1939-45 World War II

• Viet Minh created in 1941 by Ho Chi Minh

• Primarily led by Communists.

• Japanese defeat Indochina

• Viet Minh launch guerrilla warfare against Japanese

• Viet Minh take control of Hanoi (in north Vietnam) and proclaim the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam

1945

• British landed in Saigon (in South Vietnam) and returned authority to the French.

• French first promised to recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, then bombarded coast.

1950

• China offered help to the Viet Minh

• US pledged to send military advisers to help French

• Korean War (1950-1953) began

1954

• (Mar.) Viet Minh defeated French at Dien Bien Phu

• Led by North Vietnam General Vo Nguyen Giap

• (Apr.) Eisenhower gave "domino theory" speech.

• Feared French defeat in Vietnam would lead to communist domination of SEA and block US access to resources.

• (Jul.) Geneva Conference Agreement

• Vietnam temporarily divided at 17th parallel

• Elections supposed to be held in 1956

• No foreign military allowed in Vietnam

• Agreement not signed by U.S. or Bao Dai (Vietnam's former Emperor, temporary premier)

• Eisenhower said it was "a disaster for the free world" (in Pentagon Papers)

1955

• Ngo Dinh Diem (supported by U.S.) became leader of South Vietnam

• Defeated Bao Dai in rigged elections

• Rejected Geneva Accords

• Rejected call for nationwide elections

1956

• French left Vietnam

• U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) trained SV forces

• Eisenhower administration violated Geneva Agreements

• Militarized South Vietnam

• CIA destroyed key Viet Minh installations.

• SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) founded Sep. 8

• Created to block communist gains in SEA

• Members: Australia, NZ, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Fr., U.S., U.K.

1959

• Ngo Dinh Diem began cracking down on communists and dissidents

1960

• Viet Minh became National Liberation Front (NLF)

• Ngo Dinh Diem called them Viet Cong (Vietnamese Communists)

• John F. Kennedy elected president (inaugurated 1961)

1961

• U.S. Military began using herbicide Agent Orange

• ​To destroy foliage (leaves) along Ho Chi Minh Trail

• Four million Vietnamese exposed

• Caused deformities, cancer etc.

• Kennedy began to send 15,000 "advisors" to Vietnam

• To train self-defense troops

1963

• Ngo Dinh Diem unpopular

• Replaced protesting Buddhists with Catholics

• Some Buddhists self-immolated (set themselves on fire)

• 1963 U.S. back coup against Ngo Dinh Diem

• Kennedy believed a more popular government could defeat Ho Chi Minh and Viet Cong

• Ngo Dinh Diem overthrown - he and his brother killed by SV military

• US secretly approves

• (Nov. 22) JFK killed by Harvey Lee Oswald

1964

• (Aug. 2 and 4) U.S.S. Maddox bombed in Gulf of Tonkin

• Result = Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• ​Gave President Johnson a "blank check" to take any measures necessary in Vietnam

• (Nov) LBJ reelected by a landslide against Goldwater

1965

• Operation Rolling Thunder

• Escalation of fighting

• ​Bombing of north Vietnam, 2 x more bombs than in WWII, little effect on the Vietcong

• Only hardened their will to fight.

• First conventional battle at la Drang Valley - heavy casualties

• US. troops to 200,000

1966

• B-52s used for first time to bomb North Vietnam

• By 1966 380,000 troops stationed in Vietnam

• (1967 - 485,000, 1968 - 536,000)

• CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) reports that conscription falls most heavily on poor and minorities.

• Calls for withdrawal of US from Vietnam.

1967

• Americanization of war by General Westmoreland (Commander of US forces) and Robert McNamara ( Secretary of Defense)

• Cost of war by 1967, $27 billion

• Martin Luther King Jr. urged resistance to the daft and merging civil rights and antiwar groups.

1968

• (Jan.) Tet Offensive (Lunar New Year, turning point)

• NV attack more than 100 cities in South Vietnam (inc. Saigon)

• To foment a South Vietnamese rebellion

• And get US to back down.

• Viet Minh almost overrun U.S. Embassy

• But are defeated

• Attack is televised in the news.

• Causes shift in American sentiments

• Questioning if US is winning war.

• My Lai Offensive

• ​US troops execute 500 civilians (mostly women and children) in city of My Lai.

• (Apr.) MLK assassinated.

• (Jun.) Robert Kennedy assassinated.

• (Nov.) Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey

1969

• Nixon secretly began bombing neutral Cambodia

• To destroy Vietcong supply routes and base camps

• Called "Operation Breakfast"

• Nixon publicly declared intention for an "honorable peace"

• U.S. military role to be scaled down

• Policy of "Vietnamization"

• Withdrawing troops and transferring responsibility for war to South Vietnam

• Lottery system for Selective Service draft enacted

• (Sep. 2) Ho Chi Minh died

• (Nov. 3) Nixon Doctrine

• No U.S. troops fight, nations fight own war (but Nixon contradicted himself)

• News of My Lai comes out in Life Magazine article by Seymour Hersh

1970

• (Apr. 30) Nixon announced bombing in Cambodia

• Kent State University (May 4)

• Students demonstrated against bombing of Cambodia

• Ohio National Guard opened fire

• Four students killed, nine wounded

1971

• Pentagon Papers released by Daniel Ellsberg to NY Times

• Secret Pentagon study of US involvement in Vietnam War

• Revealed legacy of deception by presidents and U.S. military

• First excerpt published in NY Times Jun. 13, 1971

• Nixon tried to stop publication but Supreme Court allowed it.

• Embarrassing for Kennedy and Johnson (nothing in papers about Nixon)

• Veterans against the War throw medals on steps of capitol in disgust.

• (Sep.) Daniel Ellsburg's psychiatrist's office burglarized by Nixon-supported "Plumbers"

• ​"Plumbers" = G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt

• In order to discredit Ellsburg as mentally unstable.

• White House created "enemies list" of Americans who opposed Nixon or the Vietnam War

1972

• Secret negotiations between US and North Vietnam revealed

• (Feb.) Nixon to Beijing, China (PRC)

• Organized by Sec. of State Henry Kissinger

• Met with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai

• (May) Nixon traveled to Moscow, Russia (USSR)

• Met with Leonid Brezhnev

• Signed (Anti-Ballistic Missile) ABM Treaty

• And SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty)

• = Detente between Cold War enemies

• (Jun) Watergate break-in at DNC headquarters by CREEP

• Kissinger met with North Vietnam's foreign minister, Le Duc Tho

• North agreed to interim arrangement keeping government in Saigon

• Kissinger says "peace is at hand"

• (Aug.) Nixon swore publicly that White House was not involved in break-in

• (Oct.) Story of Watergate published in Washington Post (Woodward/Bernstein)

• (Nov) Nixon reelected

• (Dec.) Christmas bombing

• Peace talks with North Vietnamese collapse

• B-52 bombing raids on North Vietnam

1973

• Jan. 27, 1973 Paris Peace Accords signed.

• Promised cease-fire and free elections

• But armistice didn't end war.

• Congress refused to give money for bombing Cambodia after Aug. 1973

• Kissinger and Le Duc Tho win Nobel Peace Prize

• Tho declines because no peace

• Nixon's VP, Spiro Agnew, resigned because he took bribes as governor of MD.

• Replaced by Gerald Ford

• Revealed that Nixon taped all conversations in White House

• Nixon claims "executive privilege" and refuses to hand them over.

• Court forces him to give them up -- gap of 18.5 minutes discovered.

• (Nov) War Powers Act

• Passed over Nixon's veto

• Required Nixon and any future president to report to Congress within 48 hours after taking military action.

• And Congress had to approve any military action that lasted more than 60 days.

1974

• President Thieu announces renewal of war against NLF.

• (Aug.) Nixon resigned, Ford became president

• NLF reorganizes for major offensive in South.

1975

• March. 1975

• North Vietnamese launch final offensive against South Vietnam

• Americans evacuate

• Saigon is captured and renamed Ho Chi Minh City

• Ford announced that Vietnam War is "finished"

• 1.7 million Vietnamese had died in war.

• 58,000 Americans died

• 1975-1979 Communist Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot take over in Cambodia

AP QUESTIONS ON VIETNAM WAR

• (LEQ) Analyze the effects of the Vietnam War on TWO of the following in the United States in the period from 1961 to 1975. (2010)

• The presidency

• The population between 18 and 35 years old

• Cold War Diplomacy

• (DBQ) Analyze the ways in which the Vietnam War heightened social, political and economic tensions in the United States. Focus your answer on the period 1964 to 1975. (2008)