Timeline of the Vietnam War

Sci Martin
 Gulf of Tonkin Incident
The Gulf of Tonkin incident, also known as the USS

August 2, 1964 Maddox incident, was an international confrontation that

led to the United States being drawn more directly into
the Vietnam War
 Operation Rolling Thunder
Starting in the 1950s, the U.S. provided military equipment
and advisors to help the government of South Vietnam
resist a Communist takeover by North Vietnam and its
South Vietnam-based allies, the Viet Cong guerilla
March 2, 1965 fighters. In 1962, the American military initiated limited
air operations within South Vietnam, in an effort to offer
air support to South Vietnamese army forces, destroy
suspected Viet Cong bases and spray defoliants to
eliminate jungle cover.
 Tet offensive
On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 North Vietnamese and
January 30, Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive (named for
the lunar new year holiday called Tet), a coordinated
1968 series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns
in South Vietnam.
 Mai Lai massacre
In one of the most horrific incidents of violence against

March 16, 1968 civilians during the Vietnam War, a company of American
soldiers brutally killed the majority of the population of
the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai in March 1968.
 Operation Ranch Hand
The U.S. program of defoliation, codenamed Operation
Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 19 million gallons of

1962-1971 herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from

1961 to 1972. Agent Orange, which contained the
chemical dioxin, was the most commonly used of the
herbicide mixtures, and the most effective.