January 1: The New Year’s truce is badly broken near My Tho when Viet Cong units attack the headquarters of the South Vietnamese 2nd Marine Battalion. U.S. command reports 16 violations in the first 12 hours. On Highway 2 east of Saigon, guerrillas ambush armored personnel carriers, killing nine Americans and wounding 29.

January 5: U.S. losses through December 30 bring the 1967 death toll to 9,353 and total U.S. war dead to 15,997. Reports also state that the Viet Cong killed 3,820 civilians in 1967, more than double the previous year.

January 16: Large concentrations of enemy troops and supplies are detected in Laos and South Vietnam near the Marine outpost at Khe Sanh, increasing fears of a major assault there.

January 20: The U.S. announces that 302,000 men will be drafted into the Army in 1968, up 72,000 from the year before.

January 27: Just after the Tet cease-fire begins, enemy troops attack a militia post near Saigon. Other attacks are reported near Quang Tri, Pleiku, and Lai Khê.

January 31: The Tet Offensive erupts in full. A Viet Cong squad penetrates the U.S. Embassy compound in Saigon, killing at least five U.S. MPs and two Marine guards before being wiped out. The fighting shocks the American public and signals a new phase of the war.

February 1: At least 21 of South Vietnam’s 44 provincial capitals, along with major cities, come under attack. Major highways into Saigon are cut, and the airport is closed to commercial traffic.

February 3: President Johnson says the enemy has suffered a military defeat and predicts Tet will yield no psychological gain. In Hue, U.S. Marines continue bitter house-to-house fighting and gain more ground in the city.

February 7: New enemy forces slip into Saigon as fighting there enters its second week. Near Khe Sanh, North Vietnamese troops use Soviet-made tanks in an assault on the Lang Vei Special Forces camp—the first enemy tank attack of the war. Westmoreland reinforces the northern sector with Army 1st Cavalry troops.

February 9: U.S. command says enemy losses since late January exceed 24,000, while 703 Americans have been killed in the same period.

February 14: Westmoreland receives 10,500 additional U.S. troops, bringing the American total in Vietnam to about 510,000.

February 23: The U.S. announces that 48,000 men will be inducted in April to meet an emergency in South Vietnam, the largest call-up in 18 months.

February 24: In Hue, the South Vietnamese flag is raised over the Citadel, though fierce fighting continues.

February 27: A U.S. Marine patrol is mauled at Khe Sanh as the siege continues.

March 4: Thirty additional South Vietnamese cities and hamlets report enemy attacks, showing the offensive is far from over.

March 9: Westmoreland asks for 206,000 more troops, triggering fierce internal debate in Washington.

March 10: The Viet Cong launch coordinated attacks on targets along the southern edge of Saigon. A Gallup poll finds 49 percent of Americans now believe U.S. involvement in Vietnam was a mistake.

March 22: Johnson announces that Westmoreland will leave Vietnam to become Army Chief of Staff, to be replaced before July 2.

April 1: Johnson orders a halt to the air and naval bombardment of most of North Vietnam and invites Hanoi to join in moves toward peace.

April 4: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis. North Vietnam charges that U.S. aircraft have bombed populated areas north of the line Johnson had excluded from attack.

April 6: The 76-day siege of Khe Sanh is officially declared lifted as Army troops push toward enemy positions south of the base.

April 10: Johnson appoints Gen. Creighton W. Abrams to succeed Westmoreland as commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam.

April 11: Defense Secretary Clark Clifford sets a ceiling of 549,500 U.S. troops in Vietnam and declares that major war responsibility will gradually be shifted to South Vietnamese forces.

April 27: About 87,000 antiwar demonstrators march in New York City under banners denouncing racism and the Vietnam War.

April 28: Allied helicopters launch a major assault into the A Shau Valley, a key enemy stronghold near the Laotian border.

May 5: Hanoi radio reports that U.S. planes have bombed the capital in a serious escalation of the war; several U.S. aircraft are lost.

June 5: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is shot and killed in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic primary.

June 11: Westmoreland says military victory “in a classic sense” is impossible in Vietnam because the United States will not expand the war.

June 19: U.S. and North Vietnamese spokesmen report no progress after the ninth Paris negotiating session, with the bombing issue still deadlocked.

June 27: U.S. Marines abandon the combat base at Khe Sanh after months of siege and heavy fighting.

July 14: Secretary of Defense Clifford says he is determined to provide South Vietnamese forces with more weapons and firepower, even at the expense of U.S. forces.

July 20: South Vietnamese troops in the Mekong Delta kill six Viet Cong prison guards and free 39 emaciated captives found chained to stakes in a field.

August 5: A North Vietnamese spokesman says that once bombing stops, the United States must discuss a political settlement in South Vietnam with the National Liberation Front.

August 19: The heaviest fighting in three months breaks out as North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack across all four military regions of South Vietnam. Some of the sharpest combat occurs in Tây Ninh.

September 5: U.S. command reports that 408 troops were killed the previous week, the highest number in three months.

September 18: B-52 bombers carry out heavy raids along the DMZ in an effort to slow North Vietnamese infiltration into the South.

October 9: Hanoi again calls on Johnson to halt the bombing of North Vietnam and move peace talks forward. In Saigon, South Vietnamese Marine and Army officers are arrested in what the government describes as an abortive coup attempt.

October 24: Johnson says Hanoi has not replied to his latest proposal for a complete bombing halt.

November 2: President Nguyen Van Thieu says South Vietnam will not attend the Paris peace talks unless North Vietnam agrees not to seat the National Liberation Front as a separate delegation.

November 5: The Paris peace talks, scheduled to begin the next day, are postponed. In Saigon, about 2,000 civilians protest Johnson’s unilateral decision to halt the bombing of the North.

November 6: Richard Nixon is elected president of the United States.

November 29: Viet Cong command orders a new offensive aimed at destroying U.S. and South Vietnamese combat and pacification forces.

December 2: Nixon names Henry Kissinger as his national security adviser.

December 13: U.S. and North Vietnamese representatives meet privately for three hours to discuss the table shape for the peace talks, symbolic of the deadlock that continues to hamper negotiations.

December 15: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the 1967 Selective Service law limiting draft-related court challenges.

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