VIETNAM TIMELINE

1963

• November 1, the communist leader Diem of Vietnam was assassinated.
• November 2, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is executed during a coup.
• November 22, JFK was assassinated, so LBJ became the president.

1964

• August 1, the Maddox missed getting hit by a torpedo and destroyed the enemy ship off the coast of North Vietnam.
• August 2 and 4, North Vietnamese attack two U.S. destroyers sitting in international waters (the Gulf of Tonkin Incident).
• August 7, In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

1965

• The first major combat Unit came into Vietnam.
• March 8, The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam.

1968

• January 30, The North Vietnamese join forces with the Viet Cong to launch the Tet Offensive, attacking the South Vietnamese cities and towns.
• March 16, U.S. soldiers kill hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the town of Mai Lai.
• This was the fault of General William Westmoreland, and was charged in July.

Continue of 1968

• December, The U.S. Solider count has reached up to 540,000
• November, Richard Nixon is elected president is promises to end the war, and later fails hardcore.