Chronography of Vietnam
Page last
modified 19 August 2023
For events of World War Two in Pacific,
S E Asia, see China-Japan-Korea
For other South East Asian countries click here
Box Index,
9.0, Vietnamese �boat people� crisis
1981-91
8.0, Vietnam-Cambodia conflict 1977-88
7.0, Final surrender of South Vietnam to
the North, 1975-76
6.0, North Vietnam overruns the South 1973-75
5.0, USA completes withdrawal from South
Vietnam 1969-73
4.0, Deeper US involvement in Vietnam
War 1965-68
3.0, Major escalation of US involvement in
Vietnam 1962-65
2,0, Vietnam divided into North and
South 1954-60
1,0, Fight against Vietnamese
Communists. France pulls out, USA escalates the conflict 1950-54
0.0, Vietnam gains independence from
France, 1945-49
2007, Vietnam joined the World
Trade Organisation.
7 November 2006, Vietnam, nominally still one of the world�s
last 5 Communist countries (the other 4 being China, Cuba, Laos and North
Korea) was accepted into the World Trade Organisation, as its capitalist
economy boomed.
1997, Tran Duc Luong was elected
President; Phan
Van Kai was elected Prime Minister.
11 July 1995. The USA resumed
full diplomatic relations with Vietnam;
Vietnam joined ASEAN. In 2000 Bill Clinton became the first US President to
visit Vietnam since the Vietnam War.
16 January 1994, Canadian
rock musician Bryan
Adams performed in front of 2,500 people in Ho Chi Minh City. He was
the first Western entertainer to perform in Vietnam since the end of the
Vietnam War, 1975.
1992, Vietnam began to allow foreign investment, but remained
under Communist rule.
9.0, Vietnamese �boat people� crisis 1981-91
8 November 1991. Hong Kong
began to repatriate its Vietnamese boat
people.
29 December 1989, Riots in
Hong Kong after forcible repatriation of Vietnamese boat people began.
13 December 1989� Hong Kong began to forcibly
repatriate Vietnamese boat people by plane.
27 July 1989, More
�boat people� were arriving in Hong Kong, hoping to reach California.
26 July 1982. The West German
rescue ship, Cape Anamur, entered its home port of Hamburg with 285 Vietnamese
boat people who were fleeing the
Communist regime which took over South Vietnam after the withdrawal of the
USA. Boat people faced a perilous journey even before they tried to find
asylum, facing dangers such as rape, robbery, murder, and abduction on the seas
from pirates.
28 February 1981, In the
first 8 weeks of 1981, 451 Vietnamese
boat people arrived in Hong Kong,
twice as many as in the same period in 1980.�
In nearby Macao, 240
Vietnamese refugees were arriving every day.�
Many were moving on from China,
which had taken 250,000 Vietnamese since 1979.�
The Hong Kong government asked the Chinese to step up naval surveillance
along the Chinese coast.
8.0, Vietnam-Cambodia conflict
1977-88
26 June 1988. Vietnam
said its troops would withdraw from Kampuchea, formerly Cambodia.
14 March 1988, Three days of conflict
between China and Vietnam began over the disputed Spratly Islands.
1986, Death of Le Duan. The Doi Moi policy reforms
began in Vietnam, instigated by Nguyen Van Linh.
18 April
1979, China and Vietnam held talks on issues
raised by Vietnam�s invasion of Cambodia and China�s subsequent invasion of
Vietnam. The talks ended in deadlock for now.
16 March 1979, Vietnam
fought a brief nine-day war with China. The Chinese withdrew this day.
3 March 1979, Chinese
forces in Vietnam took Lang Son.
25 December 1978, Vietnam
launched a major offensive against the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.
1 October 1978 �Vietnam attacked Cambodia.
31 December 1977, Cambodia broke off diplomatic relations
with Vietnam, and suspended air services between them. Fighting between the
two countries had erupted in the Parrot�s Beak area, where Cambodia juts out
into (South) Vietnam. The Chinese-backed
Cambodian regime accused Vietnam of not being sufficiently �revolutionary�.
Troubles began when many Cambodians moved across the border into the Mekong
Delta area, after Saigon fell and before North Vietnam had fully established
control of the area.
7.0, Final
surrender of South Vietnam to the North, 1975-76
2 July 1976. North
and South Vietnam were reunited to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
24 June 1976, At a government conference
in Hanoi, the unification of North and South Vietnam was approved, as the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, see 30 April�
1975.
29 April�
1975.
A US
helicopter evacuated Americans and a few lucky Vietnamese from the roof of the
US Embassy in Saigon to a nearby US
warship a day before Saigon fell to the Vietcong. The picture of the
helicopter evacuation became an iconic
symbol of US humiliation in Vietnam. In the US Embassy, some Vietnamese women quickly
�married� Americans in order to gain a place in the evacuation; the marriage
ceremony was rather brief, �Do you? I do�. Conditions in the embassy corridors
quickly deteriorated as the air conditioning broke down. In all, 1,373
Americans, 5,595 South Vietnamese and 85 other nationals were evacuated in the
last days of the war.
25 April�
1975,
The Australian Embassy in Saigon, South
Vietnam, shut as North Vietnamese forces closed in.
23 April�
1975,
US President Ford announced that US involvement
in Vietnam was to end. US forces began the final evacuation of personnel from
Saigon by aeroplane, see 28 and 29 April�
1973.
21 April� 1975, President
Thieu of South
Vietnam, aware that the North would never negotiate with him, resigned in a
last ditch attempt to find an agreement by appointing a new leader in his
place. Thieu
escaped to Taipei with 3.5 tons of gold. General Duong Van Minh became leader in his
place.
20 April� 1975, South Vietnamese forces were now driven back to Long Binh
and Bien Hoa airbases, just 12 miles from Saigon. Saigon was now surrounded by
15 divisions, and defended by just four.
6.0, North Vietnam overruns the South 1973-75
6 April� 1975, A plane carrying 99 Vietnamese orphans landed at Heathrow
Airport, London.
4 April� 1975, A Galaxy transport plane carrying 243 Vietnamese orphans
from Saigon to the US crashed shortly after take-off, killing over 200 children
and 44 adults.
30 March 1975. North Vietnamese forces captured the port of Da Nang. Ships attempted to rescue over 1 million refugees.
25 March 1975. In South Vietnam, Hue fell to the North.
20 March 1975, In
Vietnam, Communist forces overran Da Nang,
19 March 1975, In
South Vietnam, Quang Tri Province
fell to the North, leaving the provincial capital of Hue exposed.
7 January 1975, North Vietnamese forces captured the
southern province of Phuoc Long (see 29 March 1973) and were now just 75 miles from
Saigon. There was no reaction from the US. On 10 March 1975 North Vietnam
captured the strategic town of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. Within
four days South Vietnam decided to
abandon the entire Central Highlands to concentrate on the defence of Saigon.
This strategic withdrawal became a rout, with hundreds of thousands of civilians,
and fleeing soldiers, clogging the roads as the Communists advanced. By 1
April� 1975 half of South Vietnam was
occupied by the North and the South Vietnamese army was disintegrating. US
Congress had no intention of further aid to the South; they did not even intend
to organise an evacuation of US citizens and pro-US Vietnamese, instead hoping
to persuade the North to stop short of total conquest and accept a coalition
government in Saigon.� President Thieu
of South Vietnam resigned on 28 April� 1975
and was replaced by the neutralist General Duong Van Minh. By then North
Vietnamese forces were in the suburbs of Saigon. A few fortunate personnel were
evacuated from the roof of the US Embassy by helicopter (see 29 April� 1975).�
However in the last-minute chaos nobody thought to destroy the records
of South Vietnamese who had supported the US. On 30 April� 1975 a North Vietnamese tank crashed through
the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon and a soldier raised the North
Vietnamese flag. Then the event was repeated for the benefit of TV cameras who
had missed the original. Meanwhile in Cambodia the Khmer Rouge had entered
Phnom Penh and begub deporting hundreds of thousands of its population to the
killing fields. The defeat of the US was
total and complete.
For
more events of Vietnam War see USA
22 December 1974, The North Vietnamese General Van Tra, to prove that the South
Vietnamese Army was on the point of collapse, made a ferocious attack on Don Luan. The town fell within four
days, enabling the North to push on southwards towards Phuoc Long province.
24 May 1974, Fierce fighting in Vietnam, just 50 km from Saigon.
5.0, USA completes withdrawal from South
Vietnam 1969-73
29 March 1973, US pulled its last troops out of
South Vietnam. The quadrupling of oil prices by OPEC
worsened the finances of the USA. Nixon was
in trouble with Watergate and Congress reasserted its power over US foreign
policy. The War Powers Resolution of November 1973 removed the President�s
power to make war without prior Congressional approval, nullifying Nixon�s
promise to send troops to support South Vietnam if the Communists threatened
again. In 1974 Congress slashed the budget for the war in Vietnam. US influence
also declined in Cambodia, where extensive bombing had disrupted society and
promoted the growth of the Communist Khmer
Rouge, backed by Prince Sihanouk. Many Cambodians regarded Sihanouk
as their legitimate leader, and by 1974 Sihanouk�s US-backed replacement, General Lon Nol,
controlled just one third of Cambodia. In Laos an extensive bombing campaign to
destroy the Ho Chi Minh trail, a network of routes used to supply the Communist
Vietcong, simply resulted in the strengthening of the Pathet Lao, the Laotian
Communists. Throughout 1974 the North Vietnamese quietly built up strength in
the border regions of South Vietnam, and on 7 January 1975 they captured the
South Vietnamese province of Phuoc Long.
15 March 1973, The
last American
PoWs from the Vietnam War were released by the North Vietnamese.
27 January 1973. The war in Vietnam ended, as President Nixon signed the ceasefire agreement in
Paris. One million combatants had been killed. The last US troops left Vietnam
on 29 March 1972. However fighting
later continued between North and South Vietnam, see 30 April� 1975.
7 September 1972, South Korea withdrew the
37,000 troops it had in South Vietnam.
15 June 1972, Soviet President Podgorny began a 4-day
visit to North Vietnam.
19 May 1972, In Beijing, China, the USDSR and North
Vietnam discussed how to combat the US which was now mining North Vietnamese
ports.
8 May 1972, President Nixon ordered a blockade and mining
of North Vietnamese ports.
1 May 1972, Quang Tri fell to the North Vietnamese
(retaken by South Vietnam, 15 September 1972).
30 March 1972, North Vietnam launched a major attack on the South. On 15 April�
1972 the US made heavy bombing raids on North Vietnam. North Vietnam abandoned
guerrilla tactics and launched a major conventional invasion, with tanks and
heavy artillery. The South Vietnamese city of Quang Tri fell on 1 May 1972 and
South Vietnam seemed to have lost the war. However the US responded with massive air power
and smart bombs. North Vietnamese forces
were driven back to the dividing line and Hanoi proposed peace talks in October
1972. Under domestic pressure to end US involvement in Vietnam, Nixon could not refuse this offer.
29 February 1972, South Korea withdrew
11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
26 January 1972, Henry Kissinger, attempting to mediate a peace deal in Vietnam,
complained that the North Vietnamese were only pretending to negotiate whilst
in fact holding out until the US tired of the War and allowed the North to take
over South Vietnam by force. This was indeed the North�s strategy, and Kissinger�s
complaint did not alter its effectiveness. US President Nixon was concerned about the
image of the USA and its power should it fail in Vietnam.
12 November 1971, US President Nixon announced an end to America�s �offensive� role in
Vietnam, and the withdrawal of a further 45,000 troops. After this only 182,000 US troops would remain.
11 October 1971, Switzerland officially
recognized North Vietnam.
3 October 1971, President Thieu of South Vietnam
retained office after all other contenders withdrew in protest at rigged
elections.
18 August 1971, Australia and New Zealand
announced they would withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
24 March 1971, The South Vietnamese
forces who invaded Laos on 8 February 1971 were forced to withdraw due to heavy
resistance by the Vietcong.
8 February 1971, South Vietnamese forces
invaded Laos, to try and shut down the supply of arms to the Vietcong along the
Ho Chi Minh Trail (see 24 March 1971).
20 April�
1970.
President Nixon announced
that a further 150,000 troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam.
1 April�
1970,
After a 6-month lull, the Vietcong launched major assaults across South
Vietnam.
25 January 1970. Eleven arrests were made as police clashed with anti � Vietnam War protesters at the
entrance to Downing Street.
15 November 1969. Huge anti Vietnam War demonstration in Washington.
3 September 1969. Ho Chi Minh,
President of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, died of a heart attack aged
79. He was succeeded by Le Duan.
8 July 1969, The first US army units were withdrawn from
South Vietnam
May 1969, The US now had 543,000 troops
in Vietnam.
10 January 1969, Sweden became the first European country to recognise North
Vietnam.
USA (and other
nations) begin withdrawal from South Vietnam
For
more events of Vietnam War see USA
4.0, Deeper US involvement in Vietnam War
1965-68
8/1968, The US now had 541,000
troops in Vietnam.
20 June 1968, Total
US war deaths in Vietnam now exceeded 25,000.
13 May 1968, US and North Vietnamese negotiators began peace talks in
Paris.
11 May 1969, The Vietcong launched ground and rocket
attacks throughout South Vietnam.
6 May 1968, The Vietnam War continued with house to
house fighting in Saigon. The Home
Secretary James Callaghan told the
Ministry of Public Building and Works that he had no power to deport Tariq Ali back to his native Pakistan.
Mr Ali was a member of the Vietnam Solidarity campaign in Britain.
19 April�
1968,
The USA began Operation Delaware to
oust the North Vietnamese from the A Shau Valley, 50 km SW of Hue, which they
had occupied in March 1968 and made into a logistics base to support the Ho Chi
Minh Trail. The US succeeded in taking the Valley, but with heavy casualties.
However they could not hold it whilst large forces were tied up defending the
Vietnamese Lowlands against the North.
3 April�
1968,
The US and North Vietnam agreed to establish direct contact as a first step
towards peace.
17 March 1968, Violent anti-Vietnam War
demonstrations outside the US Embassy in London. 25,000 Vietnam Solidarity
Campaign (VSC) marchers fought with police. The VSC, which wanted a victory for
North Vietnam, had been organised by the Trotskyist International Marxist
Group, whose members included Pat Jordan, Tariq Ali and David Horowitz.
16 March 1968. The My Lai massacre; US soldiers massacred 700 Vietnamese civilians in a raid
on hamlets in Son My district, where Communist Vietcong rebels were suspected
to be hiding out. US forces believed that 250 Vietcong guerrillas were hiding
in My Lai and that all civilians would have left for market. As the 30 US
troops went in under the command of Lieutenant William Calley they threw grenades
and deployed flamethrowers on the thatched roof huts; it was soon clear that
only women, children and the elderly were present. There was no counter fire.
However a �contagion of slaughter� had set in and the rape and murder continued.
Senior US army officials turned a blind eye to the event; only five people were
ever court-martialled, with just one, Lieutenant Calley, found guilty. He was
sentenced to life imprisonment but served 3 � years before release on parole. This event turned many civilians within the
US against the Vietnam War.
30 January 1968. The Vietcong launched the great Tet Offensive
against South Vietnam,
named after the Tet holiday of January 31, when south Vietnamese soldiers would
be off-guard. Militarily the Tet offensive was disastrous for the North; they
held none of the towns they captured. The last town, Hue, was recaptured by US
Marines three weeks after the Tet Offensive began. However the North won the
propaganda war, with massive damage inflicted on the South during the
Offensive, much of by US forces whilst evicting the Communists. Martial law was
proclaimed in Vietnam. US casualties now amounted to 1,000 per day. Questions
were asked why the US and South were suffering so many losses without obvious
success in the war.
4 January 1968, The
US now had 486,000 troops in Vietnam.
26 December 1967, The South Vietnamese threatened to pursue and attack
Communist troops in Cambodia. China assured Cambodia of its support against
this. Chinese workers had already been repairing bomb-damaged parts of the Ho
Chi Minh Trail.
31 October 1967, Nguyen Van Thieu was sworn into office as the 4th President of South Vietnam. In his
inaugural address, President Thieu said, "I will make a direct proposal to
the North Vietnamese government to sit down at the conference table" to
seek a way of ending the Vietnam War.
6 October 1967, The South Vietnamese Government began its new policy of
curbing student protesters by drafting 12 of them into the South Vietnamese
Army.
3 September 1967, General Nguyen Van Thieu was elected President
of South Vietnam.
29 June 1967. The American
child psychologist Dr Benjamin Spock led a march of nearly 5,000
people in London in protest against the Vietnam
War. Eighteen people were arrested as the march headed towards the US
Embassy in Grosvenor Square.
14 February 1967. 100 Labour MPs in Westminster condemned the US bombing of Vietnam. On 26 February 1967 the US stepped up the war by
attacking the Vietcong's HQ.
23 September 1966. USA planes dropped tons of herbicides
on Vietnam turning the demilitarised zone between North and South Vietnam into
a barren wasteland.
2 April�
1966,
Protests in Saigon as demonstrators demanded an end to military rule.
8 March 1966, Australia tripled its
force in Vietnam to 4,500 troops.
18 February 1966, Dean Rusk stated that the USA
had exhausted all possibilities for bringing peace to Vietnam.
12 January 1966, US President Lyndon Johnson said
that US forces should remain in South Vietnam until Communist aggression
ceased.
8 January 1966. US launched biggest offensive to date in Vietnam.
For
more events of Vietnam War see USA
29 December 1965. North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh rejected US peace talks.
29 September 1965, The USSR admitted
supplying weapons to North Vietnam.
12 August 1965, 19 days after the US learned that North Vietnam had bases around its
capital from which to fire surface-to-air missiles, the North Vietnamese
revealed that they had mobile missile units that could be taken to any
location, shooting down a U.S. Navy A-4 Skyhawk attack jet flying 50 miles
southwest of Hanoi. Lieutenant Donald H. Brown of the USS Coral
Sea was killed in the crash, becoming the first U.S. Navy flier to be downed by
a SAM missile.
3 August 1965, After coming under attack
by Viet Cong sniper fire, U.S. Marines burned down the South Vietnamese village
of Cam Ne.
24 June 1965, South Vietnam severed relations with France.
23 June 1965, The USSR rejected a Vietnam peace initiative
proposed by Harold Wilson.
4 June 1965, The first
contingent of Australian troops arrived in Vietnam.
31 May 1965. Major US air strikes in Vietnam saved the South
Vietnamese forces from annihilation,
reported The Guardian.
3.0, Major escalation of US involvement in
Vietnam 1962-65
8 March 1965, The US stepped up military
action in Vietnam. 3,500 American
Marines, the first combat troops to arrive in Vietnam, landed, welcomed by an
enthusiastic crowd. By July 1965 there
were 75,000 US troops in Vietnam, by end-1965 184,000, and by early 1968,
510,000. A majority of the
British public were opposed to the US escalation, and believed that Britain�s
role should be to act as peacemaker.
2 March 1965, In response to the 6 February 1965 attack at Pleiku, and to another
attack a few days later on US soldiers at Qui Nhon, the US launched Operation
Rolling Thunder, a saturation bombing campaign against North Vietnam combined
with the first deployment of US ground forces against the North Vietnamese.
7 February 1965. US aircraft bombed North Vietnam. The US hoped that by relying on a sustained air
bombing campaign, US casualties would be minimised.
6 February 1965, The Vietcong attacked a US barracks at Pleiku, killing 9 US soldiers.
In retaliation, President
Johnson authorised Operation Flaming Dart, bombing raids on North
Vietnam.
23 January 1965, Rioters in Hue, South
Vietnam, burned down the U.S. Information Agency after South Vietnam's Prime
Minister Tran Van Hương increased the Army draft to fight the Viet
Cong.
19 December 1964, The military junta in
South Vietnam dissolved the High National Council and arrested some of its
members.
19 November 1964. Major offensive by South Vietnam against the North began.
1 November 1964, North Vietnamese attack on
the airfield at Bien Hoa. Four US servicemen were killed and a large number of
US aircraft damaged. This prompted the US to escalate its involvement in Vietnam.
The airfield was expanded into a large US military base.
30 October 1964, Tran Van Huong became Prime
Minister of South Vietnam
7 August 1964, In South Vietnam, General Nguyen
Khanh proclaimed a State of Emergency and ousted President Duong
Vanh Minh.
2 August 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the US destroyer Maddox. North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the US destroyer Maddox, which was patrolling 16 km off
the North Vietnamese coast. One Vietnamese boat was sunk, another badly
damaged; the Maddox was undamaged and
continued her patrol. On the stormy night of 4-5 August 1964 the radar
allegedly spotted five Vietnamese boats in �attack formation�; in fact these
boats almost certainly did not exist. Either the radar image was
misinterpreted, or were fabricated to justify further US actions in Vietnam. US President
Johnson got the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution passed through Congress; authorising �any necessary
measures� to repel attacks on US forces or US allies, including South Vietnam. This resolution
justified a large escalation in US activity in Vietnam from 1965 onwards.
30 January 1964, Coup in South Vietnam; General Duong Van Minh was replaced by General Nguyen
Kanh. However Minh remained as nominal head of state.
2 November 1963, The first President of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, was assassinated, along with
his brother, in a military coup encouraged by the CIA.
1 November 1963, In
South Vietnam, a coup organised by General Duong Van Minh overthrew President Ngo
Dinh Diem.
22 September 1963, South Korea began sending the first of a total of
312,853 soldiers to fight the North Vietnamese.
21 August 1963,Martial law was declared in South Vietnam.
2 January 1963, End
of the Battle of Ap Bac. This was a
turning point in the Vietnam War. In late December 1962 a contingent of 2,000
South Vietnamese soldiers (ARVN, Army of the Republic of Vietnam) encountered
300-400 People�s Liberation Armed Force (PLAF) fighters near a canal close to
Ap Bac. Despite US assistance, advice, and the presence of US planes,
helicopters and armoured personnel carriers, the ARVN suffered 165 casualties
and lost 5 helicopters, whilst the PLAF�
lost less than a dozen fighters. This battle forced the USA to reconsider whether advice and
material assistance alone was enough to help South Vietnam win against the
Communist North.
22 March 1962, With US aid, South Vietnam launched Operation Sunrise
against Vietcong guerrillas.
2,0,
Vietnam divided into North and
South 1954-60
12 November 1960, Ngo Dinh Diem regained power as President of
South Vietnam after a military coup.
21 January 1960, What became known as the Vietcong was
formed in Vietnam. Communists in South Vietnam, opposed to the USA-backed
rule of Ngo Dinh Diem, at first
received little support from the Communist North Vietnamese government, but
this changed after January 1960. The Southern Communists, in co-operation with
the North, met outside Saigon to found the National
Liberation Front (NLF).� They called
for the removal of Diem as a �colonial
Western puppet� and the removal of all foreign bases from South Vietnam. Diem
and the USA labelled the NLF disparagingly as the �Vietcong�, a derogatory
abbreviation of the Vietnamese words for Vietnamese Communists. The name stuck,
but lost its negative connotations.
22 October 1957. 13 US servicemen and 5 civilians were injured in
Saigon, South Vietnam, by a bomb planted by Communist guerrillas. This was the
worst incident since 1954 when the French admitted defeat in the fight against
North Vietnam�s Viet Minh army and split Vietnam into North and South, two
independent states.
23 October 1955. South Vietnam became a republic under Ngo Dinh Diem. Emperor Bao Dai was deposed.
7 December 1954, Bui Van Luong
was replaced as the head of COMIGAL, Vietnam's government resettlement agency,
by Pham Van
Huyen.
10 October 1954, Ho Chi Minh
returned to Hanoi as the French
pulled out.
21 July 1954. An armistice
divided Vietnam into North (Communist) and South (French). See 21 April�
1954.
7 May 1954. Communist Vietminh forces under General Giap
captured Dien Ben Phu in Vietnam, a
key French garrison, after a siege. Almost
all the 16,000 French soldiers were killed. The Americans had considered
using three atomic bombs, but Eisenhower
was reluctant to start a new war after Korea, and did not wish to support
colonialism.� This effectively marked the end of French rule in Indo-China.� Dien Ben Phu
was a village in Vietnam, 75 miles south of the Chinese border and commanding a
valley into Laos, which lay 20 miles further west, so occupied a strategic position.
2 May 1954, British
Prime Minister Anthony Eden made it clear at Geneva that Britain could not
support the US in a war in Vietnam when the course and scope of the war was
unknown.
21 April� 1954. The US Air Force flew a French battalion
to northern Vietnam to defend against the Vietminh at Dien
Bien Phu. Dien Bien Phu
fell to the Communists on 7 May 1954.
1,0, Fight against Vietnamese
Communists. France pulls out, USA escalates the conflict 1950-54
6 April�
1954.
France informed
the US that French public opinion would not support the war in Vietnam anymore
and that France�s aim was now a negotiated settlement. The US wanted to carry
on the fight against the Communists. The UK too was wary, in case a Soviet
nuclear strike on US bases in England was carried out.
13 March 1954, The Vietminh
assault on Dien Ben Phu began; see 7
May 1954.
20 January 1954, The French military Commander in Chief, General Henri
Navarre, launched an attack on Vietminh positions in Annam, the
narrow �waist� of the country between North and South. Annam had been abandoned
by the French in the face of superior Vietminh numbers; the French hoped to
control Annam as a buffer zone, �contain� the North, and pacify the South.
However the Vietminh fought back strongly and forced the French to withdraw
into the major towns.
26 November 1953, French airborne troops captured the Vietnamese
village of Dien Ben Phu from the
Vietminh, thereby gaining control of the Hanoi to Laos road.
25 April� 1952, Major French attack on the Vietminh
base� of Tay Ninh.
18 January 1951, French troops forced the Vietminh to retreat from Hanoi.
11 January 1951, The French began a new offensive against the Vietminh.
25 May 1950, French
troops fought the Vietcong
guerrillas in Vietnam.
7 February 1950, The Soviet Union officially recognised the
Marxist regime of Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam; the USA
endorsed the French-backed regime of Emperor Bao Dai in South Vietnam. The two regimes had been at war since 1947.
0.0, Vietnam gains independence from France,
1945-49
30 December 1949. Vietnam gained sovereignty
from France.
8 March 1949, Vietnam became independent within the
French Union.
19/ May 1947, Vietminh
troops attacked Saigon.
19 December 1946, An uneasy
post-War period of tactical co-operation between the French and the Vietcong
Communist forces ended. The French had wanted to regain their colony of
Vietnam; the Vietcong also wanted Nationalist factions in the country
eliminated. But on this day the Vietcong attacked French troops at Hanoi,
starting the First Indo-China War. The Vietcong began a campaign of guerrilla
warfare.
23 November 1946, French
troops bombarded Haiphong in NE Vietnam. This was the start of the French
Indo-China War, which lasted until 1954.
6 March 1946. France
agreed to allow Vietnam some autonomy, but only within the French Empire/
Nationalist resistance against the French continued.
2 March 1946. In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh
was elected President.
10 March 1945. Tran Kim
declared Vietnam independent.
1941, Vietminh resistance to Japan founded in
exile in China.
1940, Japan
invaded Vietnam. For more
details of World War Two in the Pacific, see Japan-China.
1930, Ho Chi Minh founded the Vietnamese Communist Party.
8 November 1927, Nguyen Khanh,
Prime Minister of South Vietnam, was born.
6 November 1925, Khai Dinh,
Emperor of Vietnam, died.
1920, Vietnam adopted the Roman script (Quoc Agu) in place of
Chinese lettering.
13 October 1911, Le Duc Tho,
Vietnamese politician, was born.
19 May 1890, Birth of Ho Chi
Minh, President of North Vietnam (died 1969).
France sets up colony of French Indochina. See
also China
25 August 1883, France
and China agreed to French protecorates over northern Vietnam (Tonkin) and
central Vietnam (Annam). Southern Vietnam (Cochin) was already under French
control. In 1893 Siam (Thailand) gave up its claim on Laos, and France
incorporated this territory into Ftrench Indochina.
25 April� 1882, France, aiming for colonial
control of Indochina, occupied Hanoi in Tonkin. There was considerable local
resistance to their rule.
25 February 1861, The French
relieved a siege of Saigon by 20,000 Vietnamese, and consolidated their hold
over Cochin China.
22 February 1860, In the
face of Vietnamese attacks, French colonists evacuated Tourane.
31 August 1858, French
forces under Admiral
Rigault de Genouilly attacked the Vietnamese city of Tourane, to use
it as a military base. The city fell to the French on 2 September 1858.
1847, The French began to interfere in the political affairs
of Annam (Vietnam), on the pretext of protecting the |Christians there.
1820, Death of Nguyen Phuoc Anh (also known as Long Gia),
emperor of Vietnam and founder of the Nguyen
Dynasty. He fought to extend the influence of the Nguyen Clan, as the
existing Tay Son order
disintegrated. In 1802 he succeeded in unifying Vietnam for the first time,
from the Chinese border down to the Mekong Delta.
17 February 1759, French
forces took Saigon, Vietnam.
1516, A group of Portuguese explorers became the first Europeans
to reach Vietnam.
1428, Annam (Vietnam) regained its independence from China.
1407, China regained control of Annam. See 1428.
1010, King Ly Thai To moved the capital of Vietnam
from Ninh Binh to Hanoi, calling it
Thang Long, meaning �soaring dragon�.
1009, The Ly Dynasty,
the first independent dynasty in Vietnam, was proclaimed.
939, The Vietnamese expelled their Chinese rulers from Annam,
meaning �pacified south� in Chinese.
938, Battle of Bach Dang.
The Chinese, under Liu Yan, were attempting to invade Vietnam, Liu sent an army led by his son, Liu Hongcao,
to invade Giao by sea. The Vietnamese leader, Ngo Quyen anticipated this
invasion, and fixed a line of iron spikes across the mouth of the Red River,
their tips a little underwater at high tide. Ngo then sent small boats out to
taunt the Chinese fleet, and when these boats retreated upriver the Chinese, in
much larger boats. gave chase. As the tide went out, the large Chinese vessels
became impaled on the spikes and were attacked by Vietnamese soldiers. Half the
Chinese army died, many by drowning, and China
abandoned its attempt to conquer Vietnam.
150 AD, The Champa State existed
on the east coast of Vietnam. It was a threat to the power of the Khmer and
Vietnamese States.
214 BC, Annam (now Vietnam) was conquered by China.
257 BCE,The State of Au Lac was
established un the Red River area of Vietnam. From here the Vietnamese people,
mainly cultivating rice, spread south along the coast down to thye Mekong
Delta. However they did not make inroads into the interior Highlands, where a
different people lived, whom these Vietnamese disparagingly labelled �moi�, or �savages�. Enmity between the mountain peoples and the coastal
plains dwellers has persisted, and hampered the US efforts, during the Vietnam
War of the 1960s and 70s, to develop counter-Communist strategies in the
Highlands.