Chapter 20 Timeline (20 min)

  • Nazi Germany takes control of France

    Nazi Germany takes control of France
  • Japan is defeated by the Allies in World War ll

    Japan is defeated by the Allies in World War ll
    Leaving a power vacuum in Indochina
  • The French install former emperor Bao Dai as head of state in Vietnam

    The French install former emperor Bao Dai as head of state in Vietnam
  • Viet Minh troops under General Vo Nguyen Giap

    Overran the French base at Dien Bien Phu
  • The Geneva Accords effectively divide Vietnam in two at the 17th parallel

  • Beginning of Communist insurgency in the South

  • American aid to Diem increased

  • John Kennedy beats Richard Nixon in the U.S. presidential election

    John Kennedy beats Richard Nixon in the U.S. presidential election
    Lyndon Johnson was vice president
  • President Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu are murdered during a coup by dissident generals of the South Vietnamese army

    President Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu are murdered during a coup by dissident generals of the South Vietnamese army
  • Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated

    He was assassinated by his own generals, carried out with the tacit support of the U.S. officials.
  • John F. Kennedy was assassinated

    John F. Kennedy was assassinated
  • First Marines land in Danang

  • A program for the pacification and long-term development of Vietnam (PROVN)

    PROVN is a study commissioned by the U.S. Army chief of staff. Its findings suggest that the strategy of attrition being pursued by U.S. commander, it recommends that more U.S. effort should be directed at ensuring the security and stability of South Vietnam's rural.
  • Hundreds of thousands of antiwar protesters gather for demonstrations in New York’s Central Park and in Washington

  • North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops launch surprise attacks against targets throughout South Vietnam

    North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops launch surprise attacks against targets throughout South Vietnam
  • The U.S Army troops as many as 500 unarmed villagers

    Groups of women, children. and elderly men are shot at close range.
  • Nixon is elected president

    Nixon is elected president
    Promised to end the war in Vietnam.
  • Nixon goes on television to call for national solidarity on the Vietnam War effort, appealing to a “silent majority” to support his policies

  • Four days after Nixon announced the expansion of the war into Cambodia, four students at Kent State are shot by National Guardsmen during a protest

  • Cease-fire agreement is reached between U.S. and North Vietnam, U.S. POWs begin to return home

  • Nixon leaves office

  • The American Radio Service network begins to broadcast the prerecorded message

    "105 degrees and rising"