Timeline Vietnam A: thru 1973
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CIA Factsheet: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/vm.html
History: http://www.vwam.com/vets/hisintro.html
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/vn/index.htm
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/vntoc.html
The Hmong are one of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam.
Others include the Dao, Khmer, Nung, and Tay. Vietnam has 57 provinces.
The Vietnamese word for America is "Hoa Ky."
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.9)(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B14)(SFC,
12/10/98, p.C7)(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.C8)
600BC-700BC The
Dragon Lord of the Lac, from whom all Vietnamese are said to be
descended, served as protector of the Hung kingdom.
(SFEC, 7/18/99, p.T5)
380BC-700 The site at Tra Kieu, Vietnam, is believed
to be Simhapura, the former capital of an Indianized Cham kingdom.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
100BC-1500 In Vietnam the city of Hoi An was the
principal port of the seafaring Champa kingdom, that embraced Indian
culture. The kingdom withstood attacks from the Chinese, Vietnamese,
Khmers and Mongols. Archaeological study in Hoi An in the 1990s proved
that more than 2000 years ago Hoi An was an embryonic port town of the
Sa Huynh people. From the 2nd to the 15th centuries, Hoi An was the
main port of the Champa Kingdom. In these centuries, Hoi An became a
prosperous commercial port town, very well developed and famous in Asia.
(SFEC, 4/26/98,
p.T4)(www.hoianworldheritage.org/ehoian/cultural/lichsu_vh_chinh.htm)
600-700 Hoi An was a port site of the Cham kingdoms
of central Vietnam.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
1075 The Jiaozhi (Vietnam)
launched a war against China, with a force of some 100,000 surrounding
Yongzhou (the southern region of Nanning). It was captured after a
siege of 42 days.
(www.international-relations.com/cm4-1/Nanningwb.htm)
1167-1227 Genghis Khan was born in the Hentiyn Nuruu
mountains north of Ulan Bator in the early 1160's (it has been argued
between 1162 and 1167, but recently agreement has been made for 1167),
the son of the Kiyat-Borjigid chieftain Yisugei. His given name was
Temujin, "the ironsmith," and he seized control over much of 5 million
square miles that covered China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Vietnam, and most
of Korea and Russia. His efforts in Vietnam were not successful. "In
Search of Genghis Khan" is a book by Tim Severin. He was succeeded by
his son Ogedai, who was succeeded by Guyuk. Ogedai ignored numerous
pleas from his brother Chaghatai to cut down on his drinking and died
of alcoholism as did Guyuk. [see 1167]
(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R6)(www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/vexhibit/genghis/biog.htm)
1400-1500 The Vietnamese from the north pushed the
Chams south and opened the port of Hoi An to foreign traders.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.T4)
1400-1500 Porcelain from this period was recovered
from a sunken ship in the South China Sea in 1999. 10% of the 150,000
pieces were kept by the Vietnamese government and the rest was
scheduled for auction on eBay.
(WSJ, 6/22/00, p.W10)
1400-1600 Hoi An, Vietnam, flourished at the end of
the 2nd Cham (Vijaya) Empire of this time. It attracted Japanese, then
Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese merchants.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
1426 Vietnam provided a defeated
Chinese army with boats and horses to carry home its soldiers.
(NG, May, 04, p.94)
c1450 Legend has it that in
the mid-15th century Vietnam, King Le Loi defeated Chinese invaders
with a magic sword given to him by the gods. After the victory, the
king was said to be boating on the lake when a giant golden turtle rose
to the surface and grabbed the sword in its mouth before plunging deep
into the water to return it to its divine owners. The lake was later
renamed "Ho Hoan Kiem," which means "Lake of the Returned Sword."
(AP, 11/3/03)
c1598 A party of Iberian
conquistadors overthrew the Cambodian king and set themselves up as
governors in the Mekong delta.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1644 Many Chinese mandarins fled
to the port of Hoi An, Vietnam, when the Ming Dynasty was overthrown.
Hoi An at this time was known as Faifo.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.T4)
1788 Jul 20, The governor of the
French colony of Pondicherry, Vietnam, abandoned plans to place King
Nhuyen Anh back on the throne.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1800-1900 The main river channel at Hoi An, Vietnam,
shifted toward Danang and made navigation by deep-draft ships
difficult, and thus lost its commercial importance. A new port was
built on the Han River at Da Nang.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.T4)
1802 Hue was founded as the royal
capital of the Nguyen dynasty that united Vietnam. Palaces, tombs and
monuments are located along the banks of the Perfume River.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)
1813-1820 The classic Vietnamese love poem "The Tale
of Kieu" was written by Nguyen Du (1766-1820). It was based on an
earlier Chinese novel entitled "The story of Kim-Van-Kieu ", written by
an author under the pen-name of "Thanh-Tam Tai-Nhan" in the 16th or the
early 17th century.
(SFC, 9/25/96,
p.E7)(www.geocities.com/SoHo/Den/5908/literature/kieu.html)
1820 Nguyen Du (b.1766), author of
“The Tale of Kieu,” died. His Vietnamese epic tells the story of woman
who sells herself into prostitution to pay off her father’s debt.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.B1)
1845 May 10, During a celebrated
round-the-world tour in 1844-46, the Constitution dropped anchor in the
bay outside of Tourane, Cochin China (now part of Vietnam). While
there, an imprisoned French missionary requested the assistance of the
ship's captain, "Mad Jack" Percival. The Americans attempted to
negotiate with the Cochin Chinese, to no avail. Frustrated, they set
sail from Cochin and continued on their course on May 26 without
further word about or from the missionary, who was eventually retrieved
by his own countrymen.
(HNQ, 10/18/02)
1859-1954 The colonial period of Vietnam.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.T1)
1860 The 1st French gendarmes
arrived in Vietnam.
(WSJ, 2/2/04, p.A12)
1866 French colonial officials
sent an expedition to explore the Mekong River and check its commercial
potential.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1873 A French expeditionary force
in Vietnam sacked Hanoi's citadel.
(NG, May, 04, p.87)
1882 Apr 25, French commander
Henri Riviere seized the citadel of Hanoi. Capt. Henri Reviere
was later beheaded after he attempted to seize the coal deposits at Ha
long Bay. The outraged French proceeded to colonize Vietnam.
(HN, 4/25/98)(SFEC, 7/18/99, p.T4)
1882 Sep 3, The French, Vietnamese
and Chinese battled at Hanoi; hundreds died.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1884 Jun 23, A Chinese Army
defeated the French at Bacle, Indochina.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1890 May 19, Ho Chi Minh,
revolutionist and leader of North Vietnam (1946-1969), was born. He
fought the Japanese, French and United States to gain independence for
his country.
(HN, 5/19/99)(MC, 5/19/02)
1893 French colonialists seized
control of Laos and tried to turn the Mekong River into a thoroughfare
linking their Indochina colonies.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1893 Vietnam’s highland town of
Dalat was founded as a retreat from the tropical coast.
(WSJ, 1/3/06, p.A14)
1901 Jan 3, Ngo Dinh Diem, South
Vietnamese president (1955-63), was born.
(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1909-1993 Nguyen Gia Tri, Vietnamese artist, worked
using the laborious lacquer on wood technique.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.E1)
1910 The French built a railroad
line to link Haiphong, Vietnam, to Kunming, the capital of China's
Yunnan province.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.42)
1911 Oct 14, Le Duc Tho (d.1990),
North Vietnamese representative at Paris peace talk (1970-72), was
born. He declined the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.
(AP, 10/16/98)(MC, 10/14/01)
1911 The Hanoi Opera House in
Vietnam was designed by the French.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.T6)
1912-1913 Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), later
revolutionary head of Vietnam, lived in the US and worked as a baker at
the Parker House Hotel in Boston.
(SSFC, 6/15/08, p.E5)
1913 Oct 22, Bo Dai, last emperor
of Vietnam, was born.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1919 The Dalat Palace was built in
Dalat, Vietnam. Restoration of the hotel began in 1991 under Larry
Hillblom (d.1995), co-founder of DHL, an express-delivery company.
(WSJ, 1/3/06, p.A14)
1920 Dec 30, Ho Chi Minh helped
found the Communist Party of France on December 30, 1920, while a
student there. Known then as Nguyen Ai Quoc, Ho went on to Moscow in
1923 for training in revolutionary strategy by the Communist
International. After several years in the Soviet Union and China, Ho
returned to Vietnam to lead his nation's revolutionary movement.
(HNQ, 4/13/99)
1922 Vo Van Kiet, Vietnamese prime
minister, was born.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1923 Apr 5, Nguyen Van Thieu,
president of South Vietnam (1965-75), selected this date as his birth
date on the grounds that it was luckier than his Nov 1924 birthday.
(HN, 5/5/97)(SFC, 10/1/01, p.B2)(MC, 4/5/02)
1923 In Nha Trang a retreat was
built for Bao Dai, the last Vietnamese king. It later became the Bao
Dai Villas Hotel.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.T5)
1924 Nov, Nguyen Van Thieu (d.2001
at 78), head of South Vietnam (1965-1975), was born. He later picked
Apr 5, 1923, as a luckier birthday.
(SFC, 10/1/01, p.B2)
1925 Nov, Khai Dinh, emperor of
Annam, died. Annam was a kingdom of what is now Vietnam that was
incorporated into French Indochina. His son Vinh Thuy assumed the
throne in January under the title Bao Dai
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)
1925 An unsuccessful student
strike took place in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
1925-1945 Bao Dai (d. 1997) was emperor of the French
protectorate of Annam, a narrow strip of central Vietnam.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)
1926 In Vietnam Ngo Van Chieu, a
government official, founded Cao Dai, a religion that mixed elements of
Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and other religions. It was
repressed by the communists after 1975. By 2008 restrictions were
eased.
(Econ, 4/26/08, SR p.5)
1931 Jun 17, British authorities
in China arrested Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1939 Feb 10, Japan occupied the
Chinese island of Hainan located off the coast of French Indochina
(modern day Vietnam).
(HN, 2/10/97)
1939 Nguyen Ton Hoan (1917-2001)
founded the Dai Viet (Greater Vietnam Party) and worked to establish a
democratic Vietnam.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.C2)
1939 A Communist uprising took
place and failed in French Indochina (Vietnam).
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
1940 Sep 26, Japanese troops
attacked French Indochina (Vietnam).
(MC, 9/26/01)
1941 Jul 21, France accepted
Japan's demand for military control of Indochina.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1941 Jul 24, The U.S. government
denounced Japanese actions in Indochina.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1941 Jul 27, Japanese forces
landed in Indo-China.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1941 Jul 28, A Japanese army
landed in Cochin, China (modern day Vietnam).
(HN, 7/28/98)
1941 The Viet Minh, a nationalist
movement led by Communists, was founded in Vietnam. Pham Van Dong was a
founding member.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
1942 After capturing and
imprisoning Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh in 1942, the
Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek was pressured into releasing
him by America's Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS was formed
during WWII to engage in intelligence operations and was the forerunner
of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Ho Chi Minh was leading
Vietnamese resistance against the Japanese and was captured while in
China setting up his Communist-inspired Viet Minh movement. The OSS
sought his release so he could continue his fight against the Japanese.
The Viet Minh also benefited from U.S. arms and equipment.
(HNQ, 1/25/00)
1943-1945 Ho Chi Minh worked for American
intelligence during this time rescuing downed American pilots and
reporting on Japanese troop movements in Vietnam. His story was later
told in the 1998 book: "Our Ho: Fact and Fiction" by Alan Trustman.
(A.Com, 1/25/98)
1945 Aug 22, Conflict in Vietnam
began when a group of Free French parachuted into southern Indochina,
in response to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/22/00)
1945 Sep 2, Ho Chi Minh (55)
promulgated the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence and unity from
the north to the south. He was known to have written letters to
President Truman asking for humanitarian assistance and advocated
political rather than military action. His letters went unanswered.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.9)(AP,
9/2/97)
1945 Sep 9, The Japanese in S.
Korea, Taiwan, China and Indochina surrendered to Allies.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1945 Sep 12, French troops landed
in Indochina.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1945 Sep 23, The first American
died in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon to French forces.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1945 In Vietnam Bao Dai abdicated
his throne in the city of Hue with the approach of the Viet Minh
guerrillas. He moved to China and then became an advisor to Ho Chi Minh
in Hanoi until 1949 when the French set him up as chief of state of
Vietnam.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)
1945 The Viet Minh in Vietnam
formed a provisional government in a bid for independence and Pham Van
Dong served as finance minister.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
1945 The Soviet Army adopted the
SKS-45, a semi-automatic rifle adopted. It fired the same 7.62x39mm
round as the AK-47, which was a shortened, lighter round that was the
standard Soviet cartridge of World War II. This meant the rifle firing
the round could be lighter, and the soldier could carry more
ammunition. Although Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
soldiers in Vietnam preferred the fully-automatic AK-47, the SKS was an
effective weapon that many of them carried during the Vietnam war.
(HNQ, 6/3/02)
1945-1946 Ho Chi Minh repeatedly tried to enlist
American support for an independent Vietnam.
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.9)
1946 Jan 6, Ho Chi Minh won North
Vietnamese elections.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1946 Mar 2, Ho Chi Minh was
elected president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1946 Mar 6, France recognized
Vietnam statehood within the Indo-Chinese federation.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1946 Jun 25, Ho Chi Minh traveled
to France for talks on Vietnamese independence.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1946 Nov 23, French Navy fire in
Haiphong, Vietnam, killed 6,000.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1946 Dec 15, Vietnam leader Ho Chi
Minh sent a note to the new French Premier, Leon Blum, asking for peace
talks.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1946 Dec 19, War broke out in
Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks
against the French.
(AP, 12/19/06)
1946 Dec 20, Viet Minh and French
forces fought fiercely in the Annamite section of Hanoi in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1946 Dec 28, The French declared
martial law in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1946 The French retook Hoa Binh in
Vietnam with a drop by airborne forces. They had abandoned it in
October 1950 in the panic following Viet Minh victories on Colonial
Route 4.
(HNQ, 8/16/01)
1947 Jan 9, French General
Leclerc broke off all talks with Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1947 Jan 19, The French opened a
drive on Hue, Indochina (Vietnam).
(HN, 1/19/99)
1947 Mar 5, Communist leader
Maurice Thorez declared support for the French sovereignty over
Vietnam.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1947 Oct 7, French troops in
Indochina launched Operation Lea, to capture Viet Minh positions near
the Chinese border.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1948 Nov 22, Ho Chi Minh's
Democratic Republic of Vietnam requested admittance to the UN.
(HN, 11/22/98)
1949 Jun 13, Vietnam state was
established at Saigon with Bao Dai as chief of state. Installed by the
French, Bao Dai entered Saigon to rule Vietnam.
(TOH, 1982, p.1949)(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)(HN, 6/13/98)
1949 Jun 14, The State of Vietnam
was formed.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1949 Dec 10, 150,000 French troops
massed at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1949 In southern Vietnam 17
communist fighters were killed by French colonial occupiers during a
failed prison escape. In 2008 their mass grave was found in Luong Hoa
Lac village, Tien Giang province, the site of the former prison.
(AP, 4/14/08)
1950 Jan 14, Ho Chi Minh
proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV).
(www.sparknotes.com/history/american/koreanwar/timeline.html)
1950 Jan 19, Communist Chinese
leader Mao recognized the Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1950 Jan 29, The French National
Assembly approved legislation granting autonomy to Bao Dai's State of
Vietnam.
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html)
1950 Jan 31, Paris protested the
Soviet recognition of Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1950 Feb 7, The United States
recognized Vietnam under the leadership of Emperor Bao Dai, not Ho Chi
Minh who was recognized by the Soviets.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1950 Feb 13, Albania recognized Ho
Chi Minh's Vietnamese government, becoming the sixth Eastern bloc
country to do so.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1950 Feb, The Viet Minh began an
offensive against French troops in Indo China.
(http://tinyurl.com/zho2c)
1950 May 8, The US Government
convinced that neither national independence nor democratic evolution
exist in any area dominated by Soviet imperialism, considers the
situation to be such as to warrant its according economic aid and
military equipment to the Associated State of Indochina and to France
in order to assist them in restoring stability and permitting these
states to pursue their peaceful and democratic development.
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html)
1950 May 21, French sources
reported that Viet Minh guerrillas had infiltrated Cambodia and opened
an arms-smuggling corridor to Thailand.
(www.geocities.com/khmerchronology/1950.htm)
1950 Jun 27, US sent 35 military
advisers to South Vietnam.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1950 Jul 26, United States
military involvement in Vietnam began as President Harry Truman
authorized $15 million in military aid to the French.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html)
1950 Aug 3, A US Military
Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) of 35 men arrives in Saigon. By the
end of the year, the US was bearing half of the cost of France's war
effort in Vietnam. Pres. Truman gave military aid to the Vietnamese
regime of Bao-Dai.
(www.oakton.edu/user/~wittman/chronol.htm)
1950 Oct, The Hoa Binh Campaign
proved to be a watershed event during the First Indochina War, as the
Viet Minh succeeded in bottling up the French in the Red River Delta.
Hoa Binh (the name means "peace" in Vietnamese) was the capital of the
Muong tribal minority. Sited some 62 kilometers west southwest of
Hanoi, Hoa Binh sits on the west bank of the Black River, where it
bends north to join the Red River above Son Tay.
(HNQ, 8/16/01)
1950 Dec 17, French named Marshal
de Lattre de Tassigny to command their troops in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1950 Dec 30, Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia became independent states in a French Union.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1950 US Pres. Harry Truman sent
military personnel to Vietnam to aid French forces.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1951 Jan 16, French forces
repulsed a Viet Minh offensive near Hanoi.
(http://experts.about.com/e/f/fi/First_Indochina_War.htm)
1951 Mar 15, General de Lattre
demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1951 Jun 9, After several
unsuccessful attacks on French colonial troops, North Vietnam's General
Giap ordered Viet Minh to withdraw from the Red River Delta.
(HN 6/9/98)
1951 Nov 14, French paratroopers
captured Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1952 Jan 4, The French Army in
Indochina launched Operation Nenuphar in hopes of ejecting a Viet Minh
division from the Ba Tai forest.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1952 Jan 7, French forces in
Indochina launch Operation Violette in an effort to push Viet Minh
forces away from the town of Ba Vi.
(HN, 1/7/00)
1952 Jan 12, The Viet Minh cut the
supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Bihn, Vietnam.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1952 Feb 19, There was a French
offensive at Hanoi.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1952 Feb 22, French forces
evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/22/99)
1952 Feb 24, The French evacuated
Hoa Binh in Vietnam in order to mass for the Tonkin Delta drive.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1952 Feb 25, French colonial
forces evacuated Hoa Binh in Indochina.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1952 Oct 29, French forces
launched Operation Lorraine against Viet Minh supply bases in Indochina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lorraine)
1952-1991 Howard Simpson (d.1999), foreign service
officer, served in Vietnam and later wrote: "Tiger in the Barbed Wire:
An American in Vietnam, 1952-1991."
(SFC, 5/24/99, p.C4)
1953 Feb 9, The French destroyed
six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1953 Mar 26, Eisenhower offered
increased aid in Vietnam to France.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1953 Apr 14, Viet Minh invaded
Laos with 40,00 troops in their war against French colonial forces.
(HN, 4/14/01)
1953 Nov 19, US VP Richard Nixon
visited Hanoi in Vietnam.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1953 Nov 30, French parachutists
under Col. De Castries attacked Dien Bien Phu. The French expeditionary
force was under the direction of Gen. Henri Navarre. In 2004 martin
windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat
in Vietnam.”
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)
1953 Nguyen Huu Tho (1910-1996),
Communist lawyer, was imprisoned in South Vietnam but escaped in 1960.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)
1954 Feb 10, Eisenhower warned
against US intervention in Vietnam.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1954 Mar 13, Viet Minh General
Giap opened an assault on French forces at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. In
2010 Ted Morgan (aka Sanche Armand Gabriel de Gramont) authored “Valley
of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the
Vietnam War.”
(HN, 3/14/98)(Econ, 4/3/04, p.86)(Econ, 2/20/10,
p.80)
1954 Mar 31, The siege of Dien
Bien Phu, the last French outpost in Vietnam, began after the Viet Minh
realized it could not be taken by direct assault.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1954 Apr 21, USAF flew a French
battalion to Vietnam.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1954 May 7, The Battle of Dien
Bien Phu in Vietnam ended after 55 days with Vietnamese insurgents
overrunning French forces and the US began to get involved. Vietnamese
insurgents expelled the French but the country was divided into a
communist north and a pro-US south. In the 8 years of the French
Indochina War some 52,000 French soldiers were killed. Vietnam was soon
partitioned between a regime in Hanoi led by Ho Chi Minh and an
anti-communist regime in Saigon under Ngo Dinh Diem. Howard Simpson
later wrote: "Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot." In 2004
Martin Windrow authored “The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French
Defeat in Vietnam.”
(TL, 1988, p.114)(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(SFC,
2/22/96, p.B3)(AP, 5/7/97)(SFC, 5/24/99, p.C4)(Econ, 11/27/04, p.86)y
1954 May 25, Robert Capa (40), war
photographer for Life Mag., was accidentally killed in Vietnam when he
stepped on a land mine. Capa authored a memoir in 1947: "Slightly Out
of Focus." A collection of his work was published in 1997: "Robert
Capa, Photographs," with an introduction by Richard Whelan. Capa was
born Endre Friedman in Budapest. In 2003 Alex Kershaw authored "Blood
and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa."
(SFEM, 1/12/97, BR p.9)(SFEM,12/21/97, p.7)(WSJ,
4/20/98, p.A20)
1954 Jun 4, French Premier Joseph
Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris
according "complete independence" to Vietnam.
(AP, 6/4/97)
1954 Jun 16, Ngo Dinh Diem was
elected president of Vietnam.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1954 Jun 28, French troops began
to pull out of Vietnam's Tonkin Province.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1954 Jul 13, In Geneva, the United
States, Great Britain and France reached an accord on Indochina,
dividing Vietnam into two countries, North and South, along the 17th
parallel.
(HN, 7/13/99)
1954 Jul 20, An armistice for
Indo-China was signed and Vietnam separated into North & South.
[see Jul 21]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1954 Jul 21, France surrendered
North Vietnam to the Communists at Geneva. The French signed an
armistice, the Geneva Accords, with the Viet Minh that ended the war
but divided Vietnam into two countries. This led to almost a million
anti-Communists in the north to flee to the south.
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFEC,
4/23/00, p.A19)
1954 Jul 23, The Indochina
settlement was approved by France's National Assembly.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1954 Aug 1, The Geneva Accords
divided Vietnam into two countries at the 17th parallel. U.S.
complicity in the overthrow of South Vietnam's president made it
impossible to stay uninvolved in the war. The Geneva Accords called for
elections by July, 1956, and put a limit on the presence of foreign
advisors. US military advisors were limited to 685. While the Geneva
Agreements ended the war and established the 17th parallel as a
temporary military demarcation between the Vietminh-administered North
and the Bao Dai government in the South, the reunification elections
were never held and within a few years there was a large-scale infusion
of foreign assistance in men and arms. The signatories were France, the
Vietminh, China, Great Britain, Cambodia, Laos and the Soviet Union.
The United States and the government of Bao Dai in the South did not
sign the agreement.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(HN, 8/1/98)(HNQ, 2/23/00)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia
Treaty Organization), a sister organization to NATO, was created under
the Manila Pact by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, to
stop communist spread in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos).
The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty.
SEATO dissolved in 1977.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(http://tinyurl.com/hpawj)
1954 Oct 10, Ho Chi Minh entered
Hanoi in Vietnam after French troops withdraw.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1954 Oct 22, As a result of the
Geneva accords granting Communist control over North Vietnam, U.S.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized a crash program to train the
South Vietnamese Army.
(HN, 10/22/98)
1954 Oct 27, Pres. Eisenhower
offered aid to S. Vietnam Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1954 Pham Van Dong became the
prime minister of North Vietnam following independence.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A24)
1954-1965 This period of the Vietnam War was covered
by Mark Moyar in his book “Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War 1954-1865”
(2006).
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.D8)
1955 Feb 12, President Eisenhower
sent 1st US "advisors" to South Vietnam to aid the government under Ngo
Dinh Diem.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)(MC, 2/12/02)
1955 May 19, In Vietnam Maj. Vo
Bam, a defense supply specialist, was instructed to find a supply route
south. Bam's route became the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D2)
1955 Oct 26, Ngo Dinh Diem
proclaimed Vietnam a republic with himself as the president.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1955 Bao Dai (d.1997) fled to
France.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)
1955-1963 Vu Van Mau served as the foreign minister
in South Vietnam under Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.C3)
1956 Apr 28, Last French troops
left Vietnam.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1956 Jun 8, The first American of
record to die in Vietnam was Air Force Tech Sergeant Richard B.
Fitzgibbon Jr. His son, Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, died in Vietnam Sep
7, 1965.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.B4)
1956-1963 The US installed and supported the regime
of South Vietnam under Pres. Diem.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)
1957 Pres. Eisenhower named
Elbridge Durbrow (d.1997 at 93) as ambassador to South Vietnam, the
newly divided southern portion of Indochina. He served there until 1961.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.A20)
1959 May 19, The Peoples' Army of
Vietnam's Military Transportation Group 559 formed on the 69th birthday
of Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. It ultimately resulted
in the creation of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail was intended to
facilitate the infiltrating of troops and transporting supplies from
North Vietnam to support the revolution in South Vietnam.
(HNQ, 6/1/99)
1959 The US sent advisors to
Vietnam.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1959 The first American advisors
were killed in Vietnam during a communist attack near Bien Hoa Air
Base. That triggered the transition that by 1968 led to more than
500,000 American combatants in Southeast Asia.
(HNQ, 8/12/02)
1959-1969 In 1998 the Library of Congress issued a
2-volume collection of American journalism from the Vietnam War,
"Reporting Vietnam." This period was covered in Vol. 1. The 2nd volume
covered the war to 1975.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)(SFEC, 10/18/98, BR p.1)
1960 Jul 30, Over 60,000 Buddhists
marched in protest against the Diem government in South Vietnam.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1960 Nov 12, A coup against South
Vietnam president Ngo Dinh Diem failed.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1960 Dec 20, National Liberation
Front was formed by guerrillas fighting the Diem regime in South
Vietnam.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1960 Nguyen Huu Tho escaped from
jail in South Vietnam and joined the National Liberation Front, the
political arm of the Viet Cong, the South Vietnam based guerrilla group.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)
1961 May 11, Pres. Kennedy
authorized American advisors to aid South Vietnam against the forces of
North Vietnam.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1961 Oct 18, An emergency crisis
was proclaimed in South Vietnam due to a communist attack.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1961 Nov 18, JFK sent 18,000
military "advisors" to South Vietnam.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1961 Dec 11, A U.S. aircraft
carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon. This was the first
direct American military support for South Vietnam's battle against
Communist guerrillas. JFK provided 425 US military helicopter crewmen
to South Vietnam to provide training and support for South
Vietnamese forces.
(AP, 12/11/97)(MC, 12/11/01)
1961 In Vietnam government decree
216 formulated a family planning program that got sidetracked due to
the war.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.A19)
1961-1969 Every American agent sent into North
Vietnam was captured and most became double agents serving Ho Chi Minh.
In 2000 Kenneth Conboy and Dale Andrade authored "Spies and Commandos,"
Richard H. Shultz Jr. authored "The Secret War Against Hanoi."
(WSJ, 7/17/00, p.A32)
1961-1973 The CIA backed a secret army in Laos to
help fight the communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese. An estimated
50,000 Hmong civilians died over this period. CIA director William
Colby acknowledged the US and Hmong alliance in 1994.
(SFC, 6/14/04, p.A1)
1962 Jan 18, The U.S. sprayed
foliage with pesticide in South Vietnam, in order to reveal the
whereabouts of Vietcong guerrillas.
(HN, 1/18/99)
1962 Feb 8, The U.S. Defense
Department reported the creation of the Military Assistance Command in
South Vietnam.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1962 Feb 18, Robert F. Kennedy
said that U.S. troops would stay in Vietnam until Communism was
defeated.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1962 Feb 27, South Vietnamese
president Ngo Dinh Diem was unharmed as two planes bombed the
presidential palace in Saigon. The 1st US national was killed. Although
Diem had shortcomings as a leader, he had led South Vietnam for eight
years and at the time of his death was attempting to deal with Buddhist
factionalism.
(HN, 2/27/98)(MC, 2/27/02)
1962 Mar 9, US "advisors" in
South-Vietnam joined the fight.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1962 Jul 23, The Geneva Conference
on Laos forbade the United States to invade eastern Laos, site of the
Ho Chi Minh Trail.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1962-1971 US military tanker planes and helicopters
sprayed 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other defoliants in
Operation Ranch Hand to deny cover to communist forces in Vietnam. The
defoliants were contaminated with TCDD, the most dangerous form of
dioxin. In 2004 Philip Jones Griffith, photojournalist, authored "Agent
Orange: Collateral Damage in Vietnam."
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A12)(Econ, 1/31/04, p.82)
1962-1972 In Vietnam giant US tanker planes sprayed
millions of gallons of Agent Orange on the once lush DMZ in order to
eradicate the enemy's jungle cover. Some 12 million gallons of Agent
Orange were sprayed over parts of southern and central Vietnam from
1961-1971. The total included some 375 pounds of dioxin. In 1998 a
nationwide survey was planned to count the victims. American
involvement in the Vietnam War was analyzed by H.R. McMaster In his
1997 book: "Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam." Agent Orange
used dioxins as the active ingredient in the herbicide. Anti-war
activist Jane Fonda at one point laid nude in a rice field near
Sacramento and California Republican Assembly leader Charles J. Conrad
(d.1998) suggested spraying defoliants on her.
(WSJ,2/12/97, p.A1)(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A23)(SFC,
1/22/98, p.E4)(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A10)
1962-1972 The Ontos was 1st conceived in the
aftermath of World War II when the U.S. Army perceived the need for a
new reconnaissance vehicle. It evolved into an Army tank destroyer for
use on the nuclear battlefields of Europe. Its actual deployment was in
Marine Corps anti-tank battalions. The Ontos most significant
contribution was in the Vietnam War, but in a role much different than
the role for which it was designed. The official name of the weapon was
"Rifle, Multiple, 106mm, Self-Propelled M-50." This hybrid light
armored vehicle was armed with six externally mounted antitank guns.
(HNQ, 10/8/02)
1963 Jan 2, Viet Cong downed five
U.S. helicopters in the Mekong Delta; 30 were reported to be dead.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1963 Mar 16, Phung Vuong, murderer
(FBI Most Wanted List), was born in Saigon, Vietnam.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1963 May 8, Problems with the
Buddhists began in Hue, Vietnam. The Diem Government decided to
demonstrate its strength by enforcing a law against the display of
flags other than the national flag. In defiance, the Buddhists lined
the streets flying their flags regardless of the new law; this defiance
turned bloody when troops fired into the crowd, killing nine. Diem now
claimed that the Buddhists were affiliates of the Communists and
tightened security around the more active pagodas.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWvietnam.htm)
1963 Jun 11, Buddhist monk Quang
Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of
South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
(AP,
6/11/97)(www.buddhistinformation.com/self_immolation.htm)
1963 Jun 27, Henry Cabot Lodge was
appointed U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1963 Aug 13, A 17 year-old
Buddhist monk burned himself to death in Saigon, South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1963 Aug 19, Newsweek quoted
Madame Nhu, official hostess of the South Vietnamese government,
offering to light the match of the next Buddhist monk suicide.
(NW 8/19/63)(SFC, 1/23/04,
p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/93lc5)
1963 Aug 21, Martial law was
declared in South Vietnam as police and army troops began a crackdown
on Buddhist anti-government protesters.
(AP, 8/21/08)
1963 Aug 24, Pres. Kennedy allowed
a cable to be sent to Ambassador Lodge in Vietnam that backed a
military coup against Pres. Diem. Pres. Kennedy gave tacit approval for
a coup against Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. Diem was killed
Nov 2.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A2)(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.41)
1963 Aug 26, Orders came from
Washington to destroy all cables sent to Saigon, South Vietnam, back to
Aug 24.
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.42)
1963 Aug 27, Cambodia severed ties
with South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1963 Oct 2, US Defense Sec. Robert
McNamara told Pres. Kennedy in a cabinet meeting that: "We need a way
to get out of Vietnam." McNamara proposed to replace the 16,000 US
advisors with Canadian personnel.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A2)
1963 Oct 11, A National Security
Action memorandum that recommended plans to withdraw 1,000 US Military
personnel by the end of the year was approved. The memo followed
McNamara's return from a trip to South Vietnam.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A2)
1963 Nov 1-1963 Nov 2, South
Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother were assassinated in
a military coup. Coup leader Duong Van Minh explained that "They had to
be killed… Pres. Diem was too much respected among simple, gullible
people in the countryside." A 3rd brother was later tricked into
surrendering to US forces and was turned over to coup leaders and
killed by firing squad. Col. Nguyen Van Thieu helped organize the coup
that killed Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem.
(AP, 11/2/97)(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.42)(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.A19)(SFC, 10/1/01, p.B2)
1963 In Vietnam the Battle of Ap
Bac was fought.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)
1964 Jan 10, Pres. Johnson
held a meeting with Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara after which he
approved covert operations against North Vietnam [see Jan 16].
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.9)
1964 Jan
16, Pres. Johnson approved OPLAN 34A-64, calling for stepped up
infiltration and covert operations against North Vietnam to be
transferred from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to the military."
(http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/lbjohnson)
1964 Feb 1, President Lyndon B.
Johnson rejected Charles de Gaulle's plan for a neutral Vietnam.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1964 Feb 9, The U.S. embassy in
Moscow was stoned by Chinese and Vietnamese students.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1964 Mar 29, The U.S. planned to
add $50 million a year for aid to South Vietnam.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1964 Jun 20, General William
Westmoreland succeeded General Paul Harkins as head of the U.S. forces
in Vietnam.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1964 Jun 23, Henry Cabot Lodge
resigned as the U.S. envoy to Vietnam and was succeeded by Maxwell
Taylor.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1964 Jul 14, The United States
sent 600 more troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 7/14/98)
1964 Jul 27, President Lyndon
Johnson sent an additional 5,000 advisers to South Vietnam.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1964 Jul 30, US Naval fired on Hon
Ngu and Hon Mo in North Vietnam.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1964 Aug 2, The Pentagon reported
the first of two attacks on U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo
boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. U.S. destroyer Maddox was reportedly
attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats. Later evidence supported
claims that the Tonkin Gulf incident was deliberately provoked or was
in reaction to American covert operations.
(AP,
8/2/97)(www.usni.org/navalhistory/articles99/nhandrade.htm#tx17)
1964 Aug 4, Pres. Johnson ordered
an immediate retaliation for the Aug 2 attack on the US destroyer
Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1964 Aug 4, The destroyers U.S.S.
Maddox and Turner Joy allegedly exchanged fire with supposed North
Vietnamese patrol boats. At the time it was taken as evidence that
Hanoi was raising the stakes against the United States. The destroyers
were in effect shooting at false radar contacts. In 2005 it was
reported that a secret 2001 report had concluded that the NSA officers
deliberately distorted the Aug 4 data to support the belief that North
Vietnamese ships attacked American destroyers 2 days after a previous
clash.
(www.usni.org/navalhistory/articles99/nhandrade.htm#tx17)(SFC,
10/31/05, p.A3)
1964 Aug 5, US began bombing North
Vietnam. Lt. Everett Alvarez Jr. was shot down and captured at Ha Long
Bay in Vietnam. Alvarez became the first naval aviator captured by the
North Vietnamese and spent eight-and-one-half years in captivity.
Alvarez later co-authored two books, writing of his prisoner of war
experiences in “Chained Eagle” and “Code Of Conduct.”
(www.pownetwork.org/bios/a/a038.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Alvarez_Jr.)
1964 Aug 7, Congress passed the
Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in
dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces. It
allowed the president to use unlimited military force to prevent
attacks on U.S. forces. U.S. Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest
Gruening of Alaska share the distinction of casting the only votes
against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964. The resolution
supported President Lyndon Johnson's military actions against North
Vietnam in retaliation for its attack on a U.S. spy ship in the Tonkin
Gulf. The resolution passed in the House 414-0 and the Senate 88-2. The
resolution, which amounted to a declaration of war, was repealed by
Congress on January 13, 1971.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HNQ, 6/24/98)(HN, 8/7/98)
1964 Sep 18, U.S. destroyers fired
on hostile targets in Vietnam.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1964 Nov 1, The Vietcong assaulted
the Bien Hoa airport at Saigon, South Vietnam.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1964 Nov 14, The U.S. First
Cavalry Division battled with the North Vietnamese Army in the Ia Drang
Valley, the first ground combat for American troops.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1964 Dec 12, Three Buddhist
leaders began a hunger strike to protest the government in Saigon,
South Vietnam.
(HN, 12/12/98)
1964 Dec 24, The U.S. headquarters
in Saigon, South Vietnam, was hit by a bomb. Two officers were killed.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1964 In South Vietnam pro Dai Viet
officers overthrew Maj. Gen. Duong Van Minh. Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khanh
assumed the role of premier with the backing of the US. Nguyen Ton Hoan
returned to Saigon and became 1st deputy premier overseeing
pacification efforts in the countryside.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.C2)
1964 Col. Nguyen Van Thieu joined
Air Marshal Ky to oust the military government and became a member of
the new ruling Armed Forces Council in South Vietnam.
(SFC, 10/1/01, p.B2)
1964 Howard Simpson served as the
US advisor to Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh in Saigon, South Vietnam.
(SFC, 5/24/99, p.C4)
1964 During the Vietnam War,
Douglas AC-47 gunships were known as "Spookies." Originally nicknamed
"Gooney Birds", the World War II-era plane was refitted into a
side-firing gunship in 1964. Though it was dubbed "Puff the Magic
Dragon" for its amazing firepower delivered to troops in trouble, the
AC-47 later became known as a "Spooky" which was its call sign
in-country.
(HNQ, 8/14/00)
1964 A major in Vietnam flood
killed 10,000 people.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A12)
1964-1968 The US military Studies and Observations
Group ran a secret operation whereby fishermen were kidnapped and taken
to a phony North Vietnamese village, so that they could report on a
liberated area of North Vietnam.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.D4)
1965 Jan 27, Military leaders
ousted the civilian government of Tran Van Huong in Saigon, South
Vietnam.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1965 Feb 6, A Viet Cong raid on a
base in Pleiku, South Vietnam, killed 7-8 US GIs.
(HN, 2/6/99)(SFC, 11/27/99, p.C3)
1965 Feb 7, U.S. jets hit Don Hoi
guerrilla base in reprisal for the Viet Cong raids. Pres. Johnson
ordered the bombing of North Vietnam following the deaths of 9 US
soldiers near Pleiku.
(HN, 2/7/99)(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1965 Feb 8, South Vietnamese
bombed the North Vietnamese communications center at Vinh Linh.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1965 Feb 11, Pres. Lyndon Johnson
ordered air strikes against targets in North Vietnam, in retaliation
for guerrilla attacks on the American military in South Vietnam. The
American "Rolling Thunder" bombing campaign intensified. In 2006 Rick
Newman and Don Shepperd authored “Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots
and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail,” an account of the
pilots who flew low scouting for targets that threatened US bombers.
(HN, 2/11/02)(WSJ, 3/2/06, p.D8)
1965 Mar 2, More than 150 U.S. and
South Vietnamese planes bombed two bases in North Vietnam in the first
of the "Rolling Thunder" raids.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1965 Mar 6, The U.S. announced
that it would send 3,500 troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 3/6/98)
1965 Mar 8, The United States
landed its 1st combat troops, about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam.
More than 4,000 Marines landed. They joined some 23,000 Americans who
had been serving as military advisors to South Vietnam for several
years. Gen. Frederick Karch (d.2009 at 92) landed with the 9th Marine
Expeditionary Brigade on Red Beach at Da Nang. Prior to their arrival
all military personnel in Vietnam were there as advisors.
(AP, 3/8/98)(HN, 3/8/98)(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D2)(SFC,
5/27/09, p.B9)
1965 Mar 11, The American navy
began inspecting Vietnamese junks in hopes of ending arms smuggling
to South Vietnam.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1965 Mar 22, US confirmed its
troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong in South Vietnam.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1965 Apr 29, Australian government
announced it would send troops to Vietnam.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1965 May 5, 1st large-scale US
Army ground units arrived in South Vietnam.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1965 May 30, Viet Cong offensive
began against US base at Da Nang, South Vietnam.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1965 Jun 8, President Lyndon B.
Johnson authorized commanders in Vietnam to commit U.S. ground forces
to combat.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1965 Jun 14, A military
triumvirate took control in Saigon, South Vietnam.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1965 Jun 17, Twenty-seven B-52's
hit Viet Cong outposts but lost two planes in South Vietnam.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1965 Jun 19, Air Marshall Nguyen
Cao Ky became South Vietnam's youngest premier at age 34.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1965 Jul 28, President Johnson
announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South
Vietnam to 175,000 "almost immediately."
(HN, 7/28/98)(AP, 7/28/08)
1965 Aug 2, Newsman Morley Safer
filmed the destruction of the Vietnamese village of Cam Ne by US
Marines. Safer sent the 1st Vietnam report indicating we are losing.
Safer’s report was broadcast by CBS on August 5 and led Pres. Johnson
to call CBS demanding that Safer be fired. CBS president Frank Stanton
refused to fire Safer.
(HN, 8/2/98)(WSJ, 12/30/06, p.A8)
1965 Aug 18, Operation Starlite
marked the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1965 Aug 19, U.S. forces destroyed
a Viet Cong stronghold near Van Tuong, in South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/19/98)
1965 Aug 28, The Viet Cong were
routed in the Mekong Delta by U.S. forces, with more than 50 killed.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1965 Sep 9, US Navy pilot James
Stockdale (d.2005) was shot down in Vietnam. He was beaten, tortured
and taken to Hoa Lo prison (Hanoi Hilton) and released in 1973. In 1992
he ran as VP candidate with Ross Perot.
(SFC, 7/6/05, p.B7)
1965 Sep 11, The US 1st Cavalry
Division (Airmobile), arrived in South Vietnam and was stationed at An
Khe.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1965 Sep 20, Seven U.S. planes
were downed in one day over Vietnam.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1965 Oct 5, U.S. forces in Saigon,
South Vietnam, received permission to use tear gas.
(HN, 10/5/98)
1965 Oct 10, Ronald Reagan spoke
at Coalinga Junior College and called for an official declaration of
war in Vietnam.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1965 Nov 14, US government sent
90,000 soldiers to Vietnam.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1965 Nov 14, Bruce Crandall (32)
flew through a gantlet of enemy fire, taking ammunition in and wounded
Americans out of the Battle at Ia Drang Valley, one of the fiercest
battles of the Vietnam War. Crandall's actions were depicted in the
Hollywood movie "We Were Soldiers," adapted from the book "We Were
Soldiers Once ... And Young." In 2007 he was awarded a Medal of Honor.
(AP, 2/26/07)
1965 Nov 15, In the second day of
combat, regiments of the 1st Cavalry Division battle on Landing Zones
X-Ray against North Vietnamese forces in the Ia Drang Valley, South
Vietnam.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)(HN, 11/15/99)
1965 Nov 16, In the last day of
the fighting at Landing Zone X-Ray, regiments of the U.S. 1st Cavalry
Division repulsed NVA forces in the Ia Drang Valley. Joe Galloway
served at LZ X-ray. He later received the Bronze Star for his actions
during the epic battle. Based on that and his subsequent actions in
Vietnam, Galloway came to be regarded by the military leadership and
the GIs alike as a journalist who was fair, objective, and who could be
trusted to get the story right. He co-authored with Lt. Gen. Hal More
"We Were Soldiers Once," which was made into a film with Mel Gibson
(HN, 11/16/99)(HNQ, 10/2/02)
1965 Nov 17, The NVA ambushed
American troops of the 7th Cavalry at Landing Zone Albany in the Ia
Drang Valley, almost wiping them out. Some 500 US troops from Landing
Zone X-Ray encountered some 500 North Vietnamese troops at L-Z Albany
and more soldiers were killed than in the previous 3 days of fighting.
Among the wounded was Jack Smith (d.2004), son of TV commentator Howard
K. Smith. Jack smith went on to become an ABC New correspondent.
(HN, 11/17/00)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.E1)
1965 Nov 27, 15-25,000
demonstrated in Wash DC against the war in Vietnam.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1965 Nov, The 1st major
American battle of the Vietnam war using armored vehicles was at Ap Bau
Bang. The 1st Infantry Division engaged in its first major battle near
the village of Ap Bau Bang, along National Route 13--known as "Thunder
Road." General William E. DePuy later called it "one of the most
gallant stands of the Vietnam War."
(HNQ, 8/2/02)
1965 Nov, British-born Rick
Rescorla served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry
when they made their fateful air assault into LZ Albany in the Ia Drang
Valley. He features prominently in Hal Moore's and Joe Gallway's
acclaimed book, "We Were Soldiers Once…And Young." He later helped save
thousands of people and died a hero's death at the World Trade Towers
on September 11, 2001. As the security director for a major American
corporation, Rescorla was a hero of both attacks on the World Trade
Center. On 9-11 he managed to get all but a few of his company's
thousands of employees out of the tower. He was last seen heading back
into the building with FDNY rescue crews when it collapsed.
(HNQ, 6/10/02)
1965 Dec 18, U.S. Marines attacked
VC units in the Que Son Valley, South Vietnam, during Operation Harvest
Moon.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1965 Dec 22, The EF-105F Wild
Weasel made its first kill over Vietnam.
(HN, 12/22/98)
1965 Dec 24, US troops in Vietnam
reached 184,300. Gen. Westmoreland wanted 210,000 by the end of the
year.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.88)
1965 Dec 29, A Christmas truce was
observed in Vietnam, while President Johnson tried to get the North
Vietnamese to the bargaining table.
(HN, 12/29/98)
1965 Nguyen Van Thieu, the South
Vietnam ruling junta's chairman of the National Directorate, became
chief of state.
(SFC, 10/1/01, p.B2)
1965 The Thuan Thanh center was
established for wounded soldiers. In 1997 it was but one of 57
veteran's centers across the country.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B14)
1965 The US sustained bombing
mission known as "Rolling Thunder" was begun in Vietnam.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B14)
1965 John Paul Vann (d.972),
American military adviser, returned to Vietnam as a civilian adviser.
He had achieved outstanding tactical results in the field, but retired
from the Army. In 1963 Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann was the
adviser to the ARVN 7th Infantry Division, commanded by Colonel Huynh
Van Cao. Despite Vann's success in the field, he alienated Cao and the
military-political rulers in Saigon. Reassigned to the Pentagon after
his advisory tour, Vann decided that his experience in Vietnam would
cost him further promotion, and he retired from the Army. After a stint
in the private sector, Vann returned to Vietnam in 1965 as a
pacification representative for the Agency of International Development
(AID). Vann eventually rose to the level of senior adviser for the
Central Highlands, a position that gave him authority over all U.S.
military forces in the region. The authority was equivalent to that of
a major general. As principal adviser for an ARVN general who commanded
158,000 troops in the region, he was one of the most influential
Americans in Vietnam, after the ambassador and the commanding general
of MACV.
(HNQ, 9/27/01)
1965 William Pitsenbarger was an
Air Force Pararescueman who volunteered to descend from a helicopter to
the jungle floor to help a company of the 1st Infantry Division that
was pinned down and fighting for its life. He rescued many wounded
soldiers, and he refused evacuation himself after he was wounded
several times, finally fatally. He was awarded a posthumous Air Force
Cross, but the men of the company he went to help fought for many years
to get the award upgraded to the Medal of Honor. Pitsenbarger was one
of only two Air Force enlisted men to earn the Medal of Honor in
Vietnam, and the first since the end of World War II.
(HNQ, 6/18/02)
1965 US Army Captain Larry Thorne
was killed when his helicopter was downed during a special forces
mission. This was portrayed in the 1968 film "The Green Berets" with
John Wayne as Thorne. Thorne was born in Finland as Lauri Torni and a
group of Finns planned to exhume his remains from Vietnam in 1999 for
return to Finland.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A14)
1965-1973 Some 300,000 South Korean troops fought
alongside US forces in Vietnam. In 1998 South Korea expressed to Hanoi
its regret for its participation in the war.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A1)
1965-1973 General Bob Worley was the only U.S. Air
Force general officer to die in actual combat during the Vietnam War.
He was a tactical fighter pilot whose RF-4C Phantom caught fire while
on a patrol over North Vietnam.
(HNQ, 12/18/02)
1966 Jan 1, The 173rd Airborne
Brigade became the first American unit in the Mekong Delta of South
Vietnam.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1966 Jan 12, US President Johnson
said in his State of the Union address that the United States should
stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there was ended.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1966 Jan 31, U.S. planes resumed
bombing of North Vietnam after a 37-day pause.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1966 Feb 12, The South Vietnamese
won two big battles in the Mekong Delta. In Vietnam's Mekong Delta,
Navy SEALs were the military's eyes and ears, providing vital
intelligence on enemy operations.
(HN, 2/12/97)
1966 Feb 16, The World Council of
Churches being held in Geneva, urged immediate peace in Vietnam.
Vietnam was the war that five presidents "owned"--and yet no president
"owned."
(HN, 2/16/98)
1966 Feb 19, Robert F. Kennedy
suggested the U.S. offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1966 Mar 2, There were some
215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam. Gen. Westmoreland called for 325,000 by
July and 410,000 by December.
(SC, 3/2/02)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.88)
1966 Mar 10, The North Vietnamese
captured a Green Beret camp at Ashau Valley.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1966 Mar 16, Col. Paul Underwood
flew a bombing mission over Lai Chau Province in Vietnam and crashed
after releasing bombs from his F-105 Thunderchief. His remains were
returned to the US in 1998.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A14)
1966 Mar 16, Alfred Rascon, a US
Army medic in South Vietnam, saved the lives of a number of his platoon
members using his own wounded body to cover wounded men while treating
their wounds under fire. He received the Medal of Honor in 2000.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A2)
1966 Mar 27, Anti-Vietnam war
demonstrations took place in US, Europe and Australia.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1966 Mar 28, Navy corpsman Robert
R. Ingram was shot while with his platoon of marines on a ridge in
Quang Ngai province, South Vietnam. He continued providing medical
attention to his comrades with multiple wounds to himself. He was
awarded a belated Medal of Honor in 1998 due to lost paperwork.
(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A3)
1966 Apr 3, Three-thousand South
Vietnamese Army troops led a protest against the Ky regime in Saigon.
(HN, 4/3/98)
1966 Apr 12, 1st B-52 bombing on
North Vietnam took place.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1966 Apr 19, Lt. Lee Aaron Adams
of Willits, Ca., was killed when his F-105D Thunderchief fighter plane
was shot down in North Vietnam. His remains were returned home in 2005.
During 1966 the US Air Force lost 126 Thunderchiefs.
(SFC, 6/2/05, p.A1)
1966 May 15, South Vietnamese army
battled Buddhists and about 80 died.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1966 May 26, A Buddhist monk set
himself on fire at US consulate in Hu, South-Vietnam.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1966 Jun 29, The U.S. Air Force
bombed fuel storage facilities near Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam.
Republic Aircraft's F-105 Thunderchief, better known as the 'Thud,' was
the Air Force's warhorse in Vietnam.
(HN, 6/29/98)(AP, 6/29/97)
1966 Jul 1, The U.S. Marines
launched Operation Holt in an attempt to finish off a Vietcong
battalion in Thua Thien Province in Vietnam.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1966 Jul 7, The U.S. Marine Corps
launched Operation Hasting to drive the North Vietnamese Army back
across the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1966 Jul 17, Ho Chi Minh ordered a
partial mobilization of North Vietnam to defend against American
airstrikes.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1966 Jul 22, B-52 bombers hit the
Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam for the first time.
(HN, 7/22/98)
1966 Jul 30, US airplanes bombed
the demilitarized zone in Vietnam.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1966 Aug 7, The United States lost
seven planes over North Vietnam, the most in the war up to this point.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1966 Aug 18, Australians bloodily
repulsed a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan, South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1966 Aug, The commander of 5th
Special Forces established an ad hoc Mobile Force that he carved out of
his resources. Initially the element was called Task Force 777, later
renamed Blackjack 21. The "2" was for the II Corps area that included
the Central Highlands, home to several Montagnard tribes. The "1" meant
it was the first of its kind in II Corps--and in Vietnam. The formal
mission statement was: "To infiltrate into the area of operations and
conduct border surveillance, interdict infiltration routes, and conduct
guerrilla-type operations against known VC installations. Infiltration,
reconnaissance, operations, and exfiltration will be executed
clandestinely."
(HNQ, 10/16/02)
1966 Sep 4, US pilot Ron Bliss was
shot down over North Vietnam and spent 6 1/2 years in prison at the
"Hanoi Hilton."
(SFEC, 8/15/99, DB p.50)
1966 Sep 14, Operation Attleboro,
designed as a training exercise for American troops in South Vietnam,
became a month-long struggle against the Viet Cong.
(HN, 9/14/98)
1966 Oct 6, Hanoi insisted the
United States must end its bombing in Vietnam before peace talks could
begin.
(HN, 10/6/98)
1966 Oct 10, U.S. Forces launched
Operation Robin, in Hoa Province south of Saigon in South Vietnam, to
provide road security between villages.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1966 Oct 13, 173 US airplanes
bombed North-Vietnam.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1966 Oct 14, 175 US airplanes
bombed North Vietnam.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1966 Dec 5,
Comedian and political activist Dick Gregory headed for Hanoi, North
Vietnam despite federal warnings against it.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1966 Dec 13, The 1st US bombing of
Hanoi, North Vietnam, took place.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1966 Douglas Eugene Pike, US State
Dept. officer, authored "Viet Cong." In 1986 he authored "PAVN:
People's Army of Vietnam."
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A22)
1966 Thich Nhat Hanh founded the
Order of Interbeing and embarked on a first trip to the US.
(SFC, 10/12/97, Z1 p.3)
1967 Jan 6, Some 16,000 US and
14,000 South Vietnamese troops started their biggest attack on the Iron
Triangle, northwest of Saigon. They launched Operation Deckhouse V, an
offensive in the Mekong River delta.
(AP, 1/6/98) (HN, 1/6/99)
1967 Jan 15, Some 462 Yale faculty
members called for an end to the bombing in North Vietnam.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1967 Jan 29, Thirty-seven
civilians were killed by a U.S. helicopter attack in Vietnam.
(HN, 1/29/99)
1967 Feb 15, Thirteen US
helicopters were shot down in one day in Vietnam.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1967 Feb 22, More than 25,000 US
and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Junction City, aimed at
smashing a Vietcong stronghold near the Cambodian border. In order to
deny the Vietcong cover, and allow men to see through the dense
vegetation, herbicides were dumped on the forests near the South
Vietnamese borders as well as Cambodia and Laos. The operation
continued to May 14.
(HN, 2/22/99)(AP, 2/22/07)(HN,
2/23/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Junction_City)
1967 Mar 24, In Vietnam B Battery
was replaced at Gio Linh and returned to base camp at JJ Carroll. The
entire battalion had been involved in Operation High Rise, the first
Operation involving heavy artillery firing at targets in North Vietnam.
The firing into North Vietnam proceeded with an intense rate in an
effort to stifle the enemy supply channels from the North.
(www.willpete.com/history2nd94th.htm)
1967 Mar 27, A North Vietnamese
spokesman unequivocally rejected a new peace plan proposed by UN Sec.
General U Thant (1907-1974) on March 14.
(http://www.nybooks.com/articles/12091)
1967 Apr 5, Pres. Johnson
appointed Ellsworth Bunker (1894-1984) as the new ambassador to Saigon,
South Vietnam. Bunker replaced Lodge and continued as ambassador to
1973.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Ambassador_to_South_Vietnam)
1967 Apr 11, In the Vietnam War,
US planes bombed two thermal power plants in Haiphong, North Vietnam.
(www.pownetwork.org/bios/e/e031.htm)
1967 Apr 14, In San Francisco
thousands marched from the Ferry building to Kezar Stadium against the
Vietnam war. The marchers filled the 40,000 capacity stadium.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.4)
1967 Apr 17, In Vietnam Lt. Col.
Leo Thorsness and “backseater” Harry Johnson shot down 2 MiG fighters.
Both men were captured on Apr 28, and spent 6 years as POWs.
(WSJ, 12/30/08, p.A9)
1967 Apr 20, U.S. planes bombed
Haiphong for first time during the Vietnam War.
(HN, 4/20/98)
1967 Apr 28, Gen. William C.
Westmoreland told Congress the United States "would prevail in Vietnam."
(AP, 4/28/97)
1967 Apr 28, Lt. Col. Leo
Thorsness and “backseater” Harry Johnson ejected over North Vietnam
following an attack by an enemy MiG fighter. They were released along
with other POWs in 1973. In Oct, 1973, Thorsness received a Medal of
Honor. In 2008 he authored “Surviving Hell: A POWs Journey.”
(WSJ, 12/30/08, p.A9)
1967 May 2, The Stockholm Vietnam
Tribunal opened and continued to May 10. The formation of this
investigative body immediately followed the 1966 publication of
Bertrand Russell's book, “War Crimes in Vietnam.” It condemned US
aggression in Vietnam and Cambodia. A 2nd session of the tribunal was
held at Roskilde, Denmark, Nov 20 – Dec 1, 1967.
(www.vietnamese-american.org/contents.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal)
1967 May 9, Marine Sgt. James Neil
Tycz (22) and three other US servicemen were killed on Hill 665 near
Khe Sanh, Vietnam, close to the Laos border. In 2005 three of the men
were buried at Arlington National Cemetery on the 38th anniversary of
their deaths.
(AP, 5/8/05)
1967 May 19, The first U.S. air
strike on central Hanoi in North Vietnam was launched.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1967 May 20, 10,000 demonstrated
against the war in Vietnam.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1967 May, The American
organization known as CORDS (Civil Operations and Revolutionary
Development Support) was formed to coordinate the US civil and military
pacification programs in Vietnam.
(www.historynet.com/cords-winning-hearts-and-minds-in-vietnam.htm)
1967 Jul 2, The U.S. Marine Corps
launches Operation Buffalo in response to the North Vietnamese Army's
efforts to seize the Marine base at Con Thien.
(HN, 7/2/98)
1967 Jul 3, North Vietnamese
soldiers attacked South Vietnam's only producing coal mine at Nong Son.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1967 Jul 25, US Navy Lt. Commander
Donald Davis crashed his jet on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Searchers later
recovered fragments of his remains for return to the US.
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.A4)
1967 Jul 29, Fire swept the USS
Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of Vietnam, killing 134
servicemen with $100 million in damage. One survivor was Navy Lt. Cmdr.
John McCain, who later became a US senator.
(AP, 7/29/07)
1967 Jul 30, General William
Westmoreland claimed that he is winning the war in Vietnam but needed
more men.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1967 Aug 3, President Lyndon B.
Johnson announced plans to send 45,000 more troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1967 Aug 11, Roy M. Wheat
(20) led a team from Company K, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, providing
security for a Navy construction crew on the Liberty Road in Quang Nam
Province, Vietnam. Lance Corporal Roy Wheat accidentally triggered a
well-concealed, bounding type anti-personnel mine. He yelled for team
members Lance Corporals Vernon Sorenson and Bernard Cannon to run. Then
he flung himself onto the mine as it exploded, absorbing the tremendous
impact with his body. Roy Wheat was killed, but his companions were
spared certain injury and possible death. Marine Roy M. Wheat was the
only Mississippian to earn the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.
(HN, 9/19/01)
1967 Sep 3, Lieutenant General
Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president of South Vietnam under a new
constitution.
(AP, 9/3/97)(HN, 9/3/98)
1967 Sep 26, Hanoi rejected a U.S.
peace proposal.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1967 Sep 23, Soviets signed a pact
to send more aid to Hanoi.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1967 Oct 17, American forces of
the black Lion battalion walked into an ambush set by NV commander Vo
Minh Triet and 61 were killed. In 2003 David Maraniss authored "They
Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America," which
centered on this battle and a protest in Wisconsin on Oct 18.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.82)(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.M3)
1967 Oct 21, Tens of thousands of
Vietnam War protesters marched in Washington, D.C. 35,000 people
assembled outside the Pentagon to protest the war in Vietnam. The
"March on the Pentagon," protesting American involvement in Vietnam ,
drew 50,000 protesters.
(TMC, 1994, p.1967)(AP, 10/21/97)(HN, 10/21/98)
1967 Oct 26, US Navy pilot John
McCain, later US Senator, was shot down in his A-4 over North Vietnam
and spent 5 1/2 years in prison, two in solitary confinement. He signed
a confession following torture admitting to being a war criminal and in
1999 published the family saga "Faith of My Fathers." The 1995 book
"The Nightingale's Song" by Robert Timberg was about McCain.
(SFC, 8/16/99, p.A1,4) (WSJ, 9/8/99, p.A24)
1967 Oct 31, Nguyen Van Thieu took
the oath of office as the first president of South Vietnam's second
republic.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1967 Oct, US Capt. John McCain,
bomber pilot, bailed out from his damaged plane and fell into Hanoi's
Truc Bach Lake. He was rescued by Main Van On of the People's Army of
Vietnam. McCain later became a US senator.
(SFC, 11/14/96, p.A11)
1967 Nov 5, US troops conquered
Loc Ninh South Vietnam.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1967 Nov 16, Haiphong shipyard in
North Vietnam was hit by U.S. planes for the first time.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1967 Nov 19, In Vietnam, the
Tiger Force, an elite US Army unit of the 101st Airborne Division,
achieved their 327th kill. The unit had killed hundreds of civilians in
Hanh Thien, a Central Highland area, over the last seven months. US
Army Lt. Col. Gerald Morse had called for 327 kills to match the name
of the 327th infantry regiment. In 2006 Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss
authored “Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War.” It was based on
secret documents from Henry Tufts (d.2002), former head of the Army’s
Criminal Investigations Command (CID).
(AP, 10/25/03)(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.M1)
1967 Nov 24, Cambodian triple
agent Inchin Lam was murdered. Special Forces Captain John J. McCarthy
was accused and later tried for the murder in a court in Vietnam.
Murder charges were later dropped.
(HN,11/24/98)(http://www.copvcia.com/Mac.htm)(www.geocities.com/larryjodaniel/17.html)
1967 Nov, a task force from the
4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, under Maj. Gilbert Dorland, fought a
fierce three-day battle at Hill 63 with the North Vietnamese Army's 2nd
Battalion, 3rd Regiment. Early in the battle, Dorland was thrown off
the APC he was riding on, and then run over by that same vehicle.
Because the ground was soft and mushy, Dorland was not crushed
instantly, but was injured severely and in great pain. Nonetheless, he
remained in command for almost another 24 hours. He later received the
Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism.
(HNQ, 2/4/02)
1967 Dec 8, In the biggest battle
yet in the Mekong Delta, 365 Vietcong were killed.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1967 Dec 12, The U.S. ended the
airlift of 6,500 men in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/12/98)
1967 Dec 20, Some 474,300 US
soldiers were stationed in Vietnam.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1967 Dec 23, US Navy SEALs were
ambushed during an operation southeast of Saigon.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1967 Norman Mailer (1923-2007),
American writer, authored “Why Are We in Vietnam.”
(SSFC, 11/11/07, p.A7)
1967 Thich Nhat Hanh was nominated
by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize. No winner was
selected in this year.
(SFC, 10/12/97, Z1 p.3)
1968 Jan 13, The U.S. reported
shifting most air targets from North Vietnam to Laos.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1968 Jan 14, US forces in Vietnam
launched Operation Niagara I to locate enemy units around the Marine
base at Khe Sanh.
{USA, Vietnam}
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1613)
1968 Jan 19, Cambodia charged that
the United States and South Vietnam have crossed the border and killed
three Cambodians.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1968 Jan 21, In Vietnam the Battle
of Khe Sahn began as North Vietnamese forces attacked a US Marine base;
the Americans were able to hold their position until the siege was
lifted 2 1/2 months later. It was the longest and bloodiest battle of
the Vietnam War. The Battle began at 0530 hours when North Vietnamese
Army forces hammered the Marine-occupied Khe Sanh Combat Base with
rocket, mortar, artillery, small arms, and automatic weapons fire.
Hundreds of 82-mm mortar rounds and 122-mm rockets slammed into the
combat base. Virtually all of the base's ammunition stock and a
substantial portion of the fuel supplies were destroyed.
(WSJ, 5/2/02, p.D7)(AP,
1/21/08)(www.vietnam-war.info/battles/siege_of_khe_sanh.php)
1968 Jan 29, A court convened in
Vietnam for the murder of Cambodian, triple agent Inchin Lam, by
Special Forces Captain John J. McCarthy Jr. Murder charges were later
dropped due to exculpatory evidence and proven prosecutorial fraud on
the court. A civil action for $1.3 billion in US Federal District
Court, Washington D.C. against the CIA and associated agencies was
dismissed in 2003.
(www.copvcia.com/Mac.htm)(http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id299.html)
1968 Jan 30, The Viet Cong and
North Vietnamese Communist forces launched a surprise offensive on the
lunar New Year Tet holiday truce that became known as the Tet
Offensive. They struck in a coordinated attack on 36 of South Vietnam’s
44 provincial capitals, and 70 other towns in the country. Although the
Communists were beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback
for the US and its allies.
(www.ashbrook.org/publicat/dialogue/hayward-tet.html)(SFC, 2/3/00,
p.A25)(AP, 1/30/08)
1968 Jan 31, In Vietnam, the Tet
Offensive continued as Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers attacked
strategic and civilian locations throughout South Vietnam. The Viet
Cong, under General Vo Nguyen Giap (b.1911), seized part of the US
embassy in Saigon for 6 hours. They attacked more than 100 cities in
South Vietnam with many US casualties. Although the Communists were
beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the US and
its allies. During the Tet Offensive, the Communist troops who took
control of the ancient capital of Hue killed an estimated 6,000
civilians before they again lost control of the city.
(www.vwam.com/vets/tet/tet.html)(SFC, 2/3/00,
p.A25)(AP, 1/30/08)
1968 Feb 1, US troops drove the
North Vietnamese out of Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon. South Vietnam
President Nguyen Van Thieu declared martial law. Saigon's police chief
Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the
head in a scene captured by Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams
and NBC News.
(HN, 2/1/99)(SFC, 7/16/98, p.B2)(AP, 2/1/08)
1968 Feb 5, US troops divided Viet
Cong at Hue while the Saigon government claimed they would arm loyal
citizens. The main assaults at Khe Sanh started.
(HN,
2/5/99)(http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Siege_of_Khe_Sanh/)
1968 Feb 7, North Vietnamese used
11 Soviet-built light tanks to overrun the US Special Forces camp at
Lang Vei at the end of an 18-hour long siege.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1968 Feb 8, Robert F. Kennedy said
that the US cannot win the Vietnam War.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1968 Feb 13, The US sent 10,500
more combat troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1968 Feb 18, Three US pilots, who
had been held by the Vietnamese, arrived in Washington. The Vietnamese
people later pressured Hanoi to account for their own 300,000 MIAs.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1968 Feb 18, Some 10,000 people in
West Berlin demonstrated against US in Vietnam War.
(www.dreamsville.net/?p=196)
1968 Feb 20, A Hue, South Vietnam,
army chief ordered all looters to be shot on sight.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1968 Feb 29, Robert McNamara
resigned as US Secretary of Defense as a result of the Tet disaster. He
was succeeded by Clark Clifford for 9 months who worked to reverse US
policy in Vietnam.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.A2)
1968 Mar 2, In Vietnam the siege
of Khe Sanh ended and the US Marines stationed there were still in
control of the mountain top. Gen. John J. Tolson presented a briefing
and laid out the concept of what became known as Operation Pegasus. The
siege of Khe Sanh was the longest and bloodiest battle of the Vietnam
War. During the siege Manny Babbit was wounded. Babbit in 1980 killed a
78-year-old woman in Sacramento, Ca., and was convicted and sentenced
to death. He was awarded his Purple Heart while on death row in 1998.
(HN,
3/2/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khe_Sanh)(SFC, 3/20/98,
p.A1)
1968 Mar 3, The Tet offensive at
Hue, South Vietnam, ended with the crushing of the last Viet Cong
resistance. North Vietnamese troops had captured the imperial palace in
Hue, South Vietnam. US troops reconquered Hue, Vietnam.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN,
2/24/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hue)
1968 Mar 7, The First Battle of
Saigon, begun on Jan 30 as part of the Tet Offensive, ended.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Saigon)
1968 Mar 9, General William
Westmoreland asked for 206,000 more troops in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1968 Mar 15, American intelligence
noted withdrawal of major NVA units from the Khe Sanh area.
(www.geocities.com/Pentagon/4867/timeline.html)
1968 Mar 16, LBJ decided to send
35-50,000 more troops to Vietnam.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1968 Mar 16, In Vietnam Lt. Calley
led 105 men of Company C into My Lai and at least 347 of 700 Vietnamese
civilians were killed. Estimates of villagers massacred ranged from
347-504. Other killings by B company occurred nearby. Col. Oran K.
Henderson (d.1998 at 77) was on his first day as commanding officer of
the new 11th Infantry Brigade and watched from a command helicopter.
Hugh Thompson (d.2006), a helicopter pilot, observed the end of the
massacre. He landed between some remaining villagers and his fellow
soldiers and ordered his gunner to fire on American troops if
necessary. With 2 other gunships he airlifted to safety a dozen
villagers. He and his gunner were awarded the Soldier's Medal in 1998.
The atrocity was exposed by Ron Ridenhour (d.1998 at 52), a door gunner
on an observation helicopter, who flew over the village a few days
after the event. He waited several months until he was out of the
service before reporting the event to state and congressional
officials. The Army later charged 25 officers and enlisted men in the
massacre but only Lt. Calley was convicted. Gen. Samuel W. Koster
(d.2006) was charged with covering up the killings, but criminal
charges were eventually dismissed. Koster was censured, stripped of a
medal and demoted one rank to brigadier general. John Sack (d.2004),
war correspondent, later authored "Lieutenant Calley: His Own Story."
In 1999 Trent Angers authored "The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh
Thompson Story."
(SFC, 3/5/98, p.A9)(SFC, 3/16/98, p.A8)(SFC,
5/11/98, p.A20)(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A23)(WSJ, 11/2/99, p.A24)(SFC, 3/31/04,
p.B7)(SFC, 1/6/06, p.B5) (SFC, 2/14/06, p.B7)(AP, 3/16/08)
1968 Mar 17, A peaceful
anti-Vietnam War protest in London was followed by a riot outside the
US Embassy; more than 80 people were reported injured. Some 20,000
people at the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign in London were mowed down by
police on horses as they marched.
(AP, 3/17/08)(SFC, 5/22/98,
p.C12)(www.springerlink.com/content/qg812p1147300117/)
1968 Mar 22, Gen'l. William
Westmoreland (1914-2005) was relieved of his duties in the wake of the
Tet disaster. Troop strength under Westmoreland had reached over
500,000 and he wanted more. He was succeeded by Gen'l. Creighton
Abrams. Abrams reversed Westmoreland's strategy. He ended major "search
and destroy" missions and focused on protecting population centers.
William Colby took charge of the pacification campaign. President
Lyndon B. Johnson named Gen. William C. Westmoreland to be the Army's
new Chief of Staff.
(HN, 3/22/97)(WSJ, 6/23/99, p.A24)(Econ, 7/30/05,
p.79)(AP, 3/22/08)
1968 Mar 31, Pres. Johnson
announced that he would not run for re-election and declared a partial
bombing halt in Vietnam. The stock market soared. Citing national
divisions over the war in Vietnam, Johnson declares that "I shall not
seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another
term as your president."
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(TMC, 1994, p.1968)(SFC, 8/18/96,
Z1 p.4)(AP, 3/31/97)
1968 Apr 1, In Vietnam the U.S.
Army launched Operation Pegasus to reopen a land route to the besieged
Khe Sanh Marine base.
(HN,
4/1/99)(www.geocities.com/Pentagon/4867/timeline.html)
1968 Apr 3, North Vietnam agreed
to meet with US representatives to set up preliminary peace talks.
(AP, 4/3/97)
1968 Apr 5, In Vietnam the siege
of Khe Sahn ended after 76 days.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1968 Apr 8, In Vietnam Khe Sanh
was officially relieved after 77 days by the US 2nd
Cavalry. U.S. forces in Operation Pegasus finally retook
Route 9, ending the siege of Khe Sanh. Khe Sanh had been the biggest
single battle of the Vietnam War to that point. The official assessment
of the North Vietnamese Army dead was just over 1,600 killed, with two
divisions all but annihilated. Thousands more were probably killed by
American bombing.
(www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html)
1968 Apr 10, President Johnson
replaced General Westmoreland with General Creighton Abrams in Vietnam
[see Mar 22].
(HN, 4/10/98)
1968 Apr 16, The Pentagon
announced the "Vietnamization" of the war; troops will begin coming
home.
(HN, 4/16/99)
1968 Apr 30, US Marines attacked a
division of North Vietnamese in the village of Dai Do.
(HN, 4/30/99)
1968 May 1, In a second day of
battle, US Marines, with the support of naval fire, continued their
attack on a North Vietnamese Division at Dai Do.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1968 May 2, The US Army attacked
Nhi Ha in South Vietnam and began a fourteen-day battle to wrestle it
away from Vietnamese Communists.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1968 May 3, After three days of
battle, the US Marines retook Dai Do complex in Vietnam, only to find
the North Vietnamese had evacuated the area.
(HN, 5/3/99)
1968 May 5, US Air Force planes
hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam, in support of attacking infantrymen.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1968 May 10, Preliminary Vietnam
peace talks began in Paris.
(AP, 5/10/97)
1968 May 13, Peace talks between
the US and North Vietnam began in Paris.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN, 5/13/98)
1968 May 15, US Marines relieved
army troops in Nhi Ha, South Vietnam, after a fourteen-day battle.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1968 Jun 7, In South Vietnam the
week long Operation Swift Saber began. US Marines swept an area 10
miles northwest of Danang.
(www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/histories/cv45-valleyforge/cv45-valleyforge.html)
1968 Aug 11, Eight US troops were
killed and 50 wounded when an Air Force F100 fighter accidentally
bombed a US unit near Ta Bat, northeast of Saigon. The fighter intended
on hitting Viet Cong who were located in front of the troops.
(www.project1968.com/august-11-17-1968.html)
1968 Sep 19, Marine Capt. Robert
A. Holt and Capt. John A. Lavoo were killed when their F-4B Phantom jet
crashed during combat a mission over Quang Binh Province. Their remains
were identified and returned to the US in 1999.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A9)
1968 Oct 4, Cambodia admitted that
the Viet Cong used their country for sanctuary.
(www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins200408180835.asp)
1968 Oct 8, US forces in Vietnam
launched Operation Sealord, an attack on North Vietnamese supply lines
and base areas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sealords)
1968 Oct 31, President Johnson
announced a halt to all US bombing of North Vietnam, effective the next
morning, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.
(www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/681031.asp)
1968 Nov 1, Lyndon B. Johnson's
halt to bombing in Vietnam went into effect at 8 AM, Washington time.
(www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/681031.asp)
1968 Nov 14, In the US "National
Turn in Your Draft Card Day" featured draft card burning as the Vietnam
death toll approached 30,000 and US troop strength in Vietnam reached
its peak of 550,000.
(www.answers.com/topic/1968)
1968 Dec 8, South Vietnam's vice
president Nguyen Cao Ky arrived in Paris for peace talks.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1968 The US military "Project
Urgency" returned some North Vietnamese prisoners with hidden
incriminating evidence, so they would appear as US agents.
(SFC, 11/5/99, p.D4)
1968-1970 Chuck Mawhinney, one of the United States
Marine Corps' most accomplished snipers, served a 13-month tour in
Vietnam and two six-month extensions. During that time he was credited
with 103 confirmed kills and 216 probables.
(HNQ, 12/16/02)
1969 Jan 1, President Nixon
nominated Henry Cabot Lodge as negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1969 Jan 5, Henry Cabot Lodge
replaced Harriman as chief US negotiator at Paris.
(www.bartleby.com/67/4271.html)
1969 Jan 25, US-North Vietnamese
peace talks began in Paris.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1969 Feb 23, Pres. Nixon approved
the bombing of Cambodia. [see Mar 18]
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1969 Feb 25, In Vietnam Navy Lt.
Bob Kerry (25) took part in a SEAL raid in the Mekong Delta where over
a dozen women, children and old men were killed in the village of Thanh
Phong. Kerry received a Bronze Star for the raid and later strongly
regretted his actions. Soon after the raid Kerry lost a leg at Hon Tam
Island and was later awarded a Congressional medal of Honor. In 2001
Kerry, former Gov. and Senator from Nebraska, made public his
participation in the raid. In 2001 Bui Thi Luom of Thanh Phong, the
only survivor from her hut of 16, said 20 people were killed "Only
civilians, women and children." Kerry described the event in his 2002
memoir "When I Was a Young Man." In 2002 Gregory L. Vistica authored:
"The Education of Lieutenant Kerry."
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/27/01, p.A3)(SSFC,
4/29/01, p.A12)(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/23/03, p.D14)
1969 Mar 13, In Vietnam Navy Lt.
John Kerry rescued Jim Rassman on the Bay Hap River while under Viet
Cong fire. In 2004 Kerry became the Democratic nominee for President.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A1)
1969 Mar 18, President Richard M.
Nixon authorized Operation Menu, the 'secret' bombing of Cambodia [see
Feb 23].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Menu)
1969 Apr 30, US troops in Vietnam
peaked at 543,000. Over 33,000 had already been killed.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1969 May 10, The Battle of
Hamburger Hill began and lasted to May 20. In Vietnam US military
strength peaked in this year with 550,000 men. Identified on American
battle maps as Hill 937 the battle for Hamburger Hill, actually Ap Bia
Mountain, which cost Americans 46 killed and 400 wounded, was one of
the most significant battles of the Vietnam War as it spelled the end
of major American ground combat operations. The ground gained in the
battle was soon abandoned to the North Vietnamese Army, which lost some
633 soldiers killed in the fight. The American losses at Hamburger
Hill, though not the most in one single action of the war, set off a
firestorm of protest in the US [see May 20].
(HFA, '96, p.30)(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A15)(HNQ,
4/4/99)(SFC, 4/27/00, p.A18)
1969 May 12, Viet Cong sappers
tried, unsuccessfully, to overrun Landing Zone Snoopy in Vietnam.
(HN, 5/12/99)
1969 May 14, Three companies of
the 101st Airborne Division failed to push North Vietnamese forces off
Hill 937 (Hamburger Hill) in South Vietnam.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1969 May 18, In Vietnam two
battalions of the 101st Airborne Division assaulted Hill 937 (Hamburger
Hill) but could not reach the top because of muddy conditions.
(HN, 5/18/00)
1969 May 20, U.S. troops of the
101st Airborne Division and South Vietnamese forces captured Ap Bia
Mountain, Hill 937, after nine days of fighting entrenched North
Vietnamese forces. Ap Bia was referred to as Hamburger Hill by the
Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
(HN, 5/20/02)(AP, 5/20/08)
1969 Jun 2, Australian aircraft
carrier Melbourne sliced the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half off
the shore of South Vietnam. 74 people were killed.
(HN, 6/2/98)(SC, 6/2/02)
1969 Jun 8, President Nixon met
with Nguyen Van Thieu, President of South Vietnam, and informed him
that US troop levels were going to be sharply reduced. During a joint
press conference with Thieu, Nixon announced a policy of
'Vietnamization' of the war and a reduction of US troops in Vietnam.
The first phase of 'Vietnamization' was to include the withdrawal of
25,000 American military personnel.
(www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A715042)(http://tinyurl.com/9n3vpd)
1969 Jul 7, The first U.S. troops
to withdraw from South Vietnam left Saigon.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1969 Jul 16, Vu Ngoc Nha (d.2002),
top aide to presidents Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen Van Thieu, was arrested
in Saigon. The CIA uncovered him as the head of a Communist espionage
ring. He and 2 others were convicted of treason and sentenced to
life in prison.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A20)
1969 Jul 25, The Nixon Doctrine
was put forth in a press conference in Guam, in which he stated that
the US henceforth expected its Asian allies to take care of their own
military defense [see Nov 3, 1969].
(http://thenewnixon.org/2008/07/24/25-july-1969-the-nixon-doctrine/)
1969 Aug 12, American
installations at Quan-Loi, Vietnam, came under Viet Cong attack.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1969 Aug 28, In Quang Nam province
Corporal Jose Francisco Jimenez died of wounds after leading an attack
that took out an antiaircraft weapon and an entrenchment of automatic
weapons fire.
(WSJ, 11/11/96, p.A14)
1969 Sep 2, North Vietnamese
president Ho Chi Minh died. The son of a poor scholar, Ho Chi Minh led
the nationalist movement of his country for three decades. Ho Chi Minh
became an active socialist while in France where he petitioned for
colonial reforms following World War I. His involvement with the
international communist movement continued into the 1920s, meeting and
working with communist leaders in Europe and the newly formed Soviet
Union. He formed the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and its
successor, the Viet-Minh, in 1941, going on to serve as president of
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death.
(AP,
9/2/97)(www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/hochiminh4.html)
1969 Sep 16, President Nixon
ordered the withdrawal of 35,000 soldiers from Vietnam and a reduces
the number required to be drafted.
(www.vfwpost7591.org/vietnam_war.htm)
1969 Oct 15, Peace demonstrators
staged activities across the US, including a candlelight march around
the White House, as part Vietnam Moratorium Day.
(AP, 10/15/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1969)
1969 Nov 3, Pres. Nixon elaborated
his Nixon Doctrine in a televised speech. He stated that the US
henceforth expected its Asian allies to take care of their own military
defense. At the end of the speech, Nixon asked for the support of the
"great silent majority" of Americans. This was the start of the
"Vietnamization" of the Vietnam War. The Doctrine argued for the
pursuit of peace through a partnership with American allies [see Jul
25, 1969].
(www.watergate.info/nixon/silent-majority-speech-1969.shtml)
1969 Nov 12, Free-lance reporter
Seymour Hersh first broke the story of the Mar 16, 1968, massacre at My
Lai. The US Army admitted to the massacre of civilians at My Lai and
announced an investigation of Lt William Calley. The number of
civilians who were killed numbered at least 100. Lt. Calley was later
found guilty of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment at hard
labor. Calley was the only person ever charged in connection with the
events at My Lai. The nation was shocked and divided by the claims from
Calley that he was following orders and that he was a scapegoat.
President Richard Nixon in 1971 ordered him released from prison and
placed under house arrest, and finally a federal judge threw out all
charges against Calley and ordered him freed. Although the charges were
later re-instated on appeal, he served no more jail time for the
massacre at My Lai.
(WSJ, 10/22/96,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre)(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.A19)
1969 Nov 24, Gen. William
Westmoreland assigned Lt. Gen. William R. Peers to investigate the My
Lai incident (March 16, 1968).
(www.choices.web.aplus.net/guidebooks/WAV/calley.pdf)
1969 David Halberstam (1934-2007),
American journalist, authored "The Best and the Brightest," a book
about the men who managed the US war in Vietnam.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A24)
1969 Tran Van Lam (d.2001 at 88)
became the foreign affairs minister. He was replaced in 1973 by Pres.
Thieu and went to the South Vietnamese Senate. He settled in Australia
after the fall of Saigon.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A26)
1969 At their peak in 1969, 68,889
combat troops from Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea,
Thailand and the Philippines fought alongside the US in Vietnam.
(HNQ, 4/14/00)
1969-1975 In 1998 the Library of Congress issued a
2-volume collection of American journalism from the Vietnam War,
"Reporting Vietnam." This period was covered in Vol. 2.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)
1970 Feb 21, Secret peace talks
were held between US Sec. of State Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of
North Vietnam.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1970 Feb 26, Five Marines were
arrested on charges of murdering 11 South Vietnamese women and
children.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1970 Mar 13, Cambodia ordered
Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to get out.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1970 Mar 17, The US Army charged
14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1970 Mar 31, The U.S. forces in
Vietnam downed a MIG-21, the first since September 1968.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1970 Apr 1, U.S. Army charged
Captain Ernest Medina in My Lai massacre.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1970 Apr 29, 50,000 US and South
Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia [see Apr 30].
(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.A19)(www.democraticcentral.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1972)
1970 Apr 30, President Nixon
announced the United States was sending troops into Cambodia, an action
that sparked widespread protest. Nixon widened the war to Cambodia and
protests increased. U.S. troops invaded Cambodia to disrupt North
Vietnamese Army base areas. U.S. President Richard Nixon announced to a
national TV audience American troop movements into Cambodia to attack
Communist border sanctuaries. Calling the joint U.S.-South Vietnamese
operation "indispensable," some 32,000 American and 48,000 South
Vietnamese troops captured large caches of supplies, but most Communist
forces had already been withdrawn. A storm of protest against expansion
of the war swept the United States and four days later four student
protesters at Ohio's Kent State University were shot dead by National
Guardsmen.
(AP, 4/30/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1970)(HN, 4/30/98)(HNQ,
5/3/98)
1970 May 4, A dispatch filed from
Saigon described looting by US soldiers at the Cambodian town of Snuol.
The mention of looting was removed by an editor in New York before the
story was transmitted to newspapers in the United States.
(AP, 7/11/07)
1970 May 8, Anti-war protests took
place across the United States and around the world. Construction
workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York City's Wall Street.
(AP, 5/8/07)
1970 May 20, Some 100,000 people
demonstrated in New York's Wall Street district in support of U.S.
policy in Vietnam and Cambodia.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)
1970 Jun 10, A fifteen-man group
of special forces troops began training for Operation Kingpin, a POW
rescue mission in North Vietnam. Almost flawless in execution, the
daring rescue raid at the Son Tay prison camp deep within North Vietnam
lacked only one essential ingredient--POWs. [see Nov 21]
(HN, 6/10/98)
1970 Jun 17, North Vietnamese
troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1970 Jun 22, In Vietnam surgeon
Dang Thuy Tram (27) died after refusing to surrender to US troops
during a skirmish. Officer Frederick Whitehurst retrieved her the
diaries from her gutted field hospital, and decided at his translator's
urging not to burn them. The work was translated and published in 2006.
(AP,
4/3/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dang_Thuy_Tram)
1970 Jun 24, The US Senate voted
overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. With fresh
evidence later available, claims that the Tonkin Gulf incident was
deliberately provoked gained new plausibility.
(HN, 6/24/98)(http://tinyurl.com/4x8keb)
1970 Sep 9, U.S. Marines launched
Operation Dubois Square, a 10-day search for North Vietnamese troops
near DaNang. Marine pilots in their diminutive Douglas A-4 Skyhawks
provided vital close air support for ground forces in Vietnam.
(HN, 9/9/98)
1970 Sep 11, In Laos the US
Operation Tailwind began with the objectives of reconnaissance,
intelligence collection, and a diversion for a larger operation to the
north. In 1998 it was reported that the secret raid called Operation
Tailwind by a Special Forces unit called the Studies and Observations
Group (SOG) used the nerve gas sarin in Laos to kill American armed
service members who had defected. A report in 1998 allegedly confirmed
that over 100 people were killed including up to 20 American military
defectors. Adm. Thomas Moorer (1912-2004), the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff at the time (1970-1974), confirmed in 1998 that nerve
gas was used. CNN and Time magazine later recanted the story due to
insufficient evidence.
(www.scarface-usmc.org/tailwind.htm)(SFC, 6/8/98,
p.A3)(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.W13)(SFC, 7/3/98, p.A1)(SFC, 2/7/04, p.A21)
1970 Oct 7, Pres. Nixon in a
televised speech proposed a cease-fire-in-place for Indochina and the
negotiated withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam.
(WSJ, 2/5/96,
p.A-19)(http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/keyevents/Nixon)
1970 Oct 12, President Richard
Nixon announced the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam
by Christmas.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1970 Nov 3, President Nixon
promised gradual troop removal from Vietnam.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1970 Nov 3, An Australian bomber
crashed in Vietnam near the Laos border. The bodies of Flying Officer
Michael Herbert (24) and navigator, Pilot Officer Robert Carver (24),
were listed as missing until their remains were discovered in 2009.
They were the last of Australia’s Vietnam era MIAs.
(AP, 7/30/09)
1970 Nov 21, US Army Special
Forces raided the Son Tay prison camp in North Vietnam but found no
prisoners. It would be later learned that the POWs had been relocated
to Dong Hoi, on July 14. The POWs were moved because the well in the
compound had dried up and the nearby Song Con River had begun to
overflow its banks. This flooding problem, not a security leak,
resulted in the prisoners being transported to Dong Hoi to a new prison
nicknamed "Camp Faith." US planes conduct widespread bombing raids in
North Vietnam.
(www.psywarrior.com/sontay.html)(HN, 11/21/99)
1970 Dec 24, Nine GIs were killed
and nine wounded by friendly fire in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1970 In Cambodia Prince Sihanouk
was toppled in a right-wing coup and he joined the Khmer Rouge in a
resistance war. The US and Vietnamese forces invaded and drove the Viet
Cong from border sanctuaries deep into Cambodia where they joined with
the weak and isolated Khmer Rouge. A full scale civil war began.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)
1970 In Laos the introduction of
Soviet-made long-range 130mm artillery pieces onto the battlefield
allowed the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese to neutralize to some
extent the Royal Lao Army's advantage of air superiority.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/lima/laos1962.htm)
1970 The US sent a 5-dolphin team
to Vietnam to guard the Army munitions pier at Cam Ranh Bay.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.D1)
1971 Jan 1, The United States
began a second decade of involvement in Vietnam.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1971 Jan 6, The 1964 Gulf of
Tonkin resolution, which amounted to a declaration of war against
Vietnam, was repealed by Congress. US Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon
and Ernest Gruening of Alaska share the distinction of casting the only
votes against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964. The
resolution supported President Lyndon Johnson's military actions
against North Vietnam in retaliation for its attack on a US spy ship in
the Tonkin Gulf. The resolution passed in the House 414-0 and the
Senate 88-2.
(www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1888.html)
1971 Feb 8, South Vietnamese
ground forces, backed by American air power, began Operation Lam Son
719, a 17,000 man incursion into Laos that ended three weeks later in a
disaster.
(HN,
2/8/98)(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1971-2/1971-02-08-ABC-2.html)
1971 Mar 8, Radio Hanoi broadcast
Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner."
(www.pugetsoundradio.com/forum/b-radiohistory/m-1204980808/)
1971 Mar 18, U.S. helicopters
airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1971 Mar 21, Two US platoons in
Vietnam refused their orders to advance.
(HN,
3/21/98)(www.isreview.org/issues/09/soldiers_revolt.shtml)
1971 Mar 21, In Laos South
Vietnamese Marines at FSB Delta, south of Route 9, came under intense
ground and artillery attacks. During an attempted extraction of the
force, seven helicopters were shot down and another 50 were damaged,
ending the evacuation attempt.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lam_Son_719)
1971 Mar 29, Army Lt. William L.
Calley Jr. (b.1943) was convicted of murdering at least 22 Vietnamese
civilians in the March 16, 1968, My Lai massacre. Calley ended up
spending three years under house arrest.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley)
1971 Mar 31, US Lt. William Calley
(b.1943) was sentenced to life for the My Lai Massacre.
(www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808937/posts)
1971 Apr 1, President Richard M.
Nixon ordered Lt. William Calley transferred from prison to house
arrest at Fort Benning, Georgia, pending appeal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley)
1971 Apr 7, President Nixon
pledged a withdrawal of 100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.
(HN, 4/7/97)
1971 Apr 15, North Vietnamese
troops ambushed a company of Delta Raiders from the 101st Airborne
Division near Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam. The American
troops were on a rescue mission.
(HN, 4/15/99)
1971 Apr 17, In Vietnam Lance
Corporal John Gillespie (24), an Australian army medic, died when his
helicopter crashed and caught ablaze after coming under fire during a
medical evacuation in the Minh Dam Mountains of southern Phuoc Tuy
province. His remains were returned to Australia in 2007.
(Reuters, 12/18/07)
1971 Jun, Vietnam War records were
given to the US National Archives for safe keeping by three former
defense analysts.
(SFEC, 12/8/96, p.A14)
1971 Jul 9, The United States
turned over complete responsibility of the Demilitarized Zone to South
Vietnamese units.
(HN, 7/9/98)
1971 Aug 20-1971 Aug 21, In
Vietnam heavy rains flooded the Red River delta and some 100,000 people
were killed.
(www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001440.html)
1971 Oct 11, Switzerland
established diplomatic relations with North Vietnam.
(www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/asia/vvnm/bilvie.html)
1971 Oct 31, Saigon began the
release of 1,938 Hanoi POW's.
(HN, 10/31/98)
1971 Nov 8, Gen'l. John D.
Lavelle, Seventh Air Force Commander in Vietnam, markedly increased the
number of bombing raids against North Vietnam. The raids lasted until
Mar 8, 1972, when he became the target of a congressional investigation.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, BR p.8)
1971 Nov 12, Pres. Nixon announced
that he would withdraw 45,000 more troops from Vietnam by Feb, 1972.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(HN, 11/12/98)
1971 Dec 18, North Vietnamese
troops captured the Plain of Jars in Laos. Throughout the Vietnam War,
the Plain of Jars was a contested area between Lao tribesmen and
Vietnam's communist allies, the Pathet Lao. The area was long
controlled by the Pathet Lao and a continual effort had been made by
the secret CIA-directed force of some 30,000 indigenous tribesmen to
strengthen anti-communist strongholds there. The US committed hundreds
of millions of dollars to the war effort in Laos. Details of this
secret operation were not released until August 1971.
(WUD, 1994, p.
1688)(www.arlingtoncemetery.net/aircrew-04191971.htm)
1971 Pres. Nguyen Van Thieu was
re-elected president of South Vietnam in a rigged election.
(SFC, 10/1/01, p.B2)
1971 Philip Jones Griffiths
(1936-2008, Welsh photographer, published "Vietnam Inc," a collection
of black-and-white photos from his 3 years there as a freelancer.
(SSFM, 4/20/03,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Jones_Griffiths)
1971 In 1998 Jerry Lembcke
authored "The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and Legacy of Vietnam that
reflected on this period.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, BR p.7)
1971 John Kerry testified before
the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and talked about hearing from
fellow veterans about war crimes and atrocities committed in Vietnam by
US forces.
(SFC, 9/11/04, p.A5)
1972 Jan 25, Pres. Nixon made
public the secret talks from May 31, 1971 that included a
cease-fire-in-place, US withdrawal, and the return of prisoners. He
made a revised offer with the concurrence of South Vietnam's Pres.
Thieu. Nixon aired the eight-point peace plan for Vietnam, asking for
POW release in return for withdrawal.
(WSJ, 2/5/96, p.A-19)(HN, 1/25/99)
1972 Feb 13, Enemy attacks, in
Vietnam, declined for the third day as the U.S. continued its intensive
bombing strategy. The F-105 Thunderchief or the "Thud" was the Air
Force's war-horse in Vietnam when it came to bombing campaigns.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1972 Feb 24, Hanoi negotiators
walked out of the peace talks in Paris to protest U.S. air raids on
North Vietnam.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1972 Mar 8, Gen'l. John D.
Lavelle, Seventh Air Force Commander in Vietnam, decreased the bombing
raids against North Vietnam when he became the target of a
congressional investigation.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, BR p.8)
1972 Mar 24, The U.S. announces a
boycott of the Paris peace talks as President Nixon accuses Hanoi of
refusing to "negotiate seriously."
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Mar 30, Hanoi launched its
heaviest attack in four years, crossing the DMZ in the Easter
offensive. 200,000 North Vietnamese soldiers under the command of
General Vo Nguyen Giap wage an all-out attempt to conquer South
Vietnam. The offensive is a tremendous gamble by Giap and is undertaken
as a result of US troop withdrawal, the strength of the anti-war
movement in America likely preventing a US retaliatory response, and
the poor performance of South Vietnam's Army during Operation Lam Son
719 in 1971. The Communist Easter invasion in South Vietnam was
defeated.
(WSJ, 10/5/98,
p.A21)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Apr 2, In response to the
North Vietnamese Easter Offensive, President Nixon authorized the US
7th Fleet to target NVA troops massed around the Demilitarized Zone
with air strikes and naval gunfire.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Apr 4, In further response to
the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive, US President Nixon authorized a
massive bombing campaign targeting all NVA troops invading South
Vietnam along with B-52 air strikes against North Vietnam. "The
bastards have never been bombed like they're going to be bombed this
time," Nixon privately declares.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Apr 6, Six US helicopter crew
members were killed in Vietnam during a heroic rescue attempt of Air
Force Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton (1918-2004), who had been shot down on
April 2. Five aircraft crews were shot down during the rescue attempts.
The 1988 film "Bat-21" was about their mission. Hambleton was rescued
on April 13.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.A3)(SFC, 5/29/03,
p.A19)(www.taskforceomegainc.org/g095.html)
1972 Apr 6, US Capt. John W.
Ripley (d.2008 at 69) helped stop a column of North Vietnamese tanks by
blowing up a pair of bridges at Dong Ha during the 1972 Easter
Offensive of the Vietnam War.
(http://kbc3337design.tripod.com/ripley.htm)
1972 May 1, South Vietnamese
abandoned Quang Tri City to the NVA.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 May 2, Camp Carroll was
officially surrendered to the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. This was
the first major victory for the North Vietnamese Army during the Nguyen
Hue Offensive. The Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary Government
immediately imposed their authority in the province, as collective
farms were set up and strict rules instilled by the Viet Cong were
forced on the villagers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Quang_Tri)
1972 May 8, In response to the
ongoing NVA Easter Offensive, President Nixon announced Operation
Linebacker I, the mining of North Vietnam's harbors along with
intensified bombing of roads, bridges, and oil facilities. The
announcement brought international condemnation of the US and ignited
more anti-war protests in America.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 May 10, US Navy pilot Duke
Cunningham shot down 3 North Vietnamese MiGs before finessing his badly
damaged and burning F-4 out of enemy territory and over safe waters
where he and his co-pilot could eject. In 2005 as a US Congressman from
San Diego, he pleaded guilty to bribery charges in defense deals.
(WSJ, 1/5/07, p.B10)
1972 May 11, US pilot First Lt.
Michael Joseph Blassie (b.1948) was shot down by anti-aircraft fire
after having logged 137 combat missions. His remains were entombed on
Memorial Day, 1984, at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington. In 1998
his remains were exhumed and identified by DNA testing.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.A2)(SFC, 6/30/98,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Blassie)
1972 Jun 1, Hanoi admits that the
US Operation Linebacker I is causing severe disruptions.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Jun 2, Pres. Nixon in
discussion with aide Charles Colson said: We want to decimate the
god-damned place… North Vietnam is going to get reordered… it's about
time. It's what should have been done years ago."
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A3)
1972 Jun 6, The US aircraft
carrier Coral Sea (CVA 43) launched three Marine A-6 Intruders and six
Navy A-7 Corsair attack planes toward the coast of North Vietnam.
Shortly afterward, the naval aircraft laid strings of thirty-six
1,000-pound Mark 52 mines in the water approaches to Haiphong, through
which most of North Vietnam's imported war material and all of its fuel
supply passed.
(www.history.navy.mil/wars/vietnam/minenorviet.htm)
1972 Jun 8, John Plummer,
helicopter pilot and operations officer in Vietnam, ordered the bombing
of the village of Trang Bang. He did not know that villagers had taken
refuge there. AP photographer Nick Ut took a photo of screaming
children struck by napalm that showed 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc
standing naked in agony. Alan Downes (1938-1996) filmed live TV footage
of 9-year-old Kim Phuc and other children as they fled down Highway One
in South Vietnam to escape a village under US napalm attack. On Nov 11,
1996 Plummer met with Phan Thi Kim at the Vietnam memorial in
Washington in reconciliation. It was later disclosed that the actual
pilot responsible was a South Vietnamese air force officer. In 2000
Denise Chong authored "The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc
and the Photograph That Changed the course of the Vietnam War."
(SFC, 10/11/96, p.A24)(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A3)(SFEC,
4/13/97, p.A1,12)(SFC,12/18/97, p.A3)(SFEC, 8/20/00, BR p.1)
1972 Jun 9, John Paul Vann,
American military adviser, was killed in a helicopter accident in South
Vietnam. He posthumously was awarded the highest American civilian
award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
(HNQ, 9/27/01)
1972 Jun 28, US Pres. Nixon
announced that no new draftees will be sent to Vietnam. South
Vietnamese troops began a counter-offensive to retake Quang Tri
Province, aided by US Navy gunfire and B-52 bombardments.
(HN,
6/28/98)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Jul 11, American forces broke
the 95-day siege at An Loc in Vietnam.
(HN, 7/11/98)
1972 Jul 14, The US State
Department criticized actress Jane Fonda for making antiwar radio
broadcasts in Hanoi, calling them "distressing."
(AP, 7/14/00)
1972 Jul, Actress Jane Fonda
traveled to North Vietnam and posed for a photograph with North
Vietnamese soldiers. This sealed her reputation as "Hanoi Jane." She
later regretted the photo.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.E5)
1972 Aug 12, As the last US ground
troops left Vietnam, B-52's made their largest strike of the war.
(HN, 8/12/98)(AP, 8/12/01)
1972 Aug 27, US bombed Haiphong,
North Vietnam.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1972 Sep 16, South Vietnamese
troops recaptured Quang Tri province in South Vietnam from the North
Vietnamese Army.
(HN,
9/16/98)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Oct 11, A French mission in
Vietnam was destroyed by a U.S. bombing raid.
(HN, 10/11/98)
1972 Oct 17, Peace talks between
Pathet Lao and Royal Lao government began in Vietnam.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1972 Oct 21, Henry Kissinger and
Le Duc Tho reached a cease-fire agreement. It was signed Jan 27, 1973.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1972 Oct 22, Operation Linebacker
I, the bombing of North Vietnam with B-52 bombers, ended. U.S.
warplanes flew 40,000 sorties and dropped over 125,000 tons of bombs
during the bombing campaign which effectively disrupted North Vietnam's
Easter Offensive. During the failed offensive, the North suffered an
estimated 100,000 military casualties and lost half its tanks and
artillery. Leader of the offensive, legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap,
the victor at Dien Bien Phu, was then quietly ousted in favor of his
deputy Gen. Van Tien Dung. 40,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died
stopping the offensive, in the heaviest fighting of the entire war.
(HN,
10/22/98)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Oct 24, Henry Kissinger in
secret unauthorized talks in Paris proposed to end the war in Vietnam
by this date, but was urged by Pres. Nixon to stretch the timing a few
months so as to insure re-election in Nov. A drama was made in 1995
depicting these events based on the book by Walter Isaacson:
“Kissinger: A Biography.” The peace agreement allowed North Vietnam to
keep its army in the South.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-20)(WSJ, 1/23/96, p.A-15)
1972 Oct 26, National security
adviser Henry Kissinger declared, "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam.
(AP, 10/26/97)
1972 Oct, Hanoi dropped all its
political demands for dismantling the South Vietnamese government.
(WSJ, 2/5/96, p.A-19)
1972 Nov 11, The US Army turned
over its base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese army, symbolizing
the end of direct US military involvement in the Vietnam War.
(AP, 11/11/97)
1972 Nov 30, American troop
withdrawal from Vietnam was completed, although 16,000 Army advisors
and administrators remained to assist South Vietnam's military forces.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Dec 11, In Paris peace
negotiations between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho collapsed after Kissinger
presented a list of 69 changes demanded by South Vietnamese President
Thieu. President Nixon now issues an ultimatum to North Vietnam that
serious negotiations must resume within 72 hours. Hanoi does not
respond. As a result Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II (see Dec
18), eleven days and nights of maximum force bombing against military
targets in Hanoi by B-52 bombers.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Dec 18, The heaviest bombing
of North Vietnam, under orders from US Pres. Nixon, began over Hanoi.
“Operation Linebacker II” lasted 11 days and killed over 1600 civilians
with 70 US airmen killed or captured. The bombardment ended 12 days
later. President Nixon declared that the bombing of North Vietnam would
continue until an accord was reached. In 2002 Marshall L. Michel III
authored “The 11 Days of Christmas,” an account of the B-52 bombings.
(SFC,12/16/97, p.B1)(AP, 12/18/97)(HN,
12/18/98)(WSJ, 1/22/02, p.A18)
1972 Dec 22, Bac Mai hospital was
bombed by American B-52s when they missed an air base on the outskirts
of Hanoi. 18 hospital workers and patients were killed.
(SFC,12/16/97, p.B1)
1972 Dec 24, Hanoi barred all
peace talks with the U.S. until the air raids stopped.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1972 Dec 26, In Vietnam the
bombing over Hanoi resumed after one day of respite and bombs hit a
residential street killing 283 civilians. North Vietnam agreed to
resume peace negotiations within five days of the end of bombing.
(SFC,12/16/97,
p.B1)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Dec 29, US Operation
Linebacker II ended what had been the most intensive bombing campaign
of the entire war with over 100,000 bombs dropped on Hanoi and
Haiphong. Fifteen of the 121 B-52s participating were shot down by the
North Vietnamese who fired 1200 SAMs. There were 1318 civilian deaths
from the bombing, according to Hanoi.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1972 Dec, An American commando
group planted a tap on a communications link at Vinh, north of the DMZ,
and later pulled details of the North Vietnamese positions at the Paris
peace talks.
(WSJ, 7/17/00, p.A33)
1972 Francis FitzGerald (b.1940)
authored "Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in
Vietnam." Her book won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.
{Books, Writer, USA, Vietnam}
(SFEC, 5/7/00, BR
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_FitzGerald)
1972 Six US helicopter crew
members were killed in Vietnam during a heroic rescue attempt of Air
Force Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton. The 1988 film "Bat-21" was about their
mission.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.A3)(SFC, 5/29/03, p.A19)
1972 The US mined Haiphong harbor.
(WSJ, 10/21/99, p.A20)
1973 Jan 2, The United States
admitted the accidental bombing of a Hanoi hospital.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1973 Jan 8, Secret peace talks
between the US and North Vietnam resumed near Paris.
(AP, 1/8/98)
1973 Jan 9, All remaining
differences were resolved between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho. President
Thieu, once again threatened by Nixon with a total cut-off of American
aid to South Vietnam, now unwillingly accepts the peace agreement,
which still allows North Vietnamese troops to remain in South Vietnam.
Thieu labels the terms "tantamount to surrender" for South Vietnam.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 Jan 15, President Nixon
announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam,
citing progress in peace negotiations.
(AP, 1/15/98)
1973 Jan 23, President Nixon
claimed that Vietnam peace had been reached in Paris and that the POWs
would be home in 60 days, claiming the agreement will "end the war and
bring peace with honor."
(AP,
1/23/98)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 Jan 27, The Paris Agreement
froze the status quo on the ground in South Vietnam. The agreement by
the United States and North Vietnam included a ban on infiltration of
arms or personnel to reinforce North Vietnamese troops in the South, as
well as a ban on the use of Laotian or Cambodian territory for that
purpose. The Paris Agreement provided for continued US supply of the
army of the Republic of Vietnam. Peace Accords were signed in Paris
over events in Vietnam.
(WSJ, 2/5/96, p.A-19)(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(HN,
1/27/99)
1973 Jan 27, Lt. Col. William B.
Nolde was killed, the last American soldier to die in combat in Vietnam.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 Jan 28, A cease-fire
officially went into effect in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War
resulted in the death of 58,153 (58,167) Americans, 1.1 million North
Vietnamese and Southern resistance fighters (Viet Cong), and 2 million
civilians. In 2001 Gerald Nicosia authored "Home to War: A History of
the Vietnam Veteran’s Movement."
(AP, 1/28/04)(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(SFEM, 11/10/96,
p.12)(SSFC, 6/3/01, DB p.68)
1973 Feb 5, Services were held at
Arlington National Cemetery for Army Lt. Col. William B. Nolde, the
last American soldier killed before the Vietnam cease-fire.
(AP, 2/5/04)
1973 Feb 12, Operation Homecoming
began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the
Vietnam conflict took place.
(AP,
2/12/08)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 Feb 14, The US and Hanoi set
up a group to channel reconstruction aid directly to Hanoi. In 1972 the
US had begun to "de-Americanize" the Vietnam war. It was a policy of
gradual withdrawal.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1973 Mar 14, John McCain, later US
Senator, was released as a POW in Vietnam.
(SSFC, 2/12/06, Par p.12)
1973 Mar 17, First POWs were
released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1973 Mar 30, Ellsworth Bunker
resigned as US ambassador to South Vietnam. He was succeeded by Graham
A. Martin.
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/98)
1973 Apr 1, Captain Robert White,
the last known American POW in Vietnam, was released.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 Apr 12, Viet Nam and France
officially established diplomatic relations.
(www.mofa.gov.vn/en/nr040807104143/nr040807105001/ns050606140016)
1973 Jun 19, The US Congress
passed the Case-Church Amendment which forbade any further US military
involvement in Southeast Asia, effective August 15, 1973. The
veto-proof vote was 278-124 in the House and 64-26 in the Senate. The
Amendment paved the way for North Vietnam to wage yet another invasion
of the South, this time without fear of US bombing.
(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 Oct 16, Henry Kissinger, US
Secretary of State (1973-77), and Le Duc Tho were named winners of the
Nobel Peace Prize; however, the Vietnamese official declined the award.
(AP,
10/16/98)(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1973/press.html)
1973 Nov 7, Partly in response to
the Vietnam debacle, the US Congress passed the War Powers Resolution
requiring the President to obtain the support of Congress within 90
days of sending American troops abroad. Congress overrode President
Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limited a chief executive's
power to wage war without congressional approval. The act allowed
Congress to bring troops home within 60 days unless deployment was
approved or war was declared.
(AP,
11/7/98)(www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html)
1973 The Vietnam War (1959-1973)
resulted in the death of 58,153 (58,167) Americans, 1.1 [1.2] million
North Vietnamese and Southern resistance fighters (Viet cong), and 2
million civilians. In 2002 the book "War Torn: Stories of War From the
Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam" was published. The reporters
included Tad Bartimus, Denby Fawcett, Jurate Kazickas, Edie Lederer,
Ann Moriano, Anne Merrick, Laura Palmer, Kate Webb, and Tracy Wood.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)(SFEM, 11/10/96, p.12)(SFC,
10/3/97, p.B14)(SSFC, 9/1/02, p.M3)
1973 US military drug problems
peaked this year. An estimated 34 percent of American soldiers in
Vietnam had commonly used heroin.
(HNQ, 12/9/02)
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