Vietnamese Buddhist Protests
In 1963 Vietnamese Buddhist demonstrators were attacked by government forces.
Battle of Ap Bac 1963
Battle of Ap Bac 1963
A Viet Cong battalion inflicted heavy casualties on South Vietnamese government forces and escaped with minor losses.
#BattleofApBac
JFK Speaks On Vietnam 1962
In 1962 the U.S. government maintained secrecy regarding the extent of U.S. military involvement in South Vietnam, As the Viet Cong insurgency expanded, U.S. military personnel flew combat missions and accompanied South Vietnamese soldiers in ground operations to find...
Helicopters in Vietnam War
In July 1962 the first armed helicopter company of the United States Army was formed.
#BellUH-1Helicopter
JFK Increases US Advisors to Vietnam
In November 1961 President Kennedy increased the number of US military advisors to South Vietnam from 1000 to 16,000. Source: JFK Library
US Military Advisors in Vietnam War
In 1955 President Eisenhower sent economic aid and ~700 military personnel to the government of South Vietnam. This effort was foundering in 1960 when John F. Kennedy was elected president. In May 1961 Kennedy authorized sending an additional 500 Special Forces troops...
Civil War in Laos
In association with civil wars in Cambodia and Vietnam, the Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from May 1959 to December 1975. Both sides received heavy support in a proxy war...
Ho Chi Minh Trail
In May 1959 the Peoples’ Army of Vietnam’s Military Transportation Group 559 was established in North Vietnam. The group ultimately created and maintained the Ho Chi Minh Trail to facilitate the infiltratiion of troops and supplies from North Vietnam in support...
Ngo Dinh Diem Becomes President of Vietnam
https://youtu.be/D8M6b6t_pwk In spring 1955 anti-French sentiment led Vietnamese nationalists to call for removal of Bảo Đại, who was head of Vietnam's provisional government. Ngo Dinh Diem then set up a referendum between himself and Bảo Đại for October 1955. In...
Fall of French Indochina
https://youtu.be/ZMPNY9w8OmQ In May 1954 communist Viet Minh forces won a decisive victory over the French colonial army in the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ. The war ended shortly afterward with signing of the 1954 Geneva Accords in which France agreed to withdraw its...
First Indochina War – 1947-1954
https://youtu.be/8kgcUFU5_eA After WWII, the decolonization of French Indochina left the region divided into four independent states: North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. In September 1945, a provisional government in Hanoi...
Vietnam Uprising
https://youtu.be/pl-0uqJhi3o In October 1950, led by Võ Nguyên Giáp, Communist troops in the northern region of the French colony of Vietnam began a series of attacks on French colonial fortresses along the border with China. 10,000 French troops. isolated in...
Bảo Đại
https://youtu.be/rfzHg9wEXV0 Bảo Đại, the last of the Nguyễn dynasty, was the Emperor of Annam (a protectorate within French Indochina) from 1926 to 1945. After the Japanese ousted the Vichy-French administration in March 1945 Bảo Đại was named ruler. He soon renamed...
Haiphong Incident
On November 23, 1946 the French navy bombarded the Vietnamese coastal city of Haiphong, killing 6,000 Vietnamese people overnight. The Haiphong shelling was the first in a series of armed clashes leading to the December Battle of Hanoi and the outbreak of the First...
20th Century Vietnamese Literature
Before the 17th century, official Vietnamese documents, literature and poetry were written in Classical Chinese. The modern written Vietnamese language chữ quốc ngữ utilizes Latin script with additional accent marks (diacritics) and characters joined together...
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh, born in 1880 into the family of a poor country scholar as Nguyen Sinh Cung (also called Nguyen Tat Thanh or Nguyen Ai Quoc) attended grammar school in Hue, taught school in Phan Thiet, and was apprenticed at a technical institute in Saigon. In 1911...
Vietnam After WWII
French Indochina was formed in the late 19th century by combining three Vietnamese regions (Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina) with Cambodia, Laos and Guangzhouwan. With the fall of France in 1940, the control of the colony shifted to the Vichy French who...