Sixty years ago, the United States sprayed approximately 19 million gallons of 15 different herbicides, collectively known as Agent Orange, over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed during the spraying and many more continue to be exposed through the environment. Agent Orange exposure continues to negatively affect the lives of men and women in Vietnam and in the United States. Agent Orange exposure is associated with cancers, immune deficiencies, reproductive illnesses, and severe birth defects in Vietnamese, American, and Vietnamese Americans directly exposed as well as their children and grandchildren.

Featured presenter: Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong

Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong is a leading physician/researcher on the effects of Agent Orange/dioxin on women and children in Viet Nam.  Dr. Phuong is a gynecologist/obstetrician, past chairwoman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacology.  Dr. Phuong has studied, researched, and published extensively on the deleterious effects of Agent Orange on the people of Viet Nam. During the war she personally witnessed the births of babies born with severe birth defects to mothers sprayed by the chemicals. Dr. Phuong chaired the Vietnam-US Friendship Association in Ho Chi Minh City and was on the executive board of the HCMC Association of Agent Orange Victims.

Take action today

On May 25, 2021 Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced H.R. 3518, the Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2021, in the House of Representatives. “The United States has a moral responsibility to compensate the victims of the Agent Orange campaign. In the same way we are focused on beginning to repair the damage of systemic racism in the form of reparations, and the war on drugs with restorative justice, it is also our responsibility to try and atone for this disgraceful campaign during the Vietnam War.” We will discuss an overview of the use of Agent Orange/dioxin in southeast Asia, studies on the deleterious impact of the chemicals when sprayed directly on the Vietnamese and US troops, transgenerational harm on the children born to US soldiers and Vietnamese, including the VFP campaign on HR 3518.

The post VFP Workshop on Agent Orange: Lasting Legacy of The American War In Vietnam appeared first on VAORRC.

Hosted by World Beyond War and presented by VAORRC, this webinar, Agent Orange: Lasting Legacy of the Vietnam War, informs us about ongoing effects of herbicide used in Vietnam. The damage to to the environment in Vietnam is still widespread. In addition, the damage to the health of those exposed is an ongoing public-health disaster for Vietnamese, US veterans and their children and for Vietnamese Americans. Please take the time to learn about this legacy of war.

The post VAORRC Agent Orange Webinar hosted by World Beyond War appeared first on VAORRC.

Agent Orange is a chemical herbicidal weapon used by the U.S. government during the war in Vietnam. These chemicals were shipped to Vietnam in barrels with an orange band. Agent Orange is a mixture of two dangerous chemicals: 2,4,D and 2,4,5,T. The 2,4,5,T used in the Agent Orange sprayed over Vietnam was contaminated with high amounts of dioxin during manufacture. Dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals known to humanity, was manufactured by 37 companies, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto.

HOW WAS AGENT ORANGE USED IN VIETNAM?

Millions of gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed from 1961 to 1971 in South Vietnam. The U.S. military sprayed approximately 12% of the land of Vietnam in order to deprive Vietnamese of food and shelter and to defoliate the jungles. About 5 million Vietnamese people were exposed along with many U.S. and allied soldiers. International law scholars believe the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam constituted chemical warfare, a violation of the Geneva Convention and a war crime…

The post VAORRC Fact Sheet (2015): What is Agent Orange, how was it used, and what does it do? appeared first on VAORRC.

The post Agent Orange/Dioxin Historic Timeline appeared first on VAORRC.

Prepared and annotated by Prof. Ngô Vĩnh Long, University of Maine, Maine. April 2000. Prepared by The Vietnam Peace 25th Anniversary Committee. New York.

————————————————————

REFERENCE WORKS AND ANTHOLOGIES

Stanley I. Kutler (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1996).

This is the most comprehensive and most up-to-date reference work on the Vietnam War. It contains 564 original signed articles ranging in length from fifty to five thousand words dealing with all aspects of the war in Vietnam, in the United States, and in other areas of the world. Among the articles are ten major interpretive essays the deal with the key issues of the war and its effects on the United States and Vietnam.

Marvin E. Gettleman, Jane Franklin, Marilyn B. Young, and H. Bruce Franklin (eds.) Vietnam and America: The Most Comprehensive Documented History of the Vietnam War (New York, Grove Press, 1995).

Although no longer the most comprehensive documented history of the war, this volume presents generous selections from the documentary records and well-researched essays by leading experts going as far back as Vietnam’s historical struggles against foreign invaders to the legacies of the war on both the United States and Vietnam.

George Katsiaficas (ed.), Vietnam Documents: American and Vietnamese Views of the War (1992).

A carefully chosen anthology of American and Vietnamese views of the war.

Andrew J. Rotter, Light at the End of the Tunnel: A Vietnam War Anthology (1991).

A decent collection of American documents and essays on the war.

GENERAL TEXTS

Gabriel Kolko, Anatomy of A War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience (1995).

This is the most detailed analysis of the war that deals with the American side and the various Vietnamese sides—the North, the Saigon regime, and the southern revolution. It has the best treatment of the South in any general text.

Marilyn Young, The Vietnam Wars 1945-1990 (1991).

This is perhaps the most wide-ranging and lively synthesis of the vast literature on Vietnam war. It is also stands out for its sensitivity to the human dimensions of the conflict. A perfect general text for classes.

James S. Olson and Randy Roberts, Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam, 1945-1990 (1991).

George C. Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 (McGraw Hill, 1996, 1986, 1979).

George Donelson Moss, Vietnam: An American Ordeal (1990/1998).

The above three books are well-written general texts that deal mainly with the American side. Herring’s book has been the most popular. Moss’s is written from a liberal standpoint but repeats most of the misinterpretations by the conservatives.

Jayne Werner and David Hunt (eds.), The American War in Vietnam (Cornell University Press, 1993).

Jayne Werner and Luu Doan Huynh (eds.), The Vietnam War: Vietnamese and American Perspectives (Sharpe, 1993).

The above two volumes come out of two remarkable conferences, the first in Hanoi in 1988 and the second at Columbia University in 1990, that involved Vietnamese and American scholars and policy makers. Most of the essays are first-rate and provide perspectives and analyses that had been mostly absent in previous works.

Peter Lowe (ed.), The Vietnam War (McMillan, Spring 1998).

This is a collection of new interpretive essays that deals with all sides involved in the war: China, the Soviet Union, the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, the American peace movement, and so on.

Alfred W. McCoy. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991).

Bruce Franklin. M.I.A. or Mythmaking in America (Rutgers University Press, 1993).

COUNTERINSURGENCIES AND PACIFICATION

Counterinsurgency or Pacification was nicknamed “The Other War: The War to win Hearts and Minds” by the American policy makers. It was, however, the heart of the American war in Vietnam and involved massive destruction of rural Vietnam through wholesale relocation of the population, wanton killing, anticrop programs, and so on. The following books are the most detailed on the subject.

Larry E. Cable, Conflict of Myths: The Development of American Counterinsurgency Doctrine and the Vietnam War (1986).

Perhaps the best book in term of research on counterinsurgency and pacification.

Douglas Valentine, The Phoenix Program (Avon Books, 1990).

A most devastating critique of this infamous program. It is well-researched and well-written.

Dale Andrade, Ashes to Ashes: The Phoenix Program and the Vietnam War (Lexington, MA, 1990).

Well-research, but tries to rationalize this program. As a result, it gets high praises from pro-war Americans involved in Vietnam.

Richard A. Hunt, Pacification: The American Struggle for Vietnam’s Hearts and Minds (Westview Press, 1995).

Well-research, but again this is another attempt to justify the American effort. Hence William Colby, the former director of the CIA in charge of the program in Vietnam, and other CIA operatives have praised it very highly.

Douglas S. Blaufarb, The Counterinsrugency Era: U.S. Doctrines and Performance (New York, 1977).

A well-written book on the subject.

Charles R. Anderson, Vietnam: The Other War (1982).

Fair treatment of the subject.

Michael E. Peterson, The Combined Action Platoons: The U.S. Marines’ Other War in Vietnam (1989).

Focuses on the roles of the U.S. marines in pacification.

THE TET OFFENSIVE (1968)

The Tet Offensive can be regarded as a great turning point in the war. Hence, there has been a lot of debate on this subject. The following volumes represent the best and most up-to-date research on this subject. The first volume contains Vietnamese perspectives that have not been dealt with before in other works.

Marc Jason Gilber and William Head, eds, The Tet Offensive (Praeger, 1996).

Ronald H. Spector, After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam (1993).

THE AMERICAN DEFEAT

Eric M. Begerud, The Dynamics of Defeat: The Vietnam War in Hau Nghia Province (Westview Press, 1991).

Eric M. Begerud, Red Thunder Tropic Lightening: The World of a Combat Division in Vietnam (Westview Press, 1993).

The above are well-research and well-reasoned works about the reasons for the American defeat in Vietnam by a former American officer and advisor. The first is an overall study of the political, economic and military struggle in a province southwest of Saigon. The second book is a detailed study of the American 25th Division that operated in the area immediately south of Saigon.

Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (Random House, 1988).

Explains the reasons for the American defeat in Vietnam by interweaving events there with the life of one of the most infamous advisors in South Vietnam. The book is heavy on cultural misunderstanding and does not go into the issues of American imperialism and anti-communism, which were at the heart of the war.

William Colby (with James McCargar) Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of America’s Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam (Contemporary Books, 1989).

This book justifies the American efforts in Vietnam. Colby maintains that the war could have been won if more focus had been placed on pacification.

Robert Komer, Bureaucracy at War: U.S. Performance in Vietnam Conflict (Westview, 1986).

Kormer was the head of the pacification program in Vietnam and this book serves to justify it and its failure.

Arnold Isaacs, Without Honor, Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia (Vintage Books, 1984).

A very well-written critique of American policies and performances that led to American defeats in Vietnam and Cambodia. One of the best accounts by an American journalist.

James William Gibson, The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986).

This is a devastating and well-researched account of how the American conduct of the war led to its eventual defeat.

Mark Clodfelter, The Limits of Air Power: The American Bombing of North Vietnam (1989).

This book shows how, in spite of the unprecedented bombing of North Vietnam, the United States failed to achieve its intended purpose of getting North Vietnam to agree to US terms.

WAR ORIGINS AND LESSONS

Andrew J. Rotter, The Path to Vietnam: Origins of the American Commitment to Southeast Asia (1989).

Jeffrey P. Kimball, To Reason Why: The Debate about the Causes of U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War (1990).

Robert J. Mc Mahon (ed.), Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War (1995).

The three books listed above are typical of the American debates about the origins of the war and the lessons to be drawn from it.

THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT

Tom Wells, The War Within: America’s Battle over Vietnam (Berkeley, 1994).

Charles DeBenedetti and Charles Chatfield, An American Ordeal: The Anti-War Movement of the Vietnam Era (Syracuse, 1990).

Thomas Powers, Vietnam, the War at Home: The Anti-war Movement, 1964-1968 (1984).

Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan, Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam, 1963-1975 (1984).

There are many books and articles on the American anti-war movement. The above are the best general accounts.

VIETNAMESE SOURCES

Nguyen, Khac Vien. Vietnam: A Long History (Hanoi: The Gioi Publisher,1993).

Lap, Vu Tu. Vietnam: Geographical Data (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House,1979).

Le, Phan Huy, et al. The Traditional Village of Vietnam (Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers, 1993).

Tu, Mai Thi and Nham-Tuyet, Le Thi. Women in Vietnam (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1978).

READING MATERIALS ABOUT AGENT ORANGE

Robert Dreyfuss. “Apocalypse Still, Agent Orange: The Next Generation,” Mother Jones (2/2000): 42-91.

The Catastrophe of Agent Orange for Vietnam. Indochina Newsletter 52 (July-August 1988).

Michael Uhl & Tod Ensign. GI Guinea Pigs: How the Pentagon Exposed Our Troops to Dangers More Deadly than War: Agent Orange and Atomic Radiation (Wideview Press. 1980).

Barry Weisberg. Ecocide in Indochina: The Ecology of War (Harper & Row, 1970).

Featured image: Vietnam War 1969 – VC skirmish near Dak To. During a skirmish, soldiers, including both south Vietnamese regulars and Americans, fire at national liberation forces positions, while other soldiers take cover in a shallow ditch by the side of a dirt road, near Dak To, Vietnam, mid 1969 – by Larry Burrows.

The post Vietnam Annotated Bibliography appeared first on VAORRC.

From Indochina Newsletter, Asia Resource Center, Special Issue 93-97—The ABC’s of the Vietnam War, © 1996 by Paul Shannon. With some updates. April 2000.

Ngo Vinh Long, in “Vietnamese Perspectives,” in Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, ed. by Stanley Kutler (New York: Scribner’s, 1996) writes:

“The war in Vietnam primarily—and most heavily— affected the Vietnamese people, north and south. The number of casualties—civilian and military—was enormous. According to conservative estimates, about 4 million Vietnamese on all sides were killed, wounded, or missing during the 1965-1975 period alone. The Pentagon’s final estimate of civilian casualties for the South, a nation of about 18 million in 1972, was as high as 1,225,000 for the period between 1965 and 1972. A U.S. Senate subcommittee report estimated 1,350,000 civilian casualties, including 415,000 killed, for the same period. “Enemy soldiers” killed were at least 850,000, according to both estimates. A substantial number of these “enemy soldiers,” however, were civilians whom the U.S. military defined as “enemy” because they were within free-fire zones, areas controlled by the National Liberation Front (NLF). Estimates of casualties suffered by the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces ran from 300,000 to 500,000. During the “post-war” of 1973-1975, another half a million Vietnamese were killed and wounded—340,000 of them were civilians—according to the U.S. and South Vietnamese estimates.”

Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh of 2 million Agent Orange victims to whom the Vietnamese government pays compensation for combatants 1961-1975 and their children (March 2000).

The figure today is greater than 3 million Agent Orange victims in Vietnam, including children of the second and third generations.

THE HUMAN COST OF WAR

Deaths

1,921,000 Vietnamese dead (* see Notes below) includes:

• 450,000 South Vietnamese civilians killed from 1961-1975;
• 40,000 South Vietnamese civilians executed under Project Phoenix;
• 176,000 soldiers of the Saigon regime (ARVN) killed 1961-1972;
• 900,000 “enemy” soldiers killed (NLF and North Vietnamese forces) 1961-1972;
• 155,000 soldiers on both sides killed 1973-1975; and
• 200,000 North Vietnamese civilians killed 1961-1975.

200,000 Cambodians dead (civilian and military), 1969-1975;

100,000 Laotian dead (civilian and military) 1964-1973.

——————————————————————

2,221,000 Total Indochinese Dead (does not include thousands of South Vietnamese civilians killed by Saigon regime from 1954-1961)

58,000 Americans dead (actual 58,151)

5,000 U.S. allies from 3rd countries killed

2,284,000 Total War Dead

Casualties

• 3,200,000 wounded Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians
• 14,305,000 refugees by the time the war ended
• 10,472,000 in South Vietnam;
• 3,083,000 in Cambodia; and
• 750,000 in Laos.

—In South Vietnam

300,000 orphans
800,000 children who lost one or both parents
83,000 amputees
181,000 disabled
40,000 blind or deaf
8,000 paraplegics
131,000 war widows
200,000 prostitutes
100,000 political prisoners

—In Cambodia

480,000 civilians killed and wounded
260,000 orphans and half orphans

—In Laos:

350,000 civilians killed and wounded

—In North Vietnam

Hundreds of thousands of civilians killed and wounded

Between 1965 and 1973 approximately one out of 30 Indochinese was killed, one in 12 wounded, and one in 5 made a refugee.

For the United States

Out of 2,500,000 who served in Indochina:

58,151 dead from the war
303,616 wounded in Indochina
13,167 100% disabled
55,000 have died since returning home (suicide, accidents, addictions, etc.)
500,000 have attempted suicide since returning home.

THE MAGNITUDE OF THE WAR AND IMPACT ON THE LAND

Tonnage of Weapons

• 7,800,000 tons of bombs dropped by the U.S. on Indochina
• 7,500,000 tons of ground munitions used by U.S. forces
• 200,000 tons of munitions fired by U.S. naval forces from ships at Indochina

15,500,000 tons of firepower used by U.S. forces. Total.

This firepower is the equivalent in destructive force of about 600 Hiroshima type atomic bombs.

• Of this total, 12,000,000 tons were used by the U.S. in South Vietnam alone.
• In comparison, the U.S. used 6,000,000 tons of air and ground munitions in all of World War II.

The total firepower expended by the U.S. and its allies in Indochina probably exceeds the total firepower expended by humanity in all wars, before and after the Indochina War, combined.

By 1975

• 26,000,000 bomb craters pockmark Indochina
• 21,000,000 bomb craters are in South Vietnam alone.
• 18,000,000 gallons of poisonous chemical herbicides were sprayed over 6 million acres of forest and croplands in South Vietnam alone (an area the size of Massachusetts)
• 1,200 square miles of South Vietnam leveled by U.S. bulldozers
• 1,000 square miles of South Vietnam was leveled by incendiary and high explosive bombs.
• 150,000 to 300,000 tons of unexploded ordnance is strewn about Indochina, still killing many hundreds of farmers.
• 700,000 fewer water buffalo, oxen and cows in South Vietnam in 1973 than in 1964.

FINANCIAL COSTS OF THE WAR TO THE UNITED STATES

• $132.7 billion Budgeted War Costs (1965-1972)
• $28.5 billion Military and economic aid to Saigon regime (1953-1975)
• $2.4 billion Military and economic aid to Laotian regime (1953-1975)
• $2.2 billion Military and economic aid to Cambodian regime (1953-1975)
• $0.3 billion Aid to French war effort 1949-1952
• $2.0 billion Approximate cost of the war FY 1975

$168.1 billion Total direct cost of the war.

At this rate, it cost the U.S. approximately $168,000 to kill each “enemy” soldier.

$350 billion to $900 billion estimated final cost of the war to the U.S. (includes veteran benefits, interest, etc.)

These figures mean that every American alive in 1969 will have to work full time for 5 to 12 months just to pay for the Indochina war.

$664 billion Total final cost to the U.S. of World War II (based on 1945 dollars).

13.7 billion gallons of fuel were used the U.S. forces between 1966 and 1972.

This total is enough to heat 10,800,000 American homes for an entire year, and it does not include the billions of gallons used in transporting troops and equipment from the U.S. and U.S. bases to the War.

COST TO THE UNITED STATES OF AIDING VIETNAM SINCE THE WAR ENDED

$0 Total U.S. recovery aid provided Vietnam since the end of the war.

____________________
Notes: South Korea sent 320,000 troops, 4,960 killed, 11,000 injured between 1965-1973.

The post Cost of the U.S. War in Vietnam appeared first on VAORRC.

208 B.C.

The kingdom of Nam-Việt is found.

111 B.C.

Nam-Việt is incorporated into the Chinese empire, where it remains for more than a thousand years despite frequent rebellions.

A.D. 40-43

The Trưng sisters lead an insurrection against China that is successful for three years.

A.D. 544-791

Insurrections take place but fail to oust the Chinese.

A.D. 939

Vietnamese take advantage of the fall of the T’ang dynasty in China to end direct Chinese rule.

1010

Hanoi (then Thăng-Long) becomes capital of the country.

1257

The first invasion of Vietnam by the Mongolian armies of Kublai Khan, who had conquered China and much of Europe. The invaders reach the capital but are driven out.

1284

Kublai Khan launches half a million men against Vietnam, but the invasion is defeated.

1287-1288

A new Mongolian invasion is defeated by the Vietnamese.

1407-1427

Invasion and occupation by China.

1418-1427

Chinese defeated and driven out by a war led by Lê Lợi; establishment of the Later Lê dynasty.

1535-1540

Portuguese establish trading port near Đà Nẵng.

1616

Jesuits build first mission in Vietnam.

1680

First French trading post established.

1545-1787

Intermittent warfare between two feudal houses, the Trịnh, who control the north, and the Nguyễn, who control the south; both continue to recognize the Lê dynasty as the sole legitimate rule of Vietnam.

1771-1802

The Tây Sơn movement overthrows both the Trịnh and the Nguyễn feudal regimes, introduces major reforms, defeats Chinese invasion, and reunifies the country.

1802

Tây Sơn overthrown by Nguyễn Ánh (Emperor Gia Long), who establishes Vietnam’s last dynasty, the Nguyễn.

1804

The name Việt Nam is officially adopted.

1850

The French navy attacks Đà Nẵng, beginning the colonial conquest of Vietnam.

1883

France declares the name of Vietnam extinct and divides the country into Cochin China (southern), Annam (central), and Tonkin (northern).

1890

Hồ Chí Minh is born. He leaves Vietnam in 1911 as a cabin boy on a merchant vessel.

1914-1919

World War I.

1917

Russian Revolution.

1919

During the Versailles Conference (France) ending World War I, Hồ Chí Minh appeals to the Wilson Administration for aid in securing legal and political rights.

1920

At the French Socialist Party congress, Hồ Chí Minh votes with the majority that splits to form the French Communist Party.

1930

Formation of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP). Major uprisings in Tonkin and Annam.

1932

The French install Bảo Đại as Emperor.

1939

November—The Communist Party decides on revolutionary struggle during the war and preparation for a general insurrection.

1940

France falls to Germany. The Japanese invade Indochina. Frances pro-Nazi Vichy government turns French Indochina over to Japan but continues colonial administration in collaboration with the Japanese until 1945. Two million Vietnamese are starved to death as their rice is used to supply Japanese armies throughout Southeast Asia.

1941

June—Founding of the Revolutionary League for the Independence of Vietnam (Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội, known as the Việt Minh), which leads the resistance war against the French colonialists and the Japanese occupiers.

1945

March—With the Việt Minh gaining strength, Japan unilaterally ends French rule in Indochina and establishes independent Vietnam under Emperor Bảo Đại.
April 12—President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies; Harry Truman becomes President.
July-August—At the Postdam Conference, the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union decide that Britain will occupy Vietnam and disarm Japanese troops south of the 16th parallel, and China will do the same north of the 16th parallel.
August 15—Japan surrenders.
August 18-28—Việt Minh leads August Revolution; insurrections throughout Vietnam.
August 30—Bảo Đại abdicates in favor of the Viet Minh government.

1945

September 2—Proclamation of Independence; founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). In mid-September, British General Douglas Gracey lands, re-arms Japanese and French colonial forces, and begins restoring French control south of the 16th parallel.
September 22—French troops arrive in Saigon; struggle in south begins.
October—Hồ Chí Minh appeals to President Harry Truman to support Vietnamese independence.

1946

January—DRV holds elections for the first National Assembly.
March 6—The French sign agreement with Hồ Chí Minh recognizing his government and semi-independence of Vietnam as a Free State in the French Union. The DRVs purpose is to dislodge Chinese forces. Hồ Chí Minh explains: It is better to sniff French dung for a while than eat China’s all our lives.
November—The French, using US ships, bombard Haiphong, killing 6,000 civilians. They invade Haiphong and Hanoi.
December 19—Việt Minh attack French forces; the war between France and the DRV has begun.

1948

The Truman Administration begins funding the French war.

1949

March—The Élysée Agreement between France and the State of Vietnam declares Vietnam’s independence as an associate state within the French Union.
April—The French install Bảo Đại as head of state.
October—The Chinese Communists proclaim the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

1950

China and the Soviet Union recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam headed by Hồ Chí Minh. The United States recognizes the Bao Dai regime. Both Vietnamese governments claim sovereignty over all of Vietnam. The US Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) is sent to Vietnam by the Truman Administration. US advisers and eventually some 250 US pilots participate with the French forces in the fighting, and the United States ends up providing 80 percent of the financing of the French war.

1954

March 13—Battle of Điện Biên Phủ begins.
April 16—Vice-President Richard Nixon publicly proposes sending US troops to Vietnam.
May 7—Fall of Diện Biên Phủ to DRV army.

1954

May 8-July 21—Geneva Conference, which ends with the Geneva Agreement that all foreign forces will be withdrawn from Vietnam; the 17th parallel set as the temporary demarcation line between forces of the French Union and those of the DRV; Vietnam to hold internationally supervised elections in 1956 to choose the government of the entire country.
June 1—Colonel Edward Lansdale arrives in Saigon to set up the Saigon Military Mission and coordinate covert attacks on the DRV.
June 16—Bảo Đại, as head of the State of Vietnam, appoints Ngô Đình Diệm as his premier.
July 1—Ngô Đình Diệm arrives in Saigon.
September 8—The United States arranges the creation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), consisting of the United States, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines and mandating the collective defense of Laos, Cambodia, and the State of Vietnam.
October 23—President Eisenhower pledges to Ngô Đình Diệm that the United States will support his regime as the Government of Vietnam (that is, the entire country).

1955-1956

Ngô Đình Diệm gains control over Saigon, rejects national elections guaranteed by the Geneva Accords, defeats Bao Dai in a rigged election in the south, proclaims the Republic of Vietnam with himself as president, and begins repression of those who had fought with the Viet Minh. The United States finances his government and trains and equips his security police and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).

1956-1959

Terror campaign extends Saigons rule over the countryside. Creation of agrovilles or strategic hamlets.

1957

January—The DRV announces a policy of building socialism in one country.

1959

Ngô Đình Diệm’s Law 10/59 legitimizes massive repression. Scattered resistance breaks out.

1960

March—Nam Bộ (South Vietnam) Veterans of Resistance proclaim rebellion.
April 17—140 African-American students form Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Raleigh, NC.
December—Formation of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF), which Saigon and Washington call the Viet Cong. NLF begins full-scale revolution against the Saigon regime.

1961

President John F. Kennedy approves secret military plan for Vietnam and Laos, including covert war against North Vietnam and Special Forces covert operations in Laos and South Vietnam. The United States begins chemical defoliation in South Vietnam (Operation Hades, later Operation Ranch Hand). US military personnel increased to more than 3,000.

1962

Establishment of US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV). US military personnel increased to more than 11,000.

1963

May-August—Buddhist demonstrations violently repressed by the Saigon government.
August-October—US Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge plans with Washington and ARVN generals to overthrow Ngô Đình Diệm.
August 28—More than 250,000 people march in civil rights demonstration now known as March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous I Have a Dream speech.
September 21—War Resisters League (WRL) holds first U.S. demonstration against American war in Vietnam.
November 1—Generals stage coup, assassinating Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu, head of the secret police.
November 22—Assassination of President Kennedy; Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President.
November 26—President Johnson issues NSAM 273, secret plan for a full-scale US war in Vietnam. US military personnel now between 16,000 and 19,000.

1964

February 1—US Operations Plan 34A (Oplan 34-A) is implemented, including raids by mercenaries and Saigon commandos on North Vietnamese coastal installations.
June—General William Westmoreland becomes head of MACV; General Maxwell Taylor replaces Lodge as ambassador.
August 2—US destroyer Maddox fires on North Vietnamese PT boats responding to an Oplan 34-A raid on coastal islands.
August 4—US claims, despite a lack of evidence, that the destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy were attacked on the high seas for four hours by North Vietnamese PT boats. President Johnson orders retaliatory aerial bombing of North Vietnam.
August 7—Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving the president virtually unlimited power to conduct war in Southeast Asia. The only dissenting votes are cast by Senator Wayne Morse (Oregon) and Senator Ernest Gruening (Alaska).
September-November—President Johnson, successfully campaigning to be elected president, repeatedly promises that he will never send American boys to fight in Vietnam.
December—US military personnel number more than 23,000.

1965

February 6—NLF attacks US forces at Pleiku.
February 7—Retaliatory bombing of North Vietnam (Operation Flaming Dart).
February 27—US White Paper alleges that war in South Vietnam is not indigenous but is a North Vietnam campaign of aggression.
March-June—Antiwar teach-ins on many US campuses.
March 2—Operation Rolling Thunder, the sustained US bombing of North Vietnam, begins; it continues until October 31, 1968.
March 8—US Marines, the first officially acknowledged combat units, go ashore at Da Nang to join the 24,000 US military advisers already in Vietnam.
April 17—In Washington, 25,000 people march against the war.
June—The eighth military government since the overthrow of Ngô Đình Diệm comes to power in Saigon, headed by Air Vice Marshall Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu.
October-November—Large antiwar demonstrations in Washington and other US cities.
December—US military personnel number more than 184,000.

1966

January—Senator J. William Fulbright held Foreign Relations Committee hearings about the war.
By the year end, General Westmoreland commands over 1 million troops, including 362,000 Americans. During 1966, more than 5,000 Americans are killed and more than 30,000 are wounded.
September 22—800 Puerto Rican men pledge to refuse US Vietnam era draft, part of the colonial subjugation of our country, in Lares, Puerto Rico.

1967

Throughout the year, there are huge antiwar demonstrations. More than 9,000 American are killed in Vietnam and close to 100,000 are wounded. By the fall, US troop strength is close to 500,000, and the forces under US command number more than 1.3 million.
April 4—Martin Luther King, Jr., denounces the war and calls the US government the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today; and this war is a blasphemy against all that America stands for.
November 21—General Westmoreland, called back home to engage in public relations, tells the nation that the enemys hopes are bankrupt, his forces are declining at a steady rate, and soon the South Vietnamese army will take charge of the final mopping up of the Vietcong.
End of 1967—The U.S. troop casualties rose to 16,021.

1968

January 30-February 24—The Tet Offensive: NLF launches simultaneous attacks on all US military bases in Vietnam and 110 cities and towns in South Vietnam.
March 1—The frenzied buying of gold, which breaks through the thirty-five-dollar-an-ounce price held since 1934.
March 12—Antiwar Senator Eugene McCarthy comes close to beating incumbent President Johnson in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
March 16—Antiwar Senator Robert Kennedy enters the presidential race.
March 16—US soldiers massacre hundreds of villagers in the hamlet of My Lai.
March 22—Announcement is made that General Westmoreland is being relieved of his command.
March 31—President Johnson announces a partial halt of the bombing of North Vietnam and withdraws from the presidential race.
April 4—Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated.
April 4-11—Riots and rebellions in 125 US cities; Army reserves are called-up.
April 11—The Civil Rights Act.
May 10—Peace talks between US and DRV open in Paris.
June 4—Robert Kennedy wins the Democratic primary in California, with 88 percent of the votes going to him and rival antiwar candidate McCarthy. That night Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles.
July 5—US Marines, proclaiming a major victory, withdraw under fire from the besieged base of Khe Sanh.
August 5-8—Republican National Convention in Miami Beach nominates Richard Nixon, who pledges that he will end the Vietnam War as soon as he takes office. A line of tanks has sealed off Miami Beach from the riots taking place in Miami.
August 26-29—Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominates Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, although he has won only 2.2 percent of the delegates in the state primaries, which were swept by McCarthy and Kennedy. Outside, police battle antiwar demonstrators.
End of 1968—The U.S. troop casualties double in one year to 30,160.

1969

January—The NLF and the Saigon government join the peace talks.
January-June—President Nixon and H. Ross Perot secretly plan a massive POW/MIA campaign to build support for continuing the war.
February—US troops participate in Operation Dewey Canyon I in Laos.
March—US forces in Vietnam peak at more than 540,000.
May 8—The NLF puts forward its ten-point position at the Paris negotiations.
May 14—President Nixon in a televised speech presents his Administrations eight-point negotiation position and announces the withdrawal of 25,000 US troops.
June 25—The Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRG) is announced.
September 2—Hồ Chí Minh dies.
October 15—Millions of Americans participate in the antiwar Moratorium.
November 15—During the antiwar Mobilization, a million protesters march in Washington and San Francisco while many GIs in Vietnam, including entire units, stage antiwar demonstrations.

1970

February—Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ begin secret peace talks in Paris.
April 29—US and ARVN troops invade eastern Cambodia.
May 4—Nationwide protest demonstrations erupt, during which four students are shot to death and 13 wounded by soldiers at Kent State University.
May 14—Two African-American students killed and 30 wounded by police at Jackson State College, Jackson, MS.
June 24—Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
August 29—25,000 Chicanos protest Vietnam war in streets of Los Angeles.
December—Congress bans US combat troops in Laos and Cambodia.

1971

January 10—Peoples Peace Treaty between peoples of the United States and Vietnam, endorsed by 130 organizations and million of north Americans later.
February-March—Dewey Canyon II: The invasion of Laos by ARVN troops with US air support turns into a debacle.
April—As part of a massive antiwar demonstration in Washington, Vietnam veterans stage Dewey Canyon III, during which several hundred throw their medals and ribbons at the Capitol.
May 3—May Day Action Against Viet Nam War results in largest mass arrests in U.S. history. 14,000 people shut down shut down war machine for 3 days. Washington, DC.
June—The New York Times begins serial publication of The Pentagon Papers, the top-secret Pentagon history of the Vietnam War, stolen by Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo.
October—Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, running unopposed, is elected president of South Vietnam.
December 26—15 members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) capture the Statue of Liberty for 43 hours (New York).

1972

February—President Nixon visits China.
March-May—Major offensive by insurgent forces in South Vietnam.
May—Nixon orders mining of Haiphong harbor.
June—Nixons Plumbers apprehended during burglary of the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate apartment and office complex.
October—Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ reach agreement on peace terms; Nixon announces that peace is at hand; Nguyễn Văn Thiệu rejects terms.
November—Nixon wins re-election in a landslide.
December 13—Peace talks break down when Lê Đức Thọ rejects changes in the agreement demanded by Nguyễn Văn Thiệu.
December 18-31—Operation Linebackers II: the massive Christmas bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong, during which many B-52s and other planes are shot down.
December 26—Peace talks resume, leading essentially to reinstatement of the October agreement by January 18, 1973.

1973

January 27—Peace agreement, signed by US, DRV, ARVN, and PRG, basically implements the terms of the 1969 NLF ten-point position.
February 1—In a secret letter to Hanois Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng, Nixon pledges over $4 billion in US aid to North Vietnam.
March—The last US combat troops are withdrawn from Vietnam. The last US prisoners of war are released; they are made the heroes of the war in the Nixon Administrations Operation Homecoming. US draft ended.
July 1—Congress passes a law forbidding the use of any funds for combat in, over, or off the shores of Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam as of August 15, 1973.
November—Congress passes the War Power Act over presidential veto.

1974

January-May—Cease-fire breaks down, and Saigon launches major offensive.
May—House Judiciary Committee begin impeachment hearings.
August-September—Nixon resigns. He is replaced by Gerald Ford, whom he had appointed vice-president after Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 while being indicted for several felonies, for which he was later convicted. President Ford pardons Nixon for any and all crimes he may have committed while president.

1975

January-April—Major offensive by NLF and army of the DRV. Saigons army collapses. Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigns.
April 30—Saigon surrenders to the revolutionary forces. Last US personnel leave in an emergency helicopter airlift from the roof of the US Embassy.
May 16—The United States imposes a trade embargo on Vietnam.

1976

Vietnam unifies as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) with Hanoi as its capital. After fifteen months of hearings and investigations, the House Select Committee on Missing Persons in Southeast Asia reports that there is no credible evidence that any US POWs are being held against their will in Vietnam.

1977

Khmer Rouge, now rulers of Kampuchea (Cambodia), launch attacks on Vietnamese villages in Tay Ninh province. Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations. Vietnam counterattacks Khmer Rouge forces.

1978

November—Vietnam signs friendship pact with the Soviet Union.
December—President Jimmy Carter normalizes relations with China. Vietnam, allied with dissident Khmer Rouge forces, invades Cambodia.

1979

January—Vietnamese forces defeat Khmer Rouge and help install a friendly government in Cambodia.
February—China invades northern Vietnam but is defeated by mid-March.

1981

President Ronald Reagans Administration sets up covert operations in Laos, Thailand, and the United States to promote the POW/MIA issue.

1982

Vietnam Veterans Memorial is unveiled in Washington. President Reagan sets up POW/MIA Interagency Group with leading POW/MIA activists in key positions.

1983

January 23—President Reagan declares that from now on, the POW/MIA issue will be the highest national priority.

1989

After eight years of fomenting the POW/MIA issue, the Reagan Administrations final report on the question admits that it has found no reliable evidence of any US POWs alive in Southeast Asia. The last Vietnamese troops are withdrawn from Cambodia.
The first year Vietnam is self-sufficient in food over 150 years.

1991

April 9—President George Bush announces a road map for full normalization of relations with Vietnam in two years.
July—Phony pictures of alleged US POWs in Vietnam unleash POW/MIA media blitz.
August 2—Creation of the Senate Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, which begins eighteen months of hearings.

1993

January—Senate Committee on POW/MIA Affairs releases an inconclusive final report.
July—President Bill Clintons Administration announces that it will no longer block International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans to Vietnam.
September—Clinton Administration maintains the US trade embargo against Vietnam that has been in effect since 1975, but allows US companies to begin bidding on future contracts for projects in Vietnam funded by international development agencies.

1994

February 3—President Clinton announces that he is lifting the trade embargo on Vietnam because of one factor and one factor only: This will help achieve the fullest possible accounting for our prisoners of war and our missing in action.

1995

April 9—We were terribly wrong, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on Vietnam.
July 11—The United States normalizes relations with Vietnam.

2000

February 28—Vietnam announces for the first time that it will pay compensation for soldiers (1961-1975) and their children (about 2 millions) affected by Agent Orange during the war with the United States.
March 30—The Air Force (Ranch Hand Study) has found the strongest evidence to date that exposure to Agent Orange is linked to diabetes.
April 19—South Korean veterans (of the U.S. allied forces) admit to many cases of massacre of civilians in Vietnam in 1966. South Korea sent 320,000 troops to support the U.S. in Vietnam during the period of 1965-19734,960 killed and 11,000 injured.

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