's economy, further integrate it into the international community, and increase trade between our two nations." In November, Clinton visits Hanoi, becoming the first US president ever to do so. On December 10, 2001, the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) took effect.