Vietnam War

Timeline

7 May 1954

France's ass kicked at Dien Bien Phu.

8 Jul 1959

First American combat death.

22 Mar 1962

The Strategic Hamlet Program commences with Operation Sunrise.

31 May 1963

Buddhist monk Nun Nu Thanh Quang immolates himself at the Dieu de Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam.

11 Jun 1963

Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc immolates himself in downtown Saigon.

16 Aug 1963

A Buddhist monk immolates himself in Phanthiet, Vietnam.

1 Nov 1963

President of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Deim, assassinated.

2 Aug 1964

Gulf of Tonkin incident, wherein the U.S.S. Maddox is "attacked".

Oct 1964

Red China, Vietnam's principal ally, successfully detonates an atomic bomb.

21 Oct 1964

"We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves." President Lyndon B. Johnson.

10 Feb 1965

The Qui Nonh Hotel is destroyed by a VC bomb, killing 23 Americans.

May 1966

Buddhist nun Thich Nu Thanh Quang immolates herself at the Dieu de Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam.

16 Mar 1968

My Lai Massacre.

30 Jan 1968

Tet Offensive. While technically a loss for the North Vietnamese, it caught the Americans off-guard, and the tide of American public opinion begins to change.

29 Feb 1968

Robert McNamara resigns as Secretary of Defense, apparently deciding the Vietnam War was unwinnable.

4 Nov 1968

"Let me give you the promise of the future... Prosperity without war, progress without inflation." Nixon.

22 Jan 1969

Richard M. Nixon takes office.

Feb 1969

Nixon authorizes the secret bombing of Cambodia. Don't tell anyone. It's a secret.

3 Sep 1969

Ho Chi Minh dead of natural causes.

29 Apr 1970

South Vietnamese Army invades Cambodia. Three U.S. divisions follow 48 hours later.

4 May 1970

Kent State Massacre, in which National Guardsmen open fire on American college students, killing four.

9 Dec 1970

President Richard M. Nixon orders more illegal bombing in Cambodia. "I want them to hit everything. I want them to use the big planes, the small planes, everything they can that will help out there[...] Right now there is a chance to win this goddamn war, and that's probably what we are going to have to do because we are not going to do anything at the conference table."

21 Feb 1972

Only Nixon could go to China. Vulcan proverb.

22 Jan 1973

Ex-President Lyndon B. Johnson dies of a heart attack.

27 Jan 1973

Cease fire signed in Paris.

Nov 1973

War Powers act passed by Congress.

10 Dec 1973

Henry Kissinger accepts the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord. The irony of that particular individual accepting that particular award cannot be understated.

9 Aug 1974

Nixon resigns the presidency. Gerald Ford assumes office. [Allowing Nelson Rockefeller to become vice-president. And if the stupid bastard hadn’t died of a heart attack while screwing his mistress, he may have become president.]

 

American History teachers: PLEASE TEACH THE REAL HISTORY OF AMERICA. Do something right before the blade falls.

29 Apr 1975

Final evacuation of Saigon.

18 Jul 1984

James Oliver Huberty opens fire at a San Ysidro McDonald's, leaving 20 dead and 16 wounded. He held off police for an hour, sometimes taking time to finish off victims already wounded. A witness reported Huberty, a recently dismissed security guard, as saying that he'd "killed many people in Vietnam and wanted to kill more."

 

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