- History Classics
- Your Profile
- Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
- Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
- Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
- This Day In History
- History Podcasts
- History Vault
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War pitted communist North Vietnam and the Viet Cong against South Vietnam and the United States. The war ended when U.S. forces withdrew in 1973 and Vietnam unified under Communist control two years later.
Vietnam War Timeline
Vietnam Background: Uneasy French Rule • 1887: France imposes a colonial system over Vietnam, calling it French Indochina. The system includes Tonkin, Annam, Cochin China and Cambodia. Laos is added in 1893. • 1923‑25: Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh is trained in the Soviet Union as an agent of the Communist International (Comitern). • February 1930: Ho Chi […]
Weapons of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War: Weapons of the Air The war saw the U.S. Air Force and their South Vietnamese allies fly thousands of massive low‑altitude bombing missions over North and South Vietnam as well as over sites of suspected Communist activity in neighboring Laos and Cambodia. The B‑52 heavy bomber, developed by Boeing in the late 1940s, […]
Kent State Shooting
The Kent State shooting took place in 1970 when Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on Vietnam War protesters at Kent State University, killing four.
Pentagon Papers
Who Was Daniel Ellsberg? In 1967, at the request of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, a team of analysts working for the Department of Defense prepared a highly classified study of the U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from the end of World War II until the present day. The official title of […]
My Lai Massacre
In 1968, Ron Ridenhour, an infantryman in Vietnam, wrote a letter to President Nixon detailing the murder of 500 civillians by the U.S. Army in what would come to be known as the My Lai Massacre.
Agent Orange
Agent Orange was a chemical herbicide used during the Vietnam War that had a devastating impact long after the conflict ended.
Ho Chi Minh
Learn about the many names and identities of the man who would become the face of the Vietnamese nationalist movement.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Learn about the international incident that escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War.
7 Iconic Photos From the Vietnam War Era
Gifted photographers and reporters captured images that conveyed the agony and violence of the Vietnam war, and the deep divisions it drove in American society.
Henry Kissinger’s Controversial Role in the Vietnam War
As Nixon’s Secretary of State, Kissinger both escalated the war—and tried to end it.
Missing in Action: How Military Families in Tortuous Limbo Galvanized a Movement
In the wake of the Vietnam War, families of military members who never returned from service banded together to demand an accounting.
How the Vietnam War Draft Spurred the Fight for Lowering the Voting Age
As growing numbers of young men were conscripted to fight in the war in Vietnam, a hit song helped drive the push to lower the voting age to match the draft age.
This Day in History
Reporter breaks news of secret bombing in Cambodia
Vietnam veterans exposed to agent orange win $180 million settlement, pulitzer prize‑winning photo “burst of joy” is taken.
The Jeannette Rankin Brigade: 5,000 women march against Vietnam War
Thousands of mexican american antiwar activists march in chicano moratorium, president nixon meets with anti‑war protesters at the lincoln memorial.
IMAGES
VIDEO