January 1: During a 24-hour allied ceasefire, 115 violations are reported. Six Americans, 20 South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, and 167 North Vietnamese troops are reported killed. Vice President Spiro Agnew flies to Saigon unannounced for a one-day visit, which he later says “confirmed [to him] the wisdom of our policies.” A VC communique claims the situation in South Vietnam is “very good,” and instructs the VC to kill as many U.S. and South Vietnamese troops as possible.

January 4: Defense and prosecution lawyers in the William Calley My Lai case arrive in South Vietnam. Time magazine reports on a poll that shows “considerable sympathy” for Lt. Calley, who “is being made a scapegoat by the government.” The poll also shows that the public is more concerned over the publicity given to the incident than with the apparent massacre.

January 9: South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu says it will be “impossible and impractical” to withdraw all U.S. combat troops in 1970.

January 16: Members of the American Legion begin a national fundraising drive to collect $200,000 for a legal-defense fund for Calley.

January 23: State Department officials say North Vietnam has amassed more troops and supplies in Laos than ever before.

February 3: The South Vietnamese government announces it will observe a 24-hour cease-fire for Tet.

February 7: The U.S. command says that 112 enemy-initiated incidents occurred during the 24-hour cease-fire. U.S. B-52s bomb suspected enemy troop concentrations near the Cambodian border, ignoring the VC four-day cease-fire.

February 11: In Washington D.C., a 75-day protest and fast against the Vietnam War begins, sponsored by Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The Pentagon announces that one-third of all U.S. troops killed in the Vietnam War have been draftees.

February 14: NVA troops ambush U.S. forces near the Cambodian border, killing eight and losing 31.

February 18: Sources report that American B-52s have bombed Pathet Lao and NVA troops inside Laos; the U.S. command refuses to comment.

February 20: Five of the Chicago 7 defendants receive jail terms of five years, in addition to $5,000 fines for their actions during the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests.

February 24: Informed sources say North Vietnam has launched its largest supply operation of the war in eastern Laos along the Ho Chí Minh Trail.

February 25: Sen. Charles Mathias, Jr. (R-Md.) accuses the Nixon administration of subverting the will of Congress by extending the war into Laos.

March 4: The State Department reports that Secretary William Rogers met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 3 to confirm that American ground forces will not be sent into Laos.

March 11: Sen. William Fulbright (D-Ark.) introduces a resolution that would not allow Nixon to commit troops to Laos without “affirmative action” by Congress.

March 18: Phnom Penh radio announces the overthrow of Cambodia Chief of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk by Lt. Gen. Lon Nol, the premier and defense minister, and First Deputy Premier Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak, a cousin of Sihanouk. Cambodia’s airports are closed, and the country is cut off from the outside world, except for broadcasts.

March 22: Fourteen women and children are killed after a bomb explodes northwest of Saigon in the middle of a Buddhist gathering.

March 27: The Cambodian government imposes a curfew on Phnom Penh and closes the airport after the knifing deaths of two national assemblymen in a mass demonstration against Sihanouk’s ouster. South Vietnamese troops launch their first major operation into Cambodia.

March 29: In Long Bình, 1st Lt. James Brian Duffy is found guilty of murdering an unarmed Vietnamese civilian. Duffy’s conviction is later reduced to involuntary manslaughter and he is sentenced to six months in prison.

March 31: Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) urges Nixon not to extend military aid to Cambodia.

April 2: President Nixon asks for a $65 million increase in the VA budget for health care, mainly for dental, amputee, and spinal-cord injury care. Incomplete reports for two days of enemy attacks and shellings indicate that 61 U.S., 101 South Vietnamese, and 552 NVA and VC troops have been killed.

April 10: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes to repeal the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

April 12: U.S. troops in War Zone C push to within 500 yards of the Cambodian border.

April 13: U.S. headquarters announces that troop strength in Vietnam is down to 429,000.

April 15: Bodies of hundreds of Vietnamese, many with their hands tied behind them, are found floating in the Mekong River in Southeast Cambodia.

April 19: At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, the State and Defense Departments testify on Project 404—a covert operation begun in 1966 to supply U.S. air observers in northern Laos to help guide bombing missions against the NVA and Pathet Lao. They also state that since 1962, 100 American civilians and military personnel have been killed in Laos.

April 23: By executive order, Nixon abolishes draft deferments for fathers and occupations.

April 24: White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler says that the fighting in Cambodia is a “foreign invasion of a neutral country which cannot be considered in any way a pretense of civil war.”

April 27: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes to end further military aid to Cambodia.

April 30: Despite congressional opposition, Nixon announces that he is sending combat troops into Cambodia to attack “the headquarters for the entire communist military operation in South Vietnam.”

May 3: The U.S. command puts the number of American casualties in the Cambodian Incursion at eight dead and 32 wounded.

May 4: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and nine wounded by National Guardsmen who break up a noontime antiwar rally. Ohio Gov. James Rhodes calls on the FBI to look into the campus violence.

May 5: Ohio National Guard officials say the guardsmen fired without orders because they feared for their lives, although they could find no evidence of sniper fire.

May 6: The House of Representatives refuses to sanction Nixon’s Cambodian invasion. Nixon orders a complete report on the shooting deaths of the four students at Kent State. Thousands of students join in protest around the country as 80 colleges and universities close their doors—some for the day, others for the rest of the academic year.

May 8: During a televised news conference, Nixon defends his decision to invade Cambodia as a move to shorten the war. In New York City, construction workers attack antiwar demonstrators on Wall Street. Twenty-five State Department and foreign-aid employees sign a protest letter to Secretary of State Rogers criticizing the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

May 12: Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird says U.S. troops have already been withdrawn from Cambodia. Allied officials say the sweep into Cambodia has fragmented the enemy’s military infrastructure.

May 22: At a Republican dinner in Houston, Vice President Agnew attacks the “liberal news media” and demands schools expel “hard-core” faculty members and students.

May 27: China and North Vietnam announce an agreement whereby China will give more military and economic aid to the Vietnamese.

June 1: Eight CBS and NBC journalists disappear in Cambodia, bringing the number of missing media personnel there to 24.

June 3: Attending the U.S. Military Academy graduation at West Point, Vice President Agnew praises the cadets for their leadership abilities and calls antiwar demonstrators “criminal misfits” and “charlatans of peace.” President Nixon, in a nationally televised address, calls the Cambodian Incursion “the most successful operation of this long and difficult war.”

June 7: John Hannah, the director for the Agency for International Development, says the CIA has been using his agency as a cover for operations in Laos.

June 9: The U.S. Army drops all charges against Capt. Thomas Willingham in the massacre of civilians in 1968 at My Lai, citing a “lack of evidence.”

June 11: The USSR says it is increasing aid to North Vietnam.

June 12: Diplomatic sources in Cambodia say the government has no alternative but to let half the country fall under communist control.

June 14: Between 2,000 and 3,000 U.S. troops are withdrawn from Cambodia, leaving 10,000 still in the country.

June 18: Highway 1, the last main road linking Saigon and Phnom Penh, is cut off by enemy forces. Dr. Jesse Steinfeld, the U.S. Surgeon General, testifies in front of a Senate Commerce Committee subcommittee that 2,4-D, the most widely used herbicide in the U.S., is not a public health hazard.

June 19: The U.S. command says 300 Americans have been killed in Cambodia since April 29.

June 27: A Gallup poll reports that 56 percent of the American public believes the U.S. “made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam.”

June 30: The Senate votes to adopt the Cooper-Church Amendment, which would limit presidential operations in Cambodia. In a report on the completed operation, Nixon says the action in Cambodia was “successful.” He also rules out any future use of American troops there and urges North Vietnam to begin serious peace negotiations.

Year in Review: 1970 will continue in the next issue of The VVA Veteran.

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