Read Where the Domino Fell - America And Vietnam 1945-1995 Online
Authors: James S. Olson,Randy W. Roberts
Tags: #History, #Americas, #United States, #Asia, #Southeast Asia, #Europe, #Military, #Vietnam War, #Modern (16th-21st Centuries), #20th Century, #World, #Humanities, #Social Sciences, #Political Science, #International Relations, #Politics & Social Sciences, #Politics & Government, #International & World Politics, #Asian, #European, #eBook
A Vietnam War Chronology
1945
| Sept. 2 | Ho Chi Minh proclaims the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. |
| 26 | A. Peter Dewey, head of the OSS mission in Saigon, is shot by Vietminh troops, becoming the first American to die in the Vietnam War. |
1946
| Mar. 6 | Franco-Vietnamese Accords signed. |
| June 1 | The Fontainebleau Conference convenes. |
| Dec. 19 | The Vietminh attack French forces in Tonkin, formally beginning the first Indochina War. |
1948
| June 5 | The French name Bao Dai head of state of Vietnam. |
1949
| Mar. 8 | Elysée Agreement signed. |
| Oct. 1 | Mao Zedong proclaims the People’s Republic of China. |
1950
| Jan. 14 | Ho Chi Minh again proclaims establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. |
| June 27 | President Harry S. Truman announces increased U.S. military assistance to Vietnam. |
| Aug. 3 | United States Military Assistance and Advisory Group arrives in Saigon. |
| Dec. 30 | United States signs a Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement with France, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. |
1952
| Nov. 4 | Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president. |
1953
| July 27 | Korean War armistice is signed. |
1954
| Mar. 13 | Vietminh attack the French fortress at Dienbienphu. |
| 20 | Admiral Arthur Radford proposes Operation Vulture to assist the French in defending Dienbienphu. |
| Apr. 7 | President Dwight D. Eisenhower uses the domino analogy to explain the political significance of Indochina. |
| 25 | Winston Churchill and the British refuse to participate in Operation Vulture. |
| 29 | President Eisenhower announces that the United States will not provide air support to the French garrison at Dienbienphu. |
| May 7 | The Vietminh conquer Dienbienphu. |
| 8 | The Geneva Conference opens. |
| July 20 | France signs a cease-fire ending hostilities in Indochina. |
| Aug. 1 | The first of nearly 1 million refugees from North Vietnam cross into South Vietnam. |
| Sept. 8 | United States signs the Manila Treaty forming the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. |
1955
| Mar. 28 | Ngo Dinh Diem attacks the Binh Xuyen. |
| June 5 | Ngo Dinh Diem attacks the Hoa Hao. |
| July 6 | Ngo Dinh Diem repudiates the Geneva Agreements and refuses to plan for open elections throughout the country. |
| Oct. 26 | Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims the Republic of Vietnam with himself as president. |
1957
| May 5–19 | Ngo Dinh Diem visits the United States. |
1959
| Apr. 4 | President Eisenhower makes his first commitment to maintain South Vietnam as a separate nation. |
| 22 | Christian A. Herter replaces John Foster Dulles as secretary of state. |
| July 1 | General Lyman Lemnitzer replaces General Maxwell Taylor as chief of staff, U.S. Army. |
| 8 | First American servicemen (Major Dale Bius and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnard) killed by Vietcong attack at Bien Hoa. |
| Dec. 1 | Thomas S. Gates, Jr., replaces Neil H. McElroy as secretary of defense. |
| 31 | Approximately 760 U.S. military personnel in Vietnam. |
1960
| Oct. 1 | General George Decker replaces General Lyman Lemnitzer as chief of staff, U.S. Army. |
| Dec. 20 | National Liberation Front established. |
| 31 | Approximately 900 U.S. military personnel in Vietnam. |
1961
| Jan. 21 | John F. Kennedy succeeds Dwight D. Eisenhower as president. Dean Rusk succeeds Christian A. Herter as secretary of state. Robert S. McNamara succeeds Thomas S. Gates, Jr., as secretary of defense. McGeorge Bundy succeeds Gordon Gray as national security adviser. |
| 28 | Kennedy approves a Vietnam counterinsurgency plan. Mar. 23 Kennedy insists that a Laotian ceasefire must precede negotiations to establish a neutral Laos. |
| May 9–15 | Vice President Lyndon Johnson visits South Vietnam and recommends a strong American commitment there. Geneva Conference on Laos opens. |
| June 9 | President Ngo Dinh Diem asks for U.S. military advisers to train the South Vietnamese Army. |
| July 1 | General Maxwell Taylor is appointed military adviser to President John F. Kennedy. |
| Nov. 3 | General Maxwell Taylor concludes that U.S. military, financial, and political aid will bring victory without a U.S. takeover of the war. He advises Kennedy to send 8,000 U.S. combat troops to Vietnam. |
| Dec. 15 | Kennedy restates U.S. commitment to an independent South Vietnam. |
| 31 | U.S. military personnel in Vietnam now number 3,205. |
1962
| Feb. 6 | MACV (U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) established in Saigon under the command of General Paul Harkins. The major buildup of American forces begins. |
| 14 | Kennedy authorizes U.S. military advisers in Vietnam to return fire if fired upon. |
| Mar. 22 | United States launches the Strategic Hamlet (rural pacification) Program. |
| July 23 | Geneva Accords on Laos signed. |
| Oct. 1 | General Earle Wheeler replaces General George Decker as chief of staff, U.S. Army. General Maxwell Taylor replaces General Lyman Lemnitzer as chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. |
| Dec. 31 | U.S. military personnel in Vietnam now number 11,300. |
1963
| Aug. 21 | South Vietnamese troops attack Buddhist pagodas. |
| 22 | Henry Cabot Lodge replaces Frederick Nolting as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. |
| Nov. 1 | Military coup overthrows the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. |
| 2 | Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu assassinated. |
| 22 | President John F. Kennedy assassinated. |
| Dec. 31 | U.S. military personnel in Vietnam now number 16,300. |
1964
| Feb. 7 | Johnson removes American dependents from South Vietnam. |
| June 20 | General William Westmoreland replaces General Paul Harkins as head of MACV. |
| 23 | General Maxwell Taylor replaces Henry Cabot Lodge as U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam. |
| 30 | Admiral Ulysses S. Grant Sharp replaces Admiral Harry D. Felt as CINCPAC. |
| July 3 | General Harold Johnson replaces General Earle Wheeler as chief of staff, U.S. Army. |
| Aug. 2 | U.S. destroyer Maddox allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. |
| 4 | U.S. destroyer Turner Joy claims attack by North Vietnamese patrol boats. |
| 7 | U.S. Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. |
| Oct. 1 | U.S. Army Fifth Special Forces Group arrives in Vietnam. Nov. 1 Vietcong attack Bien Hoa Air Base. Six U.S. B-57 bombers destroyed; five American service personnel killed. |
| 2 | Johnson defeats Senator Barry Goldwater in presidential election. |
| Dec. 24 | Vietcong kill two U.S. soldiers in an attack on the Brinks Hotel in Saigon. |
| 31 | U.S. military personnel in Vietnam now number 23,300. |
1965
| Feb. 7 | Vietcong launch a widespread attack on American military installations in South Vietnam. |
| Mar. 2 | Operation Rolling Thunder begins. |
| 8 | First American combat troops (U.S. Third Marine regiment) arrive in Vietnam to defend Danang. |
| 24 | First teach-in held at the University of Michigan. |
| Apr. 6 | Johnson permits U.S. ground combat troops to conduct offensive operations in South Vietnam. |
| 17 | Students for a Democratic Society hold antiwar rally in Washington, D.C. |
| May 15 | National Teach-In held throughout the country. |
| June 8 | State Department reports that Johnson has authorized the use of U.S. troops in direct combat if the South Vietnamese Army requests assistance. |
| July 8 | Henry Cabot Lodge succeeds Maxwell Taylor as U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam. |
| Oct. 15–16 | Antiwar protests in forty American cities. |
| Nov. 14–16 | Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. |
| Dec. 25 | Johnson suspends bombing of North Vietnam (Operation Rolling Thunder) and invites North Vietnam to negotiate. |
| 31 | U.S. military personnel in Vietnam now number 184,300; 636 U.S. military personnel killed in action to date; 22,420 Allied troops in Vietnam. |
1966
| Jan. 31 | Bombing of North Vietnam (Operation Rolling Thunder) resumes. |
| Feb. 4 | Senate Foreign Relations Committee opens televised hearings on the Vietnam War. |
| 6 | President Lyndon Johnson convenes the Honolulu Conference. |
| Mar. 1 | Senate refuses to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. |
| 20 | President Lyndon Johnson convenes the Guam Conference. |
| Apr. 1 | Walt Rostow replaces McGeorge Bundy as national security adviser. |
| 7 | President Lyndon Johnson offers the Johns Hopkins Speech. May 1 U.S.forces bombard Vietcong targets in Cambodia. |
| June 29 | United States bombs oil facilities in Haiphong and Hanoi. |
| Oct. 26 | Johnson visits U.S. troops in Vietnam. |
| Dec. 31 | U.S. military personnel in Vietnam now number 385,300; 6,644 U.S. military personnel killed in action to date; 52,500 Allied military personnel in Vietnam. |