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America Enters the War
USS Maddox is allegedly attacked by Vietnam patrol torpedo boats. -
The Alleged Second Attack
The USS Maddox was believed to be attacked two days later after the first attack. This led President Lyndon B. Johnson to send the first set of attacks on Vietnam territory. -
Operation Flaming Dart
President Johnson orders the bombing of targets in North Vietnam in Operation Flaming Dart in retaliation for a Viet Cong raid at the U.S. base in the city of Pleiku and at a nearby helicopter base at Camp Holloway. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Thunder was code name a series of bombings in Vietnam. -
More and More Troops Enter the Fight
President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 50,000 more troops to enter the war in Vietnam. Also increasing the draft to 35,000 a month. -
Operation Starlite
In Operation Starlite, some 5,500 U.S. Marines strike against the First Viet Cong Regiment in the first major ground offensive by U.S. forces in Vietnam. The six-day operation diffuses the Viet Cong regiment, although it would quickly rebuild. -
The United States Attacks Hanoi and Haiphong
American aircraft attack targets in Hanoi and Haiphong in raids that are among the first such attacks on cities in North Vietnam. -
The Battle of Dak To
In the Battle of Dak To, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces resist an offensive by communist forces in the Central Highlands. The United States forces suffer some 1,800 casualties. -
President Richard M. Nixon is Elected
President Richard M. Nixon promised to get the United States out of Vietnam to end the war, but surprisingly extends the war out to Thailand and Cambodia. -
Troops slowly start to Depart from Vietnam
The Nixon administration gradually reduces the number of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, placing more burden on the ground forces of South Vietnamese ARVN as part of a strategy known as Vietnamization. U.S. troops in Vietnam are reduced from a peak of 549,000 in 1969 to 69,000 in 1972.
