1945-75: Vietnam's Path to Independence

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When North Vietnam's tanks smashed through the gates of Saigon's presidential palace 40 years ago, it heralded the end of nearly two decades of war, a humiliating defeat for the United States and reunification with the South.

Here is a timeline of events in the lead-up to the Vietnam War and the taking of Saigon by Northern forces.

 

1945

September 2: Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh declares the country's independence from France. Paraphrasing the U.S. Declaration of Independence he states: "All men are born equal."

 

1954

May 7: Vietnamese forces overrun a French base at Dien Bien Phu after a 55-day battle that costs the lives of some 3,000 French troops and 8,000 Viet Minh.

July 21: The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with communists in control of the North and a U.S.-backed government in the South. Elections are supposed to be held but never materialise.

Throughout the late 1950s an insurgency rages in the South. Viet Cong guerrillas are backed by the North, while the South is increasingly bolstered by U.S. military advisors.

 

1964

August 2: North Vietnamese patrol boats fire at the U.S. destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, and a second disputed attack is reported two days later.

August 7: Congress passes the Southeast Asia Resolution, commonly known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson power to escalate U.S. military operations in southeast Asia.

 

1965

April 7: The U.S. offers North Vietnam aid in exchange for peace, but is rebuffed. Johnson then raises U.S. troops levels in South Vietnam to more than 60,000. By the end of 1966 U.S. forces in the country number 385,000.

 

1968

January 30: Viet Cong units across South Vietnam launch the Tet offensive. It is a tactical disaster, almost wiping out the guerrilla group's ability to fight, but it also deals a fatal blow to support for the war in the U.S.

 

March 16: U.S. Army soldiers massacre hundreds of villagers in My Lai. The crime comes to light a year later shocking the American public. Only one officer is convicted of 22 murders and sentenced to life in prison. He is placed under house arrest and released in 1974.

 

1971

October: U.S. forces stop spraying Agent Orange, a defoliant that contains the toxic chemical Dioxin. Vietnamese officials say that up to three million people were exposed to the substance, causing birth defects in at least 150,000 children.

 

1972

December 13: Peace talks in Paris between the North Vietnamese and U.S. representatives break down. President Richard Nixon orders a 12-day bombing campaign, Operation Linebacker II, that targets Hanoi and Haiphong.

 

1973

January 27: The Paris Peace Accord is signed. U.S. forces withdraw from South Vietnam by the end of March, having lost around 58,000 lives.

 

1975

April 30: The North Vietnamese seize Saigon a day after the U.S. frantically evacuates more than 1,000 of its citizens and almost 7,000 Vietnamese. Many more allies are left behind. The war is over.

 

1976

July 2: North and South Vietnam are officially reunited, and Saigon is renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

Comments 1
Thumb Mystic 01 May 2015, 19:51

Great time for the vietnamnese people, they managed to win against the military might of the USA.