Chronography of Vietnam
Page last
modified 1/11/2022
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.
7/11/2006, 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.
11/7/1995. 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.
16/1/1994, 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
8/11/1991. Hong Kong
began to repatriate its Vietnamese boat
people.
29/12/1989, Riots in
Hong Kong after forcible repatriation of Vietnamese boat people began.
13/12/1989� Hong Kong began to forcibly
repatriate Vietnamese boat people by plane.
27/7/1989, More �boat
people� were arriving in Hong Kong, hoping to reach California.
26/7/1982. 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.
28/2/1981, 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
26/6/1988. Vietnam
said its troops would withdraw from Kampuchea, formerly Cambodia.
14/3/1988, 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.
16/3/1979, Vietnam
fought a brief nine-day war with China. The Chinese withdrew this day.
25/12/1978, Vietnam
launched a major offensive against the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.
3/3/1979, Chinese
forces in Vietnam took Lang Son.
1/10/1978 �Vietnam attacked Cambodia.
31/12/1977, 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
2/7/1976. North
and South Vietnam were reunited to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
24/6/1976, At a government conference in Hanoi, the
unification of North and South Vietnam was approved, as the Socialist Republic
of Vietnam, see 30/4/1975.
29/4/1975. 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.
25/4/1975, The
Australian Embassy in Saigon, South Vietnam, shut as North Vietnamese forces
closed in.
23/4/1975, 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 29/4/1973.
21/4/1975, 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.
20/4/1975, 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
6/4/1975, A
plane carrying 99 Vietnamese orphans landed at Heathrow Airport, London.
4/4/1975, 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.
30/3/1975. North
Vietnamese forces captured the port of Da
Nang. Ships attempted to rescue over 1 million refugees.
25/3/1975. In South Vietnam, Hue fell to the North.
20/3/1975, In
Vietnam, Communist forces overran Da Nang,
19/3/1975, In
South Vietnam, Quang Tri Province
fell to the North, leaving the provincial capital of Hue exposed.
7/1/1975, North Vietnamese forces captured the southern
province of Phuoc Long (see 29/3/1973) and were now just 75 miles from
Saigon. There was no reaction from the US. On 10/3/1975 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 1/4/1975 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
28/4/1975 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
29/4/1975).� However in the last-minute
chaos nobody thought to destroy the records of South Vietnamese who had
supported the US. On 30/4/1975 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
22/12/1974, 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.
24/5/1974, Fierce fighting in Vietnam, just 50 km from Saigon.
5.0, USA completes withdrawal from South
Vietnam 1969-73
29/3/1973, 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 7/1/1975 they captured the South
Vietnamese province of Phuoc Long.
15/3/1973, The
last American
PoWs from the Vietnam War were released by the North Vietnamese.
27/1/1973. 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
29/3/1972. However fighting later
continued between North and South Vietnam, see 30/4/1975.
7/9/1972, South Korea withdrew the 37,000 troops it
had in South Vietnam.
15/6/1972, Soviet President Podgorny began a 4-day visit to
North Vietnam.
19/5/1972, In Beijing, China, the USDSR and North
Vietnam discussed how to combat the US which was now mining North Vietnamese
ports.
8/5/1972, President Nixon ordered a blockade and mining
of North Vietnamese ports.
1/5/1972, Quang Tri fell to the North Vietnamese
(retaken by South Vietnam, 15/9/1972).
30/3/1972, North Vietnam launched a major attack on the South. On 15/4/1972 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 1/5/1972 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.
29/2/1972, South Korea withdrew 11,000 of its 48,000
troops from Vietnam.
26/1/1972, 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.
12/11/1971, 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.
11/10/1971, Switzerland officially recognized North
Vietnam.
3/10/1971, President Thieu of South Vietnam retained
office after all other contenders withdrew in protest at rigged elections.
18/8/1971, Australia and New Zealand announced they
would withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
24/3/1971, The South Vietnamese forces who invaded
Laos on 8/2/1971 were forced to withdraw due to heavy resistance by the
Vietcong.
8/2/1971, South Vietnamese forces invaded Laos, to
try and shut down the supply of arms to the Vietcong along the Ho Chi Minh
Trail (see 24/3/1971).
20/4/1970. President Nixon announced that a further 150,000 troops would be
withdrawn from Vietnam.
1/4/1970, After a 6-month lull, the Vietcong launched
major assaults across South Vietnam.
25/1/1970. Eleven
arrests were made as police clashed with anti � Vietnam War protesters at the entrance to Downing Street.
15/11/1969. Huge
anti Vietnam War demonstration in Washington.
3/9/1969. Ho Chi Minh, President of
North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, died of a heart attack aged 79. He
was succeeded by Le Duan.
8/7/1969, The first US army units were withdrawn from
South Vietnam
5/1969, The US now had 543,000 troops
in Vietnam.
10/1/1969, 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.
20/6/1968, Total
US war deaths in Vietnam now exceeded 25,000.
13/5/1968, US and North Vietnamese negotiators began peace talks in
Paris.
11/5/1969, The Vietcong launched ground and rocket
attacks throughout South Vietnam.
6/5/1968, 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.
19/4/1968, 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.
3/4/1968, The US and North Vietnam agreed to
establish direct contact as a first step towards peace.
17/3/1968, 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.
16/3/1968. 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.
30/1/1968. 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.
4/1/1968, The
US now had 486,000 troops in Vietnam.
26/12/1967, 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.
31/10/1967, 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.
6/10/1967, The South Vietnamese Government began its new policy of
curbing student protesters by drafting 12 of them into the South Vietnamese
Army.
3/9/1967, General Nguyen Van Thieu was elected President
of South Vietnam.
29/6/1967. 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.
14/2/1967. 100
Labour MPs in Westminster condemned the US bombing of Vietnam. On 26/2/1967 the US stepped up the war by
attacking the Vietcong's HQ.
23/9/1966. USA planes dropped tons of herbicides on Vietnam
turning the demilitarised zone between North and South Vietnam into a barren
wasteland.
2/4/1966, Protests in Saigon as demonstrators
demanded an end to military rule.
8/3/1966, Australia tripled its force in Vietnam to
4,500 troops.
18/2/1966, Dean Rusk stated that the USA had exhausted
all possibilities for bringing peace to Vietnam.
12/1/1966, US President Lyndon Johnson said that US
forces should remain in South Vietnam until Communist aggression ceased.
8/1/1966. US launched
biggest offensive to date in Vietnam.
For
more events of Vietnam War see USA
29/12/1965. North Vietnamese leader Ho
Chi Minh rejected US peace talks.
29/9/1965, The USSR admitted supplying weapons to
North Vietnam.
12/8/1965, 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.
24/6/1965, South Vietnam severed relations with France.
23/6/1965, The USSR rejected a Vietnam peace initiative
proposed by Harold Wilson.
4/6/1965, The first
contingent of Australian troops arrived in Vietnam.
31/5/1965. 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
8/3/1965, 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.
2/3/1965, In
response to the 6/2/1965 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.
7/2/1965. US aircraft bombed North Vietnam. The US hoped that by relying on a sustained air
bombing campaign, US casualties would be minimised.
6/2/1965, 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.
23/1/1965, 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.
19/12/1964, The military junta in South Vietnam
dissolved the High National Council and arrested some of its members.
19/11/1964. Major
offensive by South Vietnam against the North began.
1/11/1964, 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.
30/10/1964, Tran Van Huong became Prime Minister of South
Vietnam
7/8/1964, In South Vietnam, General Nguyen Khanh proclaimed
a State of Emergency and ousted President Duong Vanh Minh.
2/8/1964, 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 4-5/8/1964 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.
30/1/1964, Coup in South Vietnam; General Duong Van Minh was replaced by General Nguyen
Kanh. However Minh remained as nominal head of state.
2/11/1963, The first
President of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, was assassinated, along with
his brother, in a military coup encouraged by the CIA.
1/11/1963, In
South Vietnam, a coup organised by General Duong Van Minh overthrew President Ngo
Dinh Diem.
22/9/1963, South Korea began sending the first of a total of 312,853
soldiers to fight the North Vietnamese.
21/8/1963,Martial law was declared in South Vietnam.
2/1/1963, 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.
22/3/1962, With US aid, South Vietnam launched Operation Sunrise
against Vietcong guerrillas.
2,0,
Vietnam divided into North and
South 1954-60
12/11/1960, Ngo Dinh Diem regained power as President of
South Vietnam after a military coup.
21/1/1960, 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.
22/10/1957. 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.
23/10/1955. South Vietnam became a republic under Ngo Dinh Diem. Emperor Bao Dai was deposed.
7/12/1954, Bui Van Luong
was replaced as the head of COMIGAL, Vietnam's government resettlement agency,
by Pham Van
Huyen.
10/10/1954, Ho Chi Minh
returned to Hanoi as the French
pulled out.
21/7/1954. An armistice
divided Vietnam into North (Communist) and South (French). See 21/4/1954.
7/5/1954. 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.
2/5/1954, 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.
21/4/1954. 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 7/5/1954.
1,0, Fight against Vietnamese
Communists. France pulls out, USA escalates the conflict 1950-54
6/4/1954. 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.
13/3/1954, The Vietminh
assault on Dien Ben Phu began; see
7/5/1954.
20/1/1954, 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.
26/11/1953, French airborne troops captured the Vietnamese village of Dien Ben Phu from the Vietminh, thereby
gaining control of the Hanoi to Laos road.
25/4/1952, Major French attack on the Vietminh base� of Tay Ninh.
18/1/1951, French troops forced the Vietminh to retreat from Hanoi.
11/1/1951, The French began a new offensive against the Vietminh.
25/5/1950, French
troops fought the Vietcong
guerrillas in Vietnam.
7/2/1950, 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
30/12/1949. Vietnam gained
sovereignty from France.
8/3/1949, Vietnam became independent within the
French Union.
19//5/1947, Vietminh
troops attacked Saigon.
19/12/1946, 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.
23/11/1946, French
troops bombarded Haiphong in NE Vietnam. This was the start of the French
Indo-China War, which lasted until 1954.
6/3/1946. France
agreed to allow Vietnam some autonomy, but only within the French Empire/
Nationalist resistance against the French continued.
2/3/1946. In North
Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh was elected
President.
10/3/1945. 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.
8/11/1927, Nguyen Khanh,
Prime Minister of South Vietnam, was born.
6/11/1925, Khai Dinh,
Emperor of Vietnam, died.
1920, Vietnam adopted the Roman script (Quoc Agu) in place of
Chinese lettering.
13/10/1911, Le Duc Tho,
Vietnamese politician, was born.
19/5/1890, Birth of Ho Chi
Minh, President of North Vietnam (died 1969).
France sets up colony of French Indochina. See
also China
25/8/1883, 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.
25/4/1882, France,
aiming for colonial control of Indochina, occupied Hanoi in Tonkin. There was
considerable local resistance to their rule.
25/2/1861, The French
relieved a siege of Saigon by 20,000 Vietnamese, and consolidated their hold
over Cochin China.
22/2/1860, In the
face of Vietnamese attacks, French colonists evacuated Tourane.
31/8/1858, 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 2/9/1858.
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.
17/2/1759, 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.