Vietnam Timeline

Flowchart nodes

• 1954 Defeat at Dien Bien Phu leads to French withdrawal from Vietnam.

• 1956 Ngo Dinh Diem refuses to hold elections.

• 1959 Ho Chi Minh begins sending troops and weapons into the South.

• 1961 Involvement increases under Kennedy.

• 1963 Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk sets fire to himself in Saigon.

• 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

• 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder commences.

• 1965 Major increase in US troop numbers in Vietnam.

• 1968 Battle for Khe Sanh and Tet Offensive.

• 1968 My Lai Massacre.

• 1969 US opens secret peace talks with North Vietnam.

• 1970 US and South Vietnamese forces briefly invade Cambodia.

• 1971 US and South Vietnamese forces attack Laos.

• 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive.

• 1972 US launch operation Linebacker

• 1972 Formal peace talks commence.

• 1973 Paris Peace Accords

• 1975 Saigon falls to the North Vietnamese Army.