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.