Vietnam War Timeline

1. Vietnam War Timeline 1971 - The Pentagon Papers are Published 1963 - Johnson becomes president & almost 16,00 U.S. Troops in Vietnam 1965 - Operation: “Rolling Thunder” 1954 - French defeated at Dien Bien Phu 1975 - Last Americans Evacuate as Saigon Falls to Communists 1968 - Westmoreland Requests 206,000 More Troops and My Lai Massacre Occurs 1964 - Johnson elected president 1960 - John F. Kennedy is elected president August 1964 - Tonkin Gulf Incident 1957- Vietcong began attacks on Diem Government 1973 - Cease-fire Signed in Paris 1968 - Tet Offensive 1965 - US Troop Levels Top 200,000 1963 - Without Kennedy’s permission U.S. Kills Diem 1969 - Nixon Begins Secret Bombing of Cambodia & The Policy of "Vietnamization" is Announced

2. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. The extent of Kennedy's involvement in Vietnam remained classified until the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.In Southeast Asia, Kennedy followed Eisenhower's lead by using limited military action as early as 1961 to fight the Communist forces led by Ho Chi Minh. Proclaiming a fight against the spread of Communism, Kennedy enacted policies providing political, economic, and military support for the unstable French-installed South Vietnamese government, which included sending 16,000 military advisors and U.S. Special Forces to the area. Kennedy also authorized the use of free-fire zones, napalm, defoliants, and jet planes.U.S. involvement in the area escalated until Lyndon Johnson, his successor, directly deployed regular U.S. forces for fighting the Vietnam War. By July 1963, Kennedy faced a crisis in Vietnam: despite increased U.S. support, the South Vietnamese military was only marginally effective against pro-Communist Viet Minh and Viet Cong forces. Regarding Ngo Dinh Diem, the Roman Catholic President of South Vietnam, as insufficiently anti-Communist, the U.S. gave secret assurances of non-interference for an impending coup d'état.On November 1, 1963, South Vietnamese generals overthrew the Diem government, arresting and soon killing Diem (though the circumstances of his death were obfuscated).Kennedy sanctioned Diem's overthrow.One reason to support the coup was a fear that Diem might negotiate a neutralist coalition government which included Communists, as had occurred in Laos in 1962. Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, remarked "This kind of neutralism…is tantamount to surrender.” TIMELINE

3. Tonkin Gulf Incident: Clash that triggered US entry into the Vietnam War in August 1964. Two US destroyers (USS C Turner Joy and USS Maddox) reported that they were fired on by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. It is unclear whether hostile shots were actually fired, but the reported attack was taken as a pretext for making air raids against North Vietnam. On 7 August the US Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which formed the basis for the considerable increase in US military involvement in the Vietnam War.The resolution allowed President Johnson to ‘take all necessary steps, including the use of armed forces’ to help SEATO (South-East Asia Treaty Organization) members ‘defend their freedom’. It was repealed 1970 in the light of evidence that the Johnson administration contrived to deceive Congress about the incident. TIMELINE

4. Operation : rolling thunder Operation Rolling Thunder was the name given to America’s sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Operation Rolling Thunder was a demonstration of America’s near total air supremacy during the Vietnam War. It was started in an effort to demoralise the North Vietnamese people and to undermine the capacity of the government in North Vietnam to govern. Operation Rolling Thunder failed on both accounts. Operation Rolling Thunder was given government approval and officially started on February 24th1965 though the first attack did not occur until March 2nd when 100 US and VNAF planes attacked an ammunition base at Xom Bang. The bombing campaign lasted until October 1968, despite the fact that it was meant to have been no more than an eight-week campaign During the many months during which Operation Rolling Thunder operated, 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped. However, nearly 900 US aircraft were lost. The financial cost of Operation Rolling Thunder was huge. It was estimated that the damage done to North Vietnam by the bombing raids was $300 million. However, the cost to the US of these raids was estimated at $900 million. Operation Rolling Thunder ended when President Johnson offered its termination as a way of securing the North Vietnamese to a negotiating table. Peace talks began in earnest in January 1969 just two months after Johnson ordered the ending of Operation Rolling Thunder TIMELINE

5. Soon after taking office. President Richard Nixon introduced his policy of "vietnamization". The plan was to encourage the South Vietnamese to take more responsibility for fighting the war. It was hoped that this policy would eventually enable the United States to withdraw gradually all their soldiers from Vietnam.Toincrease the size of the ARVN, a mobilization la\v was passed that called up into the army all men in South Vietnam aged between seventeen and forty-three.InJune, 1969, Nixon announced the first of the US troop withdrawals. The 540,000 US troops were to be reduced by 25,000. Another 60,000 were to leave the following December. Nixon's advisers told him that they feared that the gradual removal of all US troops would eventually result in a National Liberation Front victory. It was therefore agreed that the only way that America could avoid a humiliating defeat was to negotiate a peace agreement in the talks that were taking place in Paris. In an effort to put pressure on NorthVietnam in these talks, Nixon developed what has become known as the Madman Theory. Bob Haldeman, one of the US chief negotiators, was told to give the impression that President Nixon was mentally unstable and that his hatred of communism was so fanatical that if the war continued for much longer he was liable to resort to nuclear weapons against North Vietnam. Another Nixon innovation was the secret Phoenix Program. Vietnamese were trained by the CIA to infiltrate peasant communities and discover the names of NLF sympathisers. When they had been identified, Death Squads were sent in to execute them. Between 1968 and 1971, an estimated 40,974 members of of the NLF were killed in this way. It was hoped that the Phoenix Program would result in the destruction of the NLF organisation, but, as on previous occasions, the NLF was able to replace its losses by recruiting from the local population and by arranging for volunteers to be sent from North Vietnam. TIMELINE

6. End of the vietnam war: April 30, 1975 - At 8:35 a.m., the last Americans, ten Marines from the embassy, depart Saigon, concluding the United States presence in Vietnam. North Vietnamese troops pour into Saigon and encounter little resistance. By 11 a.m., the red and blue Viet Cong flag flies from the presidential palace. President Minh broadcasts a message of unconditional surrender. The war is over.