Key Events

  • In the early 1900s, nationalists movement sparked in Vietnam demanding more self-governance and less French influence, since France had rule over Vietnam at the time.

  • At the end of World War II in 1945, Ho Chi Minh’s forces took the capital of Hanoi and declared Vietnam to be an independent country, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, since Japan had taken over Vietnam from France. Japan's defeat in WWII gave the Viet Minh (a Communist militant nationalist organization founded by Ho Chi Minh) the advantage of freeing their country.

  • France refused to recognize Vietnam as a free country and invaded it again, with US aid.

  • The Geneva Accords of 1954 declared a cease-fire. This divided Vietnam officially into North Vietnam, under Ho Chi Minh and his Communist forces, and South Vietnam, under a French-backed emperor.

  • U.S. began to offer support to the anti-Communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem.

  • Diem took control of the South Vietnamese government in 1955 and declared it the Republic of Vietnam.

  • Realizing that the Diem regime was not effective, the U.S. overthrew it and installed a new leader, in 1963.

  • In August 1964, North Vietnam launched an attack on the C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox, two American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin.

  • On January 30, 1968, the Tet Offensive began. North Vietnamese troops and the VC forces attacked both towns and cities in South Vietnam. around 100 major cities were attacked.

  • 40,000 Communists were killed in action and the U.S. military quickly responded to the attacked and defeated the Communists and U.S. regained all territory within few days.

  • Anti-war movement in the U.S. started to gain momentum.

  • As a result of military draft, many college students began to protest the war. 300, 000 students protested in New York City in August 1967.

  • Nixon illegally expanded the geographic scope of the war by authorizing the bombing of Viet Cong sites in the neutral nations of Cambodia and Laos, without Congress' knowledge.

  • In early January 1973, the Nixon White House convinced Saigon that they would not abandon the South Vietnamese army if they signed the peace accord.

  • On January 23, the final draft was initialed, ending open hostilities between the United States and North Vietnam.

  • The Paris Peace Agreement did not end the conflict in Vietnam but Saigon continued to fight the Communist forces.