1960s Timeline

Dec. 19, 1963 - Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara arrived in Saigon today and plunged immediately into an analysis of the state of...

Dec. 17, 1963 - President Johnson probably will hold to the 1965 withdrawal of military aid to South Vietnam announced by the late...

Dec. 14, 1963 - A high-level U.S. military officer said today that the month immediately following the Nov. 1 coup d’état that toppled...

Dec. 9, 1963 - The U.S. Air Force listed one officer as dead and two officers and an airman as missing in the crash of a reconnaissance...

Dec. 8, 1963 - Sources in South Vietnam indicated today that the war against the Communist Viet Cong guerrillas is going badly, and...

Dec. 3, 1963 - The reduction of United States forces in South Vietnam began today. Three planeloads of men flew across the Pacific on...

Dec. 2, 1963 - The Provisional Government of South Vietnam has decided to slow down the strategic hamlet program, which was the...

Dec. 1, 1963 - A handful of South Vietnamese held an outpost for six hours against an onslaught by a battalion of heavily armed Communist...

Nov. 25, 1963 - Communist forces have wiped out two strategic hamlets in the northern portion of South Vietnam in massive attacks,...

Nov. 24, 1963 - President Johnson reaffirmed today the policy objectives of his predecessor regarding South Vietnam. He called upon all...

Nov. 24, 1963 - Communist Viet Cong guerrillas slipped past South Vietnamese Government defenses at a training camp west of Saigon today...

Nov. 19, 1963 - Henry Cabot Lodge (left), U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, arrived in Honolulu by plane today with General Paul D....

Nov. 15, 1963 - The withdrawal of 1,000 U.S. servicemen from South Vietnam will start Dec. 3, Maj. Gen. Charles J. Timmes announced...

Nov. 14, 1963 - Detailed plans for the initial withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Vietnam depend upon policy meetings scheduled to be...

Nov. 13, 1963 - Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu left the U.S. today on her way to Rome. She charged in a statement that the former South Vietnamese...

Nov. 7, 1963 - The United States extended recognition to South Vietnam’s provisional Government tonight. Recognition came less than a...

Nov. 5, 1963 - Ton That Dinh (pictured), the paratrooper general who planned the coup that toppled President Ngo Dinh Diem, showed his...

Nov. 4, 1963 - The military government in South Vietnam relaxed the martial-law curfew in Saigon today but tightened rules for Government...

Nov. 3, 1963 - The United States offered today to fly three children of Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu (pictured) out of South Vietnam, where they...

Nov. 3, 1963 - The military leaders of the South Vietnamese coup d’état proceeded today with action against backers of the deposed...