During
1966, the American bomber offensive against North Vietnam is
expanded, with regular raids against Hanoi, the capital city
of the north. The idea was that the bombings would break the
will of the Vietnamese people to fight. This is in spite of
the failure of the mass bomber raids in the Second World War.
In 1940, the German air attacks on Britain failed to defeat
the British, while the even larger US-British bomber raids against
Germany between 1943-45 also did not force a German surrender.
The Vietnam war enters a new phase with the Tet offensive of
January 1968. The North Vietnamese army and their guerrilla
allies, the Viet Cong, launch surprise attacks in Saigon, Hue
and the American base of Khe Sanh. The North Vietnamese are
beaten back, but the Americans are stunned by the size of the
Vietnamese attack. US President Johnson begins peace talks,
the so-called Paris Peace Talks, in 1969.
The newly elected President Nixon announces the beginning of
the American withdrawal from the Vietnam war in 1969. At this
point, the Americans had 55,000 land troops in Vietnam. However,
US troops invaded Cambodia in 1970, while Laos is invaded in
1971 (Laos itself is fighting its own civil war since 1966).
Huge new North Vietnamese offensive in 1972 is only stopped
with massive American support to the South Vietnamese.
In January 1973, the Americans agree to a cease fire and withdraw
the last of their forces. Now South Vietnam faced the north
alone and suffered a string of defeats. In April 1975, the southern
capital, Saigon, fell to the North Vietnamese marking the end
of the war.
Cambodia maintains its neutrality during the first part of the
Vietnam war. In May 1970, American and South Vietnamese troops
invade Cambodia to eliminate North Vietnamese guerrilla bases
that had been set up there. Prince Sihanouk, the ruler of Cambodia,
is removed from power in October 1970, and the country is renamed
the Republic of Khmer. Native communist guerrillas, called the
Khmer Rouge, begin a civil war and in 1975 capture the capital
city. The rebel Pol Pot takes power. More than 1 million people
are murdered by the Khmer Rouge.
In March 1968, Suharto becomes the second president of Indonesia,
the former Dutch East Indies. In 1969, the western part of New
Guinea is formally annexed to Indonesia as the state of Irian
Jaya. In 1973, the Portuguese colony of East Timor is invaded
and captured by the Indonesian army.
back
to map
25
years ago
/ 50 years ago / 80
years ago / 125 years ago
/ 150 years ago
250 years ago / 400
years ago / 700 years ago
/ 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000
years ago / 3,000 years ago
/ 4,000 years ago / 5,000
years ago / 10,000 years ago
