Vietnam Timeline WWII (ended 1945): Japanese occupation of Indochina* 1945: Minh declared independence of all Vietnam : France re-asserted colonial rule over Vietnam 1954: Vietminh (Minh’s communist army) defeated French at Dien Bien Phu *includes Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

Vietnam Timeline 1954: Peace agreement temporarily divided Vietnam between Vietminh north of 17 th parallel and French south of that line, pending free elections (US refused to sign, based on “domino theory”: knew Minh would win) : South Vietnam ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem; like many US allies of the time, Diem was anti-communist but corrupt. Diem cancelled the unified election, and held a rigged one just in the south that he ‘won’ by a ridiculous margin.

Vietnam Timeline 1960: National Liberation Front (NLF) formed in the south; organized by Minh but included lots of anti-Diem elements : NLF terrorized the South, drew closer to China and USSR; thus, US felt the need to send military advisors (16,000 by 11/1/63) 11/1/63: Army officers killed Diem, took over 11/22/63: President Kennedy killed, decision to go in deeper or pull out fell to LBJ

Vietnam Timeline 8/1964: Johnson claimed N. Vietnam had attacked two US destroyers off coast of N. Vietnam, in Gulf of Tonkin, without provocation. Congress passed “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution”, authorizing LBJ to take “all necessary measures” for defense of US forces, a vague non-declaration of war. Years after the war, it came out that the US ships were in active combat support, so firing on them was legitimate. 2/1965: Johnson retaliated for an attack on US forces with a bombing campaign, “Operation Rolling Thunder”. It lasted three years.

Vietnam Timeline 3/1965: Johnson ordered US ground troops to Vietnam to support the South’s army and cut off North Vietnamese aid to the Vietcong (NLF) 1966 and 1967: US forces reached 180,000 by end of ’65 and ~500,000 by end of This was the largest force the US had sent to one place since WWII 11/21/67: General Westmoreland declared we were winning, our tactics had badly damaged the Vietcong, and the end was in sight 1/30/68: Vietcong launched Tet offensive on first day of Vietnamese New Year (Tet); struck all over S. Vietnam, and even reached our embassy in the South’s capital of Saigon