Timeline

1954: The Geneva accords established North and South with the 17th parallel as the dividing line

1959: The first U.S soldiers are killed in South Vietnam

1960: Ho Chi Minh is replaced by Le Duan as head North Vietnam’s ruling communist party

1961: President John F. Kennedy sends helicopters and authorizes secret operations against the Viet Cong

1963: President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president

1965: President Johnson orders the bombing of targets in North Vietnam

1966: American aircraft attack targets in Hanoi and Haiphong in raids

1968: President Johnson halts bombing in Vietnam north of the 20th parallel

1970: U.S and South Vietnamese forces attack communist bases across the Cambodian border

1972: President Nixon orders the launch of the most intense air offense of the war in operation linebacker

1973: President Nixon signs the Paris Peace Accords, ending the direct U.S involvement in the Vietnam War

1974: President Nixon resigns and Gerald Ford becomes president

1975: War ends, 58,000 Americans lost their lives and 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters were killed.