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Viet Minh Founded
The league for the independence of Vietnam is founded. The viet minh is a national independence coalition. -
Viet Minh Leaves South
This British land in Saigon to disarm the Japanese and to restore French control south of the 17th parallel and after fighting the Viet Minh withdraws -
Ho Chi Minh Asks Us support
Ho Chi Minh pens a letter to Presdient Harry S. Truman asking him for the support of the United States in gaining independence for Vietnam -
First Indochina War
The Viet Minh attacks French forces occupying Hanoi in northern Vietnam -
China recognizes Vietnam
The People's Republic of China, now a Communist state, recognizes Ho Chi Minh's government -
French Surrender
The French surrender to the Viet Minh. The Geneva Conference on the status of Indochina begins. -
Kennedy elected
Democrat John F. Kennedy defeats Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon to become the 35th president of the United States. -
Kennedy assisinated
While riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumes the presidency. -
Diem overthrown
South Vietnamese General Duong Van Minh overthrows the Diem regime, and the following day he orders the execution of Diem and his brother. -
Vietnamization
The number of U.S. troops in Vietnam peaks at 543,000. President Richard Nixon announces his plan for "Vietnamization" of the war—that is, training and transitioning South Vietnamese troops to assume the roles that have been fulfilled by American troops—and promises to withdraw 25,000 American soldiers. -
Ho Chi Minh dies
At the age of 79, six years before his armies seize Saigon, Ho Chi Minh dies. Rather than cremate his body, as Minh had specified in his will, Minh's family has the leader embalmed and put on display in a mausoleum. -
Saigon falls
The North Vietnamese take Saigon; the war in Vietnam ends.
