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1950s 1960s 1970s1940s

Overview of the Vietnam War

Vietnam, led by the Vietminh, defeated the French. The Geneva

Accords granted Indochina independence and temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel. President Eisenhower was worried about the domino theory happening in South-East Asia.

The South was also under threat from the

Vietcong, a communist opposition group. The policies of the USA and the South were ineffective, so Diem was removed in a 1963 coup. The USA increased its involvement, but it would not commit troops.

After a US naval destroyer, the USS Maddox, was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964,

President Johnson passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This permitted the USA to massively escalate its involvement in the war, sending in planes and combat troops.

Despite the USA leading the war effort, due to the nature of guerrilla warfare, it was becoming a stalemate. The Tet

Offensive, a surprise attack by the North in 1968, was a turning point as US public opinion began to turn against the war.

Peace talks began in 1968

and the general withdrawal of US troops began in 1969. The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 ended direct US involvement in the war. Congress also acted to limit the ability of the president to conduct war.

Ho Chi Minh was a fierce Vietnamese

nationalist and a communist. He led the nation against the Japanese in World War II. Afterwards he fought against French colonial control in the First Indochina War, starting in 1946.

1946Ngo Dinh Diem became president

of South Vietnam in 1955. The USA supported him because he was anti-communist. When he cancelled the reunification elections, the Second Indochina War began. The USA sent in many military advisors.

1955

1964

1973

1954 19631968