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**The Vietnam War: A Timeline**

**May 1961** - **President John F. Kennedy** sends 400 American **Green
Beret** U.S. Special Forces to South Vietnam to train South Vietnamese
soldiers in the fight against **Viet Cong guerrillas**.

**August 1962** - A camp is set up at **Khe Sanh** to monitor North
Vietnamese Army (NVA) infiltration down the **Ho Chi Minh trail**.

**Summer 1964** - As 56,000 Viet Cong spread their successful guerrilla
war throughout South Vietnam, they are reinforced by North Vietnamese
Army (NVA) regulars pouring in via the Ho Chi Minh trail. At the same
time, South Vietnam is in the midst of multiple military coups and
continued instability.

**August 2, 1964** - Three North Vietnamese patrol boats attack the
destroyer *U.S.S. Maddox* in the **Gulf of Tonkin**, 10 miles off the
coast of North Vietnam. They fire three torpedoes and machine-guns, but
only a single machine-gun round actually strikes the *Maddox,* with no
causalities. A second, unconfirmed attack is widely reported by the U.S.
press.

**August 4, 1964** - President Johnson decides to retaliate with
bombings of North Vietnamese oil facilities and naval targets. Two Navy
jets are shot down during the bombing raids, resulting in the first
American prisoner of war, Lt. Everett Alvarez of San Jose, California,
who is taken to an internment center in Hanoi, later dubbed the
**\"Hanoi Hilton\"** by the nearly 600 American airmen who later become
POWs.

**August 7, 1964** -- Congress passes the **Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,**
which grants enormous power to President Johnson to wage an undeclared
war in Vietnam from the White House.

**November 1, 1964** - The first attack by Viet Cong against Americans
in Vietnam occurs at **Bien Hoa** air base, 12 miles north of Saigon. A
pre-dawn mortar assault kills five Americans and two South Vietnamese,
and wounds nearly 100 others.

**February 6, 1965** - Viet Cong guerrillas attack the U.S. military
compound at **Pleiku in the Central Highlands,** killing eight
Americans, wounding 126 and destroying 10 aircraft. President Johnson
approves **Operation Flaming Dart,** the bombing of a North Vietnamese
army camp by U.S. Navy jets.

**The U.S. Puts Combat Troops on the Ground**

**February 1965** - **General William Westmoreland** requests two
battalions of U.S. Marines to protect the American air base at **Da
Nang** from 6,000 Viet Cong massed in the vicinity.

**March 2, 1965** - **Operation Rolling Thunder** begins, as over 100
American fighter-bombers attack targets in North Vietnam. Scheduled to
last eight weeks, Rolling Thunder will go on for three years.

**March 8, 1965** - The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam as
3,500 Marines land at **China Beach** to defend the American air base at
Da Nang. They join 23,000 American military advisors in Vietnam.

**March 29, 1965** - Viet Cong terrorists bomb the **U.S. embassy in
Saigon**.

**April 15, 1965** - A thousand tons of bombs are dropped on Viet Cong
positions by U.S. and South Vietnamese fighter-bombers. During the
entire war, the U.S. will fly 3 million sorties and drop nearly 8
million tons of bombs, four times the tonnage dropped during all of
World War II, in the largest display of firepower in the history of
warfare.

**April 17, 1965** - In Washington, 15,000 students gather to protest
the **U.S. bombing campaign.**

**May 3, 1965** - The first U.S. Army combat troops, the **173rd
Airborne Brigade,** arrive in Vietnam.

**August 18-24, 1965** - **Operation Starlite** begins the first major
U.S. ground operation in Vietnam, as Marines make a preemptive strike
against Viet Cong planning to assault the American airfield at **Chu
Lai.** Marines arrive by helicopter and sea, following heavy artillery
and air bombardment of Viet Cong positions. A decisive first victory
boosts U.S. troop morale.

**November 14-16, 1965** - The **Battle of Ia Drang Valley** is the
first major battle between U.S. troops and North Vietnamese Army
regulars (NVA) inside South Vietnam. Troops of the **1st Cavalry
Division (Airmobile)** respond to the NVA threat by using helicopters to
fly directly into the battle zone. Upon landing, the troops quickly
disembark, then engage in fierce fire fights, supported by heavy
artillery and B-52 air strikes, marking the first use of B-52s to assist
combat troops. The two-day battle ends with NVA retreating into the
jungle.

**November 17, 1965** - Success at Ia Drang is marred by a deadly ambush
against 400 soldiers of the **7th Cavalry,** sent on foot to occupy
nearby Landing Zone \'Albany.\'

**September 11-October 31, 1967** - U.S. Marines are besieged by NVA at
Con Thien located two miles south of the **Demilitarized Zone.** A
massive long-range artillery duel erupts. B-52 air strikes end the
siege.

**November 3 to December 1, 1967** - The Battle of **Dak To** occurs in
the mountainous terrain along the border of Cambodia and Laos as the
**U.S. 4th Infantry Division** heads off a planned NVA attack against
the Special Forces camp located there. During the fighting, the 4th
Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry, earns a Presidential Unit Citation
for bravery.

**A Turning Point**

**January 21, 1968** - 20,000 NVA troops attack the American air base at
**Khe Sanh.** A 77-day siege begins as 5,000 U.S. Marines in the
isolated outpost are encircled. **Operation Niagara II** then begins a
massive aerial supply effort to the besieged Marines along with heavy
B-52 bombardment of NVA troop positions.

**January 31, 1968** - The turning point in the war occurs as 84,000
Viet Cong guerrillas aided by NVA troops launch the **Tet Offensive,**
attacking more than a hundred cities and towns throughout South Vietnam.
In the **Battle for Saigon**, NVA and Viet Cong battalions. In the
**Battle for Hue** during Tet, 12,000 NVA and Viet Cong troops storm the
lightly defended historical city, then begin systematic executions of
over 3,000 \"enemies of the people,\" including South Vietnamese
government officials and captured officers, and Catholic priests. South
Vietnamese troops, along with U.S. Marines and the Army's 1st Cavalry
and 101st Airborne Divisions, engage in the heaviest fighting of the
entire Tet Offensive. They retake the old imperial city, house by house,
aided by American air and artillery strikes, and defeat the North
Vietnamese.

**April 1-8, 1968** - The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) begins
**Operation Pegasus** to reopen Route 9, the relief route to the
besieged Marines at Khe Sanh. The siege ends with the withdrawal of NVA
troops from the area as a result of intensive American bombing, and the
reopening of Route 9. The U.S. command then secretly shuts down the Khe
Sanh air base and withdraws the Marines.

**April 30-May 3, 1968** - The Battle of **Dai Do** occurs along the
Demilitarized Zone as NVA troops seek to open an invasion corridor into
South Vietnam. Aided by heavy artillery and air strikes, a battalion of
U.S. Marines stops them.

**May 5, 1968** - Viet Cong launch \"Mini Tet,\" a series of rocket and
mortar attacks against Saigon and 119 cities and military installations
throughout South Vietnam. The U.S. responds with air strikes using
**Napalm** and high explosives.

**October 1968** - **Operation Sealord** begins the largest combined
naval operation of the entire war as over 1,200 U.S. Navy and South
Vietnamese Navy gunboats and warships target NVA supply lines extending
from Cambodia into the **Mekong Delta.** NVA supply camps in the delta
and along other waterways are also successfully disrupted.

**October 31, 1968** - Operation Rolling Thunder ends as President
Johnson announces a complete halt of U.S. bombing of North Vietnam in
the hope of restarting the peace talks.

**January 22, 1969** - **Operation Dewey Canyon,** the last major
operation by U.S. Marines begins in the Da Krong valley.

**January 25, 1969** - **Paris peace talks** open again, with the U.S.,
South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong in attendance.

**May 10-May 20, 1969** - Forty-six men of the **101st Airborne** die
during a fierce ten-day battle at **\'Hamburger Hill\'** in the A Shau
Valley near Hue. 400 others are wounded. After the hill is taken, the
troops are then ordered to abandon it by their commander.

**A Long End to the War**

**July 8, 1969** - The first U.S. troop withdrawal occurs as 800 men
from the **9th Infantry Division** are sent home. The phased troop
withdrawal will occur from July 1969 through November 1972.

**June 24, 1970** - The U.S. Senate repeals the 1964 **Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution**.

**March-September, 1972** -- North Vietnam launches the **Eastertide
Offensive,** as 200,000 NVA soldiers wage an all-out attempt to conquer
South Vietnam. In response, President Nixon authorizes the **U.S. 7th
Fleet** to target NVA troops massed around the Demilitarized Zone with
air strikes and naval gunfire.

**August 23, 1972** - The last U.S. combat troops depart Vietnam.

**January 27, 1973** - The **Paris Peace Accords** are signed by the
U.S., North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong. The U.S. agrees to
immediately halt all military activities and withdraw all remaining
military personnel within 60 days. The North Vietnamese agree to an
immediate cease-fire and the release of all American POWs. 60 days.

**April 30, 1975** - The last Americans, 10 Marines, depart the
**embassy in Saigon,** ending the U.S. presence in Vietnam. North
Vietnamese troops pour into the city, with little resistance. The war is
over.

***"During 15 years of military involvement, over 2 million Americans
served***

***in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. 47,244 were killed in
action, including 8,000 airmen. There were 10,446 non-combat deaths
and***

***153,329 were seriously wounded, including 10,000 amputees.***

***Over 2,400 American POWs/MIAs were unaccounted for in 1973."***

*─ The History Place*

Sources:

American Military History, Vol. II, available at:
<http://www.army.mil/cmh/html/bookshelves/resmat/VN.html>

The History Place website, available at
<http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam>

20th Century History, Vietnam War Timeline, available at:
<http://history1900s.about.com/od/vietnamwar/a/vietnamtimeline.htm>