Timeline: Vietnam
A chronology of key events:
1930 - Ho Chi Minh founds the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP).
1941 - ICP organises a guerrilla force, Viet Minh, in response to
invasion by Japan
during World War II.
1945 - The Viet Minh seizes power. Ho Chi Minh announces Vietnam's
independence.
1946 - French forces attack Viet Minh in Haiphong in November, sparking the war of
resistance against the colonial power.
1950 - Democratic Republic
of Vietnam is recognised by China and USSR.
1954 - Viet Minh forces attack an isolated French military outpost in
the town of Dien Bien Phu.
The attempt to take the outpost lasts two months, during which time the French
government agrees to peace talks in Geneva.
At the Geneva conference, Vietnam is
split into North and South at the 17th Parallel.
1956 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem begins campaign
against political dissidents.
1957 - Beginning of Communist insurgency in the South.
1959 - Weapons and men from North Vietnam begin infiltrating the
South.
1960 - American aid to Diem increased.
1962 - Number of US military advisors in South Vietnam rises to 12,000.
1963 - Viet Cong, the communist guerrillas operating in South Vietnam,
defeat units of the ARVN, the South Vietnamese Army. President Diem is
overthrown.
US enters the war
1964 - US
destroyer allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats. This triggers
start of pre-planned American bombing raids on North Vietnam.
1965 - 200,000 American combat troops arrive in South Vietnam.
1966 - US troop numbers in Vietnam rise to 400,000, then to
500,000 the following year.
1968 - Tet Offensive - a combined assault by Viet Cong and the North
Vietnamese army on US positions - begins. More than 500 civilians die in the US massacre at My Lai.
1969 - Ho Chi Minh dies. President Nixon begins to reduce US ground troops in Vietnam as domestic public
opposition to the war grows.
1970 - Nixon's national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, and Le Duc
Tho, for the Hanoi government, start talks in Paris.
1973 - Ceasefire agreement in Paris,
US troop
pull-out completed by March.
1975 - North Vietnamese troops invade South Vietnam and take control of
the whole country after South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh surrenders.
Reconstruction
1976 - Socialist Republic of Vietnam proclaimed. Saigon is re-named Ho Chi Minh City.
Hundreds of thousands flee abroad, including many "boat people".
1979 - Vietnam invades
Cambodia
and ousts the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot. In response, Chinese troops cross Vietnam's
northern border. They are pushed back by Vietnamese forces. The number of
"boat people" trying to leave Vietnam causes international
concern.
1986 - Nguyen Van Linh becomes party leader. He introduces a more
liberal economic policy.
1989 - Vietnamese troops withdraw from Cambodia.
1992 - New constitution adopted allowing certain economic freedoms.
The Communist Party remains the leading force in Vietnamese society.
Reconciliation
1994 - US lifts its 30-year trade embargo.
1995 - Vietnam
and US restore full diplomatic relations. Vietnam becomes full member of
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
1997 - Le Kha Phieu becomes party leader. Tran Duc Luong chosen as
president, Phan Van Khai becomes prime minister.
1998 - A senior party member, Pham The Duyet, faces charges of
corruption. Economic growth slumps in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.
1999 - A former high-ranking party member, Tran Do, is expelled after
calling for more democracy and freedom of expression.
2000 - US
President Bill Clinton pays a three-day official visit. The US pledges more
help to clear landmines left over from the Vietnam war. The Vietnamese
government estimates nearly 40,000 people have been killed by unexploded
munitions.
2001 April - The Communist Party chooses Nong Duc Manh as its new
leader.
2001 December - US, Vietnam
implement a trade agreement which normalises the trade status between them.
2002 May - Russia
hands back the Cam Ranh Bay naval base, once the largest Soviet base outside
the Warsaw Pact.
2002 July - President Tran Duc Luong reappointed for second term by
National Assembly, which also reappoints Prime Minister Phan Van Khai for
second five-year term.
2003 June - High-profile trial of Ho Chi Minh City gangster Nam Cam and 154
others hands down six death sentences.
2003 November - First US warship to visit since the Vietnam War sails
into port near Ho Chi Minh City.
2004 December - First US commercial flight since the end of the
Vietnam War touches down in Ho Chi
Minh City.
2005 June - Prime Minister Phan Van Khai makes the first visit to the
US
by a Vietnamese leader since the end of the Vietnam War.
2006 January onwards - Senior officials are investigated over the
alleged embezzlement of millions of dollars of state money in the transport
ministry.
2006 June - As part of an anticipated political shake-up, the prime
minister, president and National Assembly chairman are replaced by younger
leaders.
WTO membership
2007 January - After 12 years of talks Vietnam becomes the 150th member of
the World Trade Organization.
2007 February - Government approves a $33bn plan to build a
high-speed rail link between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in the
south.
2007 February - US agrees for the first time to help fund a study
into the removal of Agent Orange, the highly toxic defoliant used by US forces,
from a former US base in Da Nang.
2007 June - President Nguyen Minh Triet makes first visit to the US by a
Vietnamese head of state since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
2007 July - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung reappointed, promises to
push through economic reforms.
2008 January - Vietnam
takes up a two-year, non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
2008 April - Vietnam
launches first communications satellite from French Guiana.
Media clampdown
2008 October - US and international media campaigners condemn guilty
verdicts on two Vietnamese journalists Nguyen Viet Chien and Nguyen Van Hai,
who had helped to expose a major corruption scandal. Latter not imprisoned
after pleading guilty.
2008 November - Vietnam
says it plans to enforce a two-child policy in an attempt to control population
growth.
2008 December - China
and Vietnam
resolve border dispute 30 years after 1979 war which left tens of thousands
dead.
Government bans bloggers from raising "inappropriate" subjects.
2009 January - Nguyen Viet Chien among more than 15,000 prisoners
released before the end of their prison terms in Lunar New Year amnesty - one
of Vietnam's
largest.
Government dismisses Nguyen Cong Khe and Le Hoang, the editors of the two
largest pro-reform newspapers, over their coverage of the October corruption
scandal trial.
2009 June - Vietnam has called on China to stop preventing Vietnamese
fishermen from working in what Hanoi says are its territorial waters amid
growing tensions between the two countries over fishing waters.
2009 September - Vietnam's only independent think tank, the Institute
of Development Studies, disbands after a government decree restricts the right
to conduct research on the ruling Communist Party.
2009 October - Six democracy activists sentenced to up to six years
in prison for "spreading propaganda" against the government by
hanging pro-democracy banners on a road bridge. They were accused of being part
of the banned pro-democracy Bloc 8406.
2009 December - Pro-democracy activist Tran Anh Kim receives
five-and-a-half-year jail sentence for subversion after allegedly publishing
pro-democracy articles on internet.
The former army officer was a member of the Democratic Party of Vietnam and
the pro-democracy Bloc 8406, both of which are banned.
2010 January - Four activists, including prominent human rights
lawyer Le Cong Dinh, are jailed on charges of trying to overthrow the
government.
Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc receives the longest sentence of
16 years. Rights groups abroad see it as a sign of an increasing clampdown on
freedom of expression.
2010 May - Human Rights Watch accuses Vietnam government of intensifying
its suppression of online dissent.
2010 July/August - The government arrests the chairman of shipbuilding
corporation Vinashin, one of the country's largest state-owned companies, for
allegedly nearly bankrupting the enterprise.
2010 November - PM Nguyen Tan Dung says he accepts responsibility for
poor oversight that led to the near-bankruptcy of state shipbuilding company
Vinashin.
2011 January - Five-yearly congress of the Communist Party reappoints
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and elects the head of the national assembly,
Nguyen Phu Trong, as party secretary-general.
2011 June - Vietnam
begins joint operation with the United States
to clean up contamination from the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, which was used
widely by the US
military during the Vietnam war.
2011 October - China
and Vietnam sign an agreement
to manage the South China Sea dispute. It
includes a hotline to deal with emergencies and a provision for authorities
from the two countries to meet twice a year.
