Part One: The First Indochina War 1945–54
1945
2 September: Ho Chi Minh declares Independence of Vietnam
13 September: British forces land in Saigon, and return authority to the French. Within a month, 35,000 French troops have arrived in Indochina
26 September: Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey, head of the US OSS mission, becomes the first US to be killed in Vietnam. He is ambushed by Viet Minh troops while driving a jeep to Saigon airport
1946
March–September: France recognizes the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a ‘free state’ within the French Union, and in return, Ho allows French troops to enter Hanoi. He travels to Paris on a fruitless mission to persuade the French government to give Vietnam full independence
19 December: General Giap, DRV Interior Minister, proclaims the start of a nationwide war of resistance. A thirty-year struggle for control of Vietnam begins
20 December: General Jean-Etienne Valluy triggers the start of the First Indochina War by launching a bombardment of Haiphong, after seizing an arms shipment en route to the city. 6,000 Vietnamese inhabitants are killed
1947
7 October–22 December: The French fail with their plan – Operation Léa – to wipe out the Viet Minh in one stroke
1949
8 March: Elysée Agreement Signed by Bao Dai and President Vincent Auriol, creates Vietnam as an independent ‘Associated State’ within the French Union
1950
18 January: The newly created People’s Republic of China formally recognizes Ho’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam as the sole legal government of Vietnam
7 February: USA formally recognizes the government of Bao Dai
September: Viet Minh Border Campaign succeeds in driving the French from its outposts near the Chinese border. The French suffer more than 6,000 casualties
October: President Truman authorizes $10m in aid to support the French efforts against the insurgency. By the end of 1950, the figure increases to $100m. The Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) is created to provide training and technical support for the French
1952
November: Dwight Eisenhower elected President of the USA. He insists that all future aid will be dependent on the French implementing a political and military plan for winning the war
1953
3 July: French PM announces that all three Associated States in Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) are able to apply for independence
17 July: General Henri Navarre announces his plan to expand the French military commitment in Indochina, by launching Operation Hirondelle, an audacious raid on enemy supply depots near Lang Son.
26 November: Ho Chi Minh declares his willingness to negotiate with the French in an interview with the Swedish newspaper, Expressen
1954
13 March–7 May: The Battle of Dien bien phu
7 April: Responding to the deteriorating situation at Dien bien phu, and the upcoming peace talks at Geneva, Eisenhower outlines his ‘domino theory’, referring to the likely consequences of the international community failing to stem the spread of Communism in South East Asia
18 June: Ngo Dinh Diem is appointed PM of the State of Vietnam
8 May–21 July: Geneva peace conference produces a settlement to end the war
Part Two: Nation-Building in South Vietnam 1954–65
1954
8 September: South East Asia Treaty Organization is formed, comprising USA, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan
1955
September 1954–June 1955: Binh Xuyen, Cai Dao, and Hoa Hao sects uprising against Diem
24 October: President Eisenhower offers US support and aid to Diem
January: MAAG, Vietnam commences training of the new South Vietnamese Army(ARVN)
23 October: Diem wins 98 per cent of the vote in a CIA-rigged referendum on the leadership of South Vietnam
26 October: Diem announces the creation of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN)
1956
20 July: Deadline for unification elections in Vietnam passes
1957
May: Diem wins further commitments from Eisenhower during his US tour Eisenhower dubs him ‘the miracle man of Asia’
October: Low-level communist insurgency starts in South Vietnam
1959
May: The DRV decides to expand its campaign in the South and authorizes increased infiltration, including despatch of regular North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops
7 July: Diem announces his plan to separate the peasantry from the communist insurgents by resettling them in fortified villages called ‘agrovilles’
8 July: The first US casualties of the new conflict are incurred: Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand are killed in a raid on Bien Hoa
30 August: Diem’s government receives a huge majority in South Vietnam’s General Election
1960
8 November: John F. Kennedy is elected President of the USA, results are declared on 9 November
4 December: USSR starts supplying equipment to the Pathet Lao, communist combatants in the Laotian civil war
20 December: Hanoi formalizes their campaign to overthrow the government in the South with the creation of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam
1961
9 March: JFK authorizes the bombing of Pathet Lao forces
11 May: JFK sends 400 Special Forces and 100 more advisors to Vietnam, increasing the number of US forces already in South Vietnam by more than half
16 May: Laos peace conference starts in Geneva
October: General Maxwell Taylor, and National Security Agency advisors Walt Rostow are sent to assess the situation in Vietnam
16 October: USAF pilots given permission to fly missions over Vietnam if they have a Vietnamese citizen with them
8 November: Taylor-Rostow Report recommends sending a ‘flood control’ team of 8,000 US troops to South Vietnam
1962
12 January: The start of the chemical war against the Viet Cong: Operation Ranch Hand begins
8 February: Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) replaces MAAG, Vietnam
27 February: 2 officers in the South Vietnamese air force attempt to assassinate Diem by strafing the Presidential palace
22 March: Operation Sunrise starts; the first attempt to develop expanded agrovilles through the Strategic Hamlets programme
23 July: The civil war in Laos ends, with a tripartite agreement creating a neutralized state
1963
2 January: South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) suffers a humiliating defeat at the battle of Ap Bac
11 June: Thich Quang Duc sets himself on fire in protest at Diem’s persecution of Buddhists
21 August: ARVN troops attack Buddhist temples throughout South Vietnam
9 September: Interviewed by Walter Cronkite, JFK states that ‘In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisors, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists’
5 October: US Ambassador to SV, Henry Cabot Lodge, informs JFK that a coup against Diem was imminent
11 October: JFK authorizes NSAM–263, which recommends the withdrawal of 1,000 advisors by the end of 1963 and complete withdrawal by the end of 1965
1 November: Diem is overthrown by his generals
2 November: Diem and his younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu are captured by ARVN troops and assassinated. General Minh assumes control of South Vietnam
22 November: JFK is assassinated. Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as President
26 November: LBJ authorizes implementation of NSAM–273, which (arguably) recommends escalation of US efforts in South East Asia
1964
16 January: LBJ authorizes OPLAN34 A, which features covert missions against North Vietnam
30 January: General Minh is overthrown in a bloodless coup and replaced by General Khanh
9 June: Operation Barrel Roll starts; a bombing campaign targeted at Communist forces attempting to seize control in Laos, in violation of the 1962 neutralization agreement
20 June: General William Westmoreland takes command of MACV
2–4 August: Gulf of Tonkin incident
7 August: Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin resolution
1 November: US airbase at Bien Hoa is attacked by Viet Cong guerrillas. 5 US servicemen are killed.
3 November: Johnson wins the presidential election
24 December: Viet Cong guerrillas bomb the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, a popular bar full of US officers. 2 US and 51 South Vietnamese are killed.
1965
6 February: Viet Cong attack at Pleiku kills 9 US advisors and wounds 100 more
7–8 February: Johnson announces Flaming Dart I, a short retaliatory bombing campaign against North Vietnamese targets
10 February: Viet Cong respond with an attack on a hotel used by US soldiers at Qui Nhon. 23 US are killed.
11 February: Flaming Dart II is launched, targeting a military installation at Chanh Hoa
20 February: Another coup in Saigon sees Khanh replaced by Dr Phan Huy Quát
2 March: Rolling Thunder bombing campaign starts
8 March: 3,500 US marines land at Da Nang beach. The US ground war in Vietnam starts.
24 March: The first ‘Teach-In’, a protest against US involvement in Vietnam, takes place at the University of Michigan
Part Three: The Americanization of the War 1965–68
1965
18–25 August: US troops adopt an offensive stance for the first time, with the launch of Operation Starlight
3 November: Norman Morrison sets himself alight outside the Pentagon, 40 ft from Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara’s window, as a protest against the war
14–17 November: Battle of la Drang: the first major engagement between US and NVA forces
1966
28 January–14 February: Senator William Fulbright chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee inquiry into the conduct of the Vietnam War
14 September–24 November: Operation Attleboro. Over 3,000 Communists are killed and wounded, while US and ARVN losses are approximately 650
1967
8–26 January: Operation Cedar Falls, a brutal US offensive to clear the ‘Iron Triangle’, an area twenty miles north west of Saigon. The NLF suffers 750 fatalities but are able to return to the area within a few months
22 February–14 May: Operation Junction City, the largest US military action to date, succeeds in killing 2,700 Communist troops for the loss of 282 US and ARVN soldiers
4 April: Martin Luther King condemns US involvement in the Vietnam War
15 April: 300,000 people demonstrate against the war in New York
3 September: Thieu and Ky are elected President and PM respectively
21 October: 50,000 anti-war protestors participate in the March on the Pentagon
3–22 November: Battle of Dak To. Interrupting an NVA plan to attack Dak To, the US wage a bloody campaign to remove NVA forces from the ridges round Dak To. Casualty figures: 376 US killed, 1,441 US wounded, 79 ARVN killed. PAVN casualties are estimated to be almost 1,500 killed
21 November: Speaking to the National Press Club in Washington, Westmoreland emphasizes the progress made by US forces and claims that victory is close
29 November: McNamara announces his resignation as Secretary of Defense
Part Four: Negotiation and Escalation 1968–73
1968
31 January: Start of the Tet Offensive
10 February: Tet Offensive is finally repelled.
1 March: Robert McNamara is replaced by Clark Clifford as Secretary of Defense
16 March: Massacre of 347 South Vietnamese civilians by US soldiers at My Lai
31 March: LBJ announces bombing halt and impending retirement
13 May: Paris peace talks begin.
26–29 August: Riot police violently tackle protestors outside Democrat Convention, Chicago
31 October: LBJ halts all bombing of North Vietnam
5 November: Richard Nixon narrowly defeats Hubert Humphrey to win the US presidential election
1969
25 January: US/ DRV/ SVN/ NLF meet in Paris
18 March: Operation Menu begins; the secret bombing of neutral Cambodia
10–20 May: Battle of Hamburger Hill. US take the ridge, suffering 84 fatalities, but abandon it within a week
8 June: After meeting Thieu at Midway, Nixon announces the policy of Vietnamization. 25,000 troops leave South Vietnam almost immediately
August: Kissinger and Le Duc Tho begin secret talks in Paris
3 September: Ho Chi Minh dies
5 September: Lt William Calley is charged with 109 murders committed at My Lai
15 October: The Moratorium: 250,000 anti-war protestors descend on Washington DC
1970
18 March: General Lon Nol replaces Prince Sihanouk in Cambodia, and appeals to South Vietnam for assistance against communist insurgents.
27 March: ARVN forces enter Cambodia
30 April: 30,000 US troops enter Cambodia in support of the ARVN.
4 May: National Guardsmen shoot 4 students at Kent State University, Ohio
24 June: Senate repeals the ‘Gulf of Tonkin Resolution’
30 June: US Troops withdraw from Cambodia.
22 December: The Senate pass the Cooper-Church Amendment, which bans the use of US troops in Laos
1971
8 February: Lam Son 719: 16,000 strong ARVN invasion (with US air support) of Laos
24 March: ARVN withdraws from Laos
29 March: 1971 Lt William Calley is found guilty of the murder of 22 civilians at My Lai
13 June: The New York Times publishes the Pentagon Papers
3 October: President Thieu is re-elected unopposed
1972
21 February: The start of Nixon’s visit to China, where he offers a trade agreement in return for China applying pressure on North Vietnam to end the war.
30 March: NVA Easter Offensive starts. 120,000 troops attack across the de-militarized zone at the 17th parallel.
6 April: Operation Linebacker I is launched: a series of huge bombing offensives against North Vietnam:
2 May: Secret meetings between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho recommence
11 August: Last US combat unit leaves Vietnam
26 October: Kissinger and Le Duc Tho reach a secret agreement: unilateral US withdrawal; exchange of POWs; elections in SVN leading to possible re-unification.
1 November: Thieu rejects the peace plan
7 November: Nixon is re-elected
13 December: Paris peace talks collapse.
18–30 December: Operation Linebacker II heralds the largest bombing campaign of the war. Nearly 2,000 sorties are flown in an attempt to bomb North Vietnam back to the negotiating table
1973
January: Paris Peace Treaty is signed.
29 March: Last US troops leave Vietnam
1975
30 April: Saigon falls to the NVA, and the ARVN surrenders