Trace: Vietnam (1945-1975)

Domino Theory: The United States became involved in Vietnam because American policymakers believed that if the entire country fell under a Communist government, Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia.
1946: United States warships ferried elite French troops to Vietnam where they quickly regained control of the major cities, including Hanoi, Haiphong, Da Nang, Hue, and Saigon
1949: the French set up a government to rival Ho Chi Minh’s and installed Bao Dai as head of state.
1951 some Vietnamese nationalists created the Lao Dong Workers’ Party as the successor to the Indochinese Communist Party
1951: Ho declared the formation of the DRV and wrote eight letters to U.S. president Harry Truman, imploring him to recognize Vietnam’s independence.
By 1953 most Viet Minh were members of the Lao Dong.
1954: Vietnam was divided into North and South Vietnam
1954: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu: the Viet Minh mounted an assault on the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu, in northwestern Vietnam near the border with Laos; resulted in perhaps the most humiliating defeat in French military history.
1954: diplomats from France, Great Britain, the USSR, the People’s Republic of China, and the United States, as well as representatives from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, attended delegations to draft a set of agreements called the Geneva Accords
June 1954: during the Geneva Conference, the United States pressured Bao Dai to appoint Ngo Dinh Diem prime minister of the government in South Vietnam
1954: after the Geneva Conference, the U.S. government moved to establish the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), a regional alliance that extended protection to South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in cases of Communist subversion or insurrection.
Between 1954 and 1955, operatives paid by the CIA spread rumors in northern Vietnam that Communists were going to launch a persecution of Catholics; nearly 1 million Catholics to flee to the south.
1955: SEATO came into force and eventually became direct involvement of U.S. troops.
October 1955: Diem announced he had no intention of participating in the planned national elections; Diem held elections only in South Vietnam
1955: Diem won the election and declared South Vietnam to be an independent nation called the Republic of Vietnam (RVN)
1955: the United States created the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in South Vietnam
July 1956: Elections were to be held throughout the North and South under the supervision of the International Control Commission
1960: the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF) was formed with the aim of overthrowing the government of South Vietnam and reunifying the country.
1961: the NLF began to train and equip a guerrilla force that was formally organized as the People’s Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF).
January 1961: when Kennedy took office, there were 800 U.S. advisers in Vietnam
1961: The Central Committee Directorate for the South (COSVN) formed as the leadership group of the newly merged southern and central branches of the Lao Dong
November 1963 there were 16,700 U.S. advisers in Vietnam
May 1963: Buddhists began a series of demonstrations against Diem, and the demonstrators were fired on by police
1963: The political situation in South Vietnam became even more unstable after Diem was killed in a military coup
November 22, 1963: President Kennedy was assassinated
1964: Hanoi dispatched the first unit of northern-born regular soldiers to the south
January 1964: Johnson approved top-secret, covert attacks against North Vietnamese territory, including commando raids against bridges, railways, and coastal installations.
1964: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave President Lyndon B. Johnson permission to launch a full-scale military intervention in Vietnam
June 1964: retired general Maxwell Taylor replaced Henry Cabot Lodge as ambassador to South Vietnam
August 2, 1964, North Vietnamese coastal gunboats fired on the destroyer USS Maddox, which had penetrated North Vietnam’s territorial boundaries in the Gulf of Tonkin
August 1964: Johnson ordered the first air strikes against North Vietnamese territory and went on television to seek approval from the U.S. public
1965: the first U.S. troops sent to prevent the South Vietnamese government from collapsing
October 1965: the newly arrived 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army fought one of the largest battles of the Vietnam War in the Ia Drang Valley; North Vietnamese forces were defeated
February 7, 1965: the NLF launched surprise attacks on the U.S. helicopter base at Pleiku, killing 8 Americans, wounding 126, and destroying 10 aircrafts
1966: the bombing of North Vietnam’s oil facilities had destroyed 70 percent of their fuel reserves
1967: the ground war had reached a stalemate; Johnson and McNamara increased the ferocity of the air war
1967: the Tet Offensive: North Vietnam and the NLF mounted an all-out offensive aimed at inflicting serious losses on both the ARVN and U.S. forces
December 1967: North Vietnamese troops attacked and surrounded the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh, placing it under siege
1967: Nguyen Van Thieu became president of South Vietnam
March 1968: elements of the U.S. Army’s Americal Division wiped out an entire hamlet called My Lai, killing 500 unarmed civilians
1968: Promising an end to the war in Vietnam, Richard Nixon won a narrow victory
July 1969: Nixon the Nixon doctrine, which stated that U.S. troops would no longer be directly involved in Asian wars
June 1969: the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) was created by the NLF to take over its governmental role in the south and serve as a counterpart to the Saigon government
March 1969: Nixon ordered the secret bombing of Cambodia
April 1970: Nixon ordered U.S. troops into Cambodia arguing that this was necessary to protect the security of American units
mid-January, 1973: Nixon halted all military actions against North Vietnam.
January 27, 1973: all four parties to the Vietnam conflict (the United States, South Vietnam, the PRG, and North Vietnam) signed the Treaty of Paris of 1973
March 29, 1973: the last U.S. troops left Vietnam
January 7, 1975: the ARVN began to fall apart
1975: a Communist government was established in Laos
1975: Vietnam was reunified under Communist control