Two decades of war in Vietnam, from the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu through American escalation, Tet, the protests at home, and the final helicopters out of Saigon in April 1975.
Viet Minh forces under General Giap overrun the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu after a 56-day siege, ending French rule in Indochina.
The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi Minh's forces in the North and a Western-backed state in the South, pending elections that never come.
Hanoi backs the creation of the National Liberation Front, known to its enemies as the Viet Cong, to wage guerrilla war against the Saigon government.
South Vietnamese generals, with tacit US approval, overthrow President Ngo Dinh Diem. His assassination ushers in years of political chaos in Saigon.
North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack the USS Maddox; a disputed second attack two days later leads Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, a blank check for escalation.
The United States opens a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam that will last three and a half years and drop more bombs than the entire Pacific war.
3,500 Marines wade ashore at Da Nang, the first American ground combat units in Vietnam. By year's end nearly 185,000 US troops are in country.
The first major battle between the US Army and North Vietnamese regulars. Both sides claim vindication: America trusts airmobile firepower, Hanoi learns to fight close and bleed the Americans.
Communist forces launch surprise attacks on over 100 cities during the Tet holiday, even breaching the US Embassy grounds in Saigon. A military defeat for Hanoi but a psychological turning point in America.
US soldiers kill as many as 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. Covered up for a year, the massacre shatters American moral authority when exposed.
Days before the presidential election, President Johnson announces a complete halt to the bombing of North Vietnam, opening the door to the Paris peace talks.
President Nixon announces the first US troop withdrawals and a policy of handing the ground war to South Vietnamese forces while America pulls back.
North Vietnam's founding father dies at 79 on the anniversary of his 1945 declaration of independence. Hanoi fights on in his name.
Nixon announces US and South Vietnamese incursions into Cambodia to strike communist sanctuaries, igniting the largest wave of campus protests in American history.
Ohio National Guardsmen fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and galvanizing opposition to the war.
The New York Times begins publishing a secret Pentagon history of the war, revealing years of official deception about Vietnam across four administrations.
North Vietnam launches a massive conventional invasion of the South. South Vietnamese forces, backed by US airpower, eventually blunt the offensive.
Nixon orders eleven days of intensive B-52 strikes on Hanoi and Haiphong to force North Vietnam back to the negotiating table.
The United States, North and South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong sign the Paris Peace Accords, ending direct American involvement in the war.
The final American combat troops depart Vietnam and Hanoi releases its last acknowledged prisoners of war, including future senator John McCain.
North Vietnamese tanks crash through the gates of the Presidential Palace as helicopters evacuate the last Americans from rooftops. The war ends with Vietnam unified under Hanoi.