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-Viet Minh troops under Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap overrun the French base at Dien Bien Phu.
-The stunning victory by Vietnamese forces
- An end to nearly a century of French colonial rule in Indochina

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-The Saigon Military Mission, a covert operation to conduct psychological warfare and paramilitary activities in South Vietnam,
-Lunder the command of U.S. Air Force Col. Edward Lansdale. ---
--This marks the beginning of the Vietnam War.

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-The Geneva Accords effectively divide Vietnam in two at the 17th parallel.
-Although the Accords explicitly state that the 17th parallel “should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary,”
-It quickly afforded exactly that status.

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-Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated by his own generals as part of a coup d’état that is carried out with the tacit support of U.S. officials.
-Ngo’s autocratic and violent excesses when dealing with South Vietnam’s majority Buddhist population led the U.S. to withdraw its patronage of him. -At this point approximately 16,000 U.S. military personnel are in Vietnam, and 200 have been killed.

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-After commanders reported a North Vietnamese torpedo boat attack on the U.S. destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin, U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson submits the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to Congress. ---The resolution authorizes the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States.”
-The captain of the Maddox urged caution, suggesting that the August 4 attack had been conjured from the imaginations of overeager or inexperienced sonar operators.

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-A Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of Vietnam (PROVN),
-A study commissioned by the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Harold K. Johnson, is published. -Its findings suggest that the strategy of attrition being pursued by U.S. commander Gen. William Westmoreland is counterproductive, and it recommends that more U.S.

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-During the Vietnamese New Year holiday of Tet, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces begin an offensive
-Eventually hurl some 85,000 troops against five major cities, dozens of military installations, and scores of towns and villages throughout South Vietnam.
-The attacks, which eschew the guerrilla tactics traditionally employed by North Vietnamese forces, play directly to American and South Vietnamese strengths.

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-As many as 500 unarmed villagers are killed by U.S. Army troops in the hamlet of My Lai. -Groups of women, children, and elderly men are shot at close range by elements of Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Brigade.
- Attempts to cover up the massacre begin almost before the shooting stops, and only one American, Charlie Company’s 1st Platoon commander, Lieut. William Calley, will be found guilty of any crime in connection
with My Lai.

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-Millions of people across the United States take to the streets to protest the continued U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
-The antiwar demonstrations represent the largest public protests in U.S. history to date.

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-Members of the Ohio National Guard open fire on unarmed college students at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine.
-The incident catalyzes the growing antiwar movement. Roughly 335,000 U.S.
-Troops are in Vietnam, and approximately 50,000 have been killed.