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Timeline of Vietnam and the Cold War This timeline was authored by Samuel Brenner, and will be partially included in his book on Vietnam: Living Through the Cold War (Greenhaven Press, 2005)
September 2, 1945 Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Indochina Communist Party and the command of the communist guerilla army known as the Viet Minh, declares the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi by quoting the American Declaration of Independence.
June 25, 1950 North Korean communist forces, supported by the Soviet Union, cross the 38th parallel and invade South Korea. On June 27, Truman orders U.S. forces to assist the South Koreans while the U.N. Security Council condemns the invasion and establishes a 15-nation fighting force.
1950 The United States begins to subsidize the French in Vietnam while the Chinese Communists begin to supply weapons to the Viet Minh. By the end of the year, the United States is paying for half of the French war effort.
November, 1952 Dwight David Eisenhower is elected president of the United States. As part of his campaign, he vows to end the Korean War, which he does in 1953. On November 1, the United States explodes the first hydrogen bomb at a test site in the Marshall Islands. Less than a year later, the Soviets announce their first test of a hydrogen bomb.
April, 1954 In April President Eisenhower formulates the “Domino” theory in arguing that Indochina must be protected from communist hegemony and Soviet and Chinese influence.
May 7, 1954 After a 55-day siege the French mountain fortress of Dienbeinphu falls to the Viet Minh forces commanded by General Vo Nguyen Giap. The defeat signals an end to French presence in Indochina. In July the Geneva Conference on Indochina divides Vietnam at the 17th parallel into the North under Communist rule and the South under Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem.
January 12, 1955 Secretary of State John Foster Dulles first announces the doctrine of “Massive Retaliation,” which threatens full-scale nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in response to communist aggression anywhere in the world. The United States continues to support Ngo Dinh Diem, who in October becomes president of the Republic of Vietnam.
October 4, 1957 The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth, thus sparking the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States.
July 8, 1959 The first American combat deaths in Vietnam after an attack on the Bien Hoa barracks. By the end of 1959 there are nearly 800 American military advisors in Vietnam.
May 1, 1960 An American high-altitude U-2 spy plane is shot down on a mission over the Soviet Union and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, is captured. After the Soviets produce Powers, the United States is forced to admit that it had lied about the plane’s existence. As a result of the affair, Khruschev refused to meet with Eisenhower. John Fitzgerald Kennedy is elected president of the United States in November.
December 20, 1960 North Vietnamese leaders form the National Liberation Front (NLF), which the South Vietnamese refer to as the “Viet Cong,” in South Vietnam. By the end of the year approximately 900 American military advisors are in the country.
June 4, 1961 After announcing in February that American advisors will return fire if fired upon, President Kennedy meets Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev in Vienna and discusses American involvement in Vietnam. By the end of the year there are over 3,000 American military advisors in Vietnam.
August 15, 1961 Communist authorities begin construction on the Berlin Wall to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin. The construction of the wall sparks a major confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.
October 22-28, 1962 The United States and the Soviet Union face off over the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis is resolved when the USSR removes missiles from Cuba and the United States removes missiles from Turkey. Kennedy is widely perceived as having caused Khrushchev to back down.
June 20, 1963 The United States and Soviet Union agree to install a hot line allowing the leaders of both countries to directly communicate during crises.
November 1, 1963 In a coup Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu are removed from power by generals under Duong Van Minh and executed. Although the United States does not initiate the coup, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge knows of the revolution in advance and refuses to help Diem maintain power.
November 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas and Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes president. By the end of the year there are 16,300 American advisors in South Vietnam and the South Vietnamese government is receiving 500 million dollars in aid.
August, 1964 On August 2 and 4 the U.S. destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy are allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese naval forces in the Gulf of Tonkin. In response, the senate overwhelmingly passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, authorizing the president to take any measures necessary to repel further attacks. President Johnson orders the bombing of North Vietnam. By the end of the year there are over 23,000 American advisors in South Vietnam.
February-March, 1965 The United States begins Operation Rolling Thunder, the continual bombing of North Vietnam. In March the first American combat troops arrive in Vietnam.
April 17, 1965 The first major anti-war rally in Washington D.C. is sponsored by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
July 28, 1965 President Johnson approves General William Westmoreland’s request for a massive increase in the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam. By the end of the year there are almost 185,000 United States troops in South Vietnam, and by the end of the following year there are 385,300 American troops in Vietnam.
June 5, 1967 Israel launches an attack that becomes known as the Six Day War, and seizes the Sinai and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. The Soviet Union accuses the United States of encouraging Israeli aggression.
October-December 1967 There are escalating protests to the war in the United States. In October over 50,000 people march in Washington, D.C. By the end of the year there are 485,600 American troops in South Vietnam.
January 31, 1968 The Tet Offensive, a massive assault on American and South Vietnamese forces by the insurgents of the Viet Cong, begins, shocking many Americans, who believed that the war was almost finished. The Viet Cong take huge losses, but reap enormous propaganda benefits.
March, 1968 On March 16 American forces massacre civilians at My Lai. On March 31, President Johnson announces that he is halting the bombing of North Vietnam and that he will not run for reelection.
November 5, 1968 Richard Milhous Nixon is elected president of the United States, defeating Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the Democrat nominee, and Senator Eugene McCarthy. Robert Kennedy, who had run for the Democrat nomination, was assassinated during the campaign. During the year American troop strength in Vietnam peaks at over 536,000.
President Nixon begins secret bombing of Cambodia.
June 8, 1969 President Nixon announces the withdrawal of 25,000 troops from South Vietnam. By the end of the year there are 475,200 American troops in Vietnam.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger begins secret talks with North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho in Paris. By the end of the year there are 334,600 American troops in Vietnam.
May 4, 1970 Four students protesting against the war are accidentally killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio. The killings spark hundreds of protest activities across college campuses in the United States, and some of these protests are met with violence.
May 6, 1970 More than 100 colleges are closed due to student riots over the invasion of Cambodia. By the end of 1971 there are under 200,000 American troops are left in South Vietnam.
February 21, 1972 President Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to visit China. The two countries issue a communiqué recognizing their "essential differences" while making it clear that "normalization of relations" was in all nations' best interests. The rapprochement changes the balance of power with the Soviets.
May 26, 1972 Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) treaty in Moscow, placing limits on certain types of nuclear missiles.
June 17, 1972 The Watergate scandal erupts in Washington, D.C. with the arrests of five suspected White House operatives.
November 7, 1972 Richard Nixon is reelected in a landslide, despite the Watergate scandal. The American withdrawal from Vietnam is almost complete. There are 24,200 American troops remaining in Vietnam.
January 23, 1973 United States, South Vietnam, and North Vietnam sign the Paris Peace Accords, ending the American combat role in the war. President Nixon announces that an agreement has been reached for “peace with honor.” The U.S. military draft ends, and a cease-fire goes into effect five days later.
March 29, 1973 The last American combat troops leave Vietnam and North Vietnam continues releasing all acknowledged American prisoners of war, some of whom have been held for eight years. By the end of the year American personnel in South Vietnam are restricted to those attached to the American embassy.
August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon resigns to avoid being impeached for attempting to cover up his complicity in the Watergate scandal and is replaced as president by Gerald R. Ford.
September 16, 1974 President Gerald Ford offers clemency to draft evaders and military deserters. Some irate veterans mail their combat medals to the president and burn their artificial limbs in protest.
April 29-30, 1975 Amid scenes of massive chaos, Americans and South Vietnamese flee from the North Vietnamese. Saigon is captured by the North Vietnamese on April 30.
August 15, 1979 Apocalypse Now, an emotional film about the Vietnam conflict, is released in theaters.
November 13, 1982 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. at the end of a week of commemorations and parades.
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