Peace and Aggression: A Challenge of Our Time
Joan Rapczynski and Florence Zywocinski
Your feedback is important to us!
After viewing our curriculum units, please take a few minutes to help us understand how the units, which were created by public school teachers, may be useful to others.
Lesson Plan #7
Important Dates in the Vietnam War
Objectives
-
1. Students will be aware of the events leading up to the American involvement in the Vietnam War.
-
2. Students will be able to identify the President who was in office at the time of each event.
Procedure
-
1. Put the events listed below on the blackboard or a ditto sheet. Do not put them in the correct chronological order.
-
2. Assign the student research the dates of the following events. Have the students place them on a time line in the correct chronological order.
-
3. Assign to the students—state next to each event the name of the President who was in office at that time.
Important Dates in the Vietnam War
-
1957
The Viet Cong began to attack the South Vietnamese government headed by President Ngo Dinh Diem.
-
1963 (June)
Buddhists in South Vietnam began large scale demonstrations against the Diem government.
-
1963 (November)
South Vietnamese generals overthrew the Diem government and Diem was killed the next day.
-
1964 (August 7)
The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which gave the President power “to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”
-
1965 (February)
The President orders marines to be sent to Da Nang, South Vietnam to protect American bases there. The marines were the first U.S. ground troops in the war.
-
1967 (September 3)
South Vietnam held the first elections under its new constitution, adopted earlier that year. Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president.
-
1968 (January 30)
The Communists launched the TET offensive, a large scale attack against 30 South Vietnamese cities.
-
1968 (March 16)
U.S. troops killed hundreds of South Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai. One officer, Lieutenant William L. Calley Jr. was found guilty of murder by a U.S. court martial.
-
1968 (May 13)
Preliminary peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in Paris.
-
1969 (June 8)
The President announced that the U.S. troops would begin to withdraw from Vietnam.
-
1970 (June 24)
The Senate repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
-
1973 (January 27)
The U.S., North and South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong signed a cease fire agreement in Paris.
-
1973 (March 29)
The last American troops left South Vietnam.
-
1975 (April 21)
President Thieu resigned.
-
1975 (April 30)
South Vietnam surrendered to the Communists.
