AP photo

February 3: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins hearings on the war in Vietnam.

February 8: The U.S. and South Vietnam issue a declaration placing new emphasis on a combination of military action and expanding civic reform programs to win the war. Premier Nguyen Cao Ky states that South Vietnam would not negotiate with or recognize the Viet Cong.

February 13: Vice President Humbert Humphrey ends a Saigon trip announcing that there will be no American pressure on the South Vietnamese to negotiate peace with the Viet Cong.

February 14: First Cavalry Division troops engage in hand-to-hand combat in the An Lão Valley with the Viet Cong.

February 17: Retired Army Gen. Maxwell Taylor, the former U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, assures the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Johnson administration intends only a “limited” war, but refuses to state specific limits. French President Charles de Gaulle sends a harsh letter to President Johnson condemning the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.

February 23: British officials confer with Russian officials for clarification of Hanoi’s conditions to end the war. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara hints reserves may be called up for service in Vietnam.

February 27: Enemy forces shell a commercial freighter in the Saigon River for the first time in the war.

March 1: President Johnson renews his offer to the Vietnamese communists to develop both North and South Vietnam in a peace settlement. Sen. J William Fulbright (D-Ark.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposes that the Vietnam War could be resolved by an agreement with China for the neutralization of all Southeast Asia. Congress overwhelmingly approves a $4.8-billion military authorization bill to provide additional funds for the Vietnam War.

March 4: U.S. Air Force fighter-bombers strike far north into North Vietnam and cut rail lines to China.

March 7: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approves a bill authorizing an additional appropriation of $415 million for economic aid to South Vietnam. Air Force and Navy jets attack rail and road lines, bridges, barge traffic, and military storage depots with bombs and rockets in 71 missions against North Vietnam.

March 25: South Vietnamese troops report killing 245 Viet Cong guerrillas in two fierce battles in the Mekong River Delta.

April 1: VC units bomb a U.S. military billet, with three Americans dead and 60 wounded. All congressional trips to South Vietnam are postponed because of concerns over the political crisis confronting the Saigon government.

April 6: American Marines destroy a Viet Cong complex 18 miles south of Saigon while U.S. planes strike at targets near Vinh.

April 13: A squad of VC guerrillas attacks Tan Son Nhut Air Base, three miles from Saigon, killing eight and wounding more than 160. Concern over the political crisis in South Vietnam is voiced in Congress. Members stress the need to make “appraisals” and reach “new decisions” if the Saigon government cannot solve its problems.

April 20: For the third day in a row, U.S. fighter-bombers penetrate North Vietnamese defenses to strike near the Hanoi-Haiphong region.

April 24: U.S. Air Force pilots shoot down two Soviet-built MIG-17 jets over North Vietnam.

May 1: About 5,000 South Vietnamese citizens stage a May Day anti-American demonstration, demanding an end to the war and American involvement in it.

May 3: The Johnson administration begins a new effort to arrange for the formal exchange of prisoners of war with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.

May 11: MiG-17 jet fighters fire at U.S. aircraft over North Vietnam, the first confirmed air-to-air combat in the Vietnam War.

May 21: South Vietnamese government marines take over one of the pagodas used as a refuge by dissidents after four hours of fighting in which two Buddhist monks are killed. President Johnson deplores the political strife in South Vietnam as a diversion from the war.

May 30: China claims that U.S. combat jets attacked Chinese fishing boats in international waters. The Johnson administration refuses to comment on the report.

June 5: Civilians drawing up a South Vietnamese election law recommend a constitution-drafting assembly be elected and given legislative functions with the capability of later becoming a fully constituted national assembly.

June 7: A planned big U.S. offensive to clear North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops from coastal highways leading from Saigon north to Hue calls for sending 100,000 U.S. additional troops to South Vietnam, bringing the total to 400,000.

June 15: The ruling government of South Vietnam announces it will limit the power of the coming constituent assembly to writing a constitution, thereby possibly prolonging the military regime of Premier Nguyen Cao Ky for three to six months.

June 29: U.S. bombers strike close to the centers of Hanoi and Haiphong in raids that mark a significant change in restrictions keeping American planes away from the two cities. Secretary of Defense McNamara says the raids are in response to increasing North Vietnamese infiltration in South Vietnam and moves to camouflage oil storage and distribution systems.

July 3: China says the bombing of oil depots near Hanoi and Haiphong has freed the Chinese from any restrictions in helping North Vietnam in the war.

July 7: North Vietnamese jets fire air-to-air missiles against U.S. aircraft for the first time in the war. The Warsaw Pact nations announce they will send troops to North Vietnam if requested by Hanoi.

July 10: The Johnson administration initiates a large expansion of the armed forces.

July 22: Secretary of State Dean Rusk urges support for Johnson’s policy of “firmness with prudence”—which he says was designed to keep open the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the war.

July 26: U.S. officials state that herbicides were sprayed over 50,000 acres of crops in VC-controlled areas in the first six months of the year.

August 2: Ky says he will give up politics and devote all his time to a military career after an elected government is established in South Vietnam in November.

August 4: The Defense Department issues a draft call for 46,200 men in October, the highest monthly figure since the Korean War.

August 5: At a news conference, Secretary of State Rusk says that the U.S. does not exclude the possibility of sending ground troops into North Vietnam.

August 10: U.S. strategists announce they are making detailed plans for moving a sizable U.S. military force into the Mekong Delta.

August 11: U.S. Air Force jets kill 24, including at least eight civilians and possibly some Viet Cong, in an air strike August 9 on two enemy-controlled hamlets eight miles west of Can Tho.

August 28: Top military strategists engaged in long-range planning announce they are thinking of building up U.S. forces in Vietnam to about 600,000 over the next 18 months.

September 10: The North Vietnamese Foreign Ministry rejects President Johnson’s offer to withdraw U.S. troops from South Vietnam if North Vietnam withdraws its forces from the South.

September 11: South Vietnam begins voting to elect a national constituent assembly that will draft a constitution to lead to eventual democratic government.

September 15: 1,500 U.S. Marines go ashore in South Vietnam’s northernmost province before dawn, three miles from the demilitarized zone. The Pentagon announces that there have been 5,064 U.S. combat deaths since the beginning of the war.

September 30: A pause in the bombing of part of the demilitarized zone by U.S. planes is ordered to encourage renewed international patrolling.

October 1: U.S. B-52s make bombing raids south of the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam and also 30 miles northwest of Qui Nhon.

October 12: Air Force and Navy planes hit VC bases 42 miles southwest of Can Tho in the Mekong Delta.

October 19: Seven ministers in the South Vietnamese cabinet resign, charging that Ky has done little to solve the problem of regionalism. The ministers also claim that the government is becoming a police state.

December 1: Reports indicate that a total of 2,505 VC turned themselves in to the Americans in November. The figure breaks the previous monthly record set in March. United States combat losses are 143 for the first week of December, 34 more than the previous week, with enemy losses reported as 1,422 compared to 1,098 the week before.

December 13: For the first time in the 22-month-old air campaign against North Vietnam, U.S. pilots attack residential areas within the Hanoi city limits, the Soviet news agency TASS reports. Pentagon officials say that U.S. policy is to only hit military targets.

December 14: U.S. officials confirm reports of the bombing of civilian targets in Hanoi.

December 16: MACV Commanding Gen. William C. Westmoreland announces that no U.S. bombs fell in the city of Hanoi in the recent raids.

December 24: Westmoreland sends his annual message to American troops and declares a 48-hour Christmas ceasefire. Minor combat actions take place near Da Nang.

2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016
2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012
2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008
2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004
2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000