History and Cultures of Asia

Timeline After Geneva Accords (1954)

1. Cold War
- Post World War II (first Indo China War/French Indo China War – 1946-1954)
- Proxy War and Domino Theory
- Geneva Accords (1954)
2. “Hotter War”
- 1961-1963: Kennedy Administration (Linden B Johnson takes over)
- 1961: 800 “advisors” in South Vietnam
- 1963: 16,700 “advisors” in South Vietnam
- Increasing political destabilization
3. Hot War
- Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution (1964): US ships fired on by Vietnam, US under
Linden B Johnson can offer assistance to any Southeast Asian nation with threats of
communism AND the US has the right to do this until there is peace
- Operation Rolling Thunder (1965): start of Vietnam War, 165,000 US ground troops in
South Vietnam (they support ARVN → Army of the Republic of Vietnam and are against
VC → Viet Cong/NLF → National Liberation Front), by 1969 there are 543,000 US
ground troops in Vietnam
- “Vietnamization” (1968): Nixon’s resolution to the War, bring war back to Vietnam (pull
out US soldiers), escalate air warfare, 1973 all US troops out of Vietnam (war is not over,
civil war between North and South Vietnam continues until 1979)
- Tet Offensive (1968): US embassy falls, North vs. South Vietnam
4. End of the War
- Paris Peace Accords (1973)