Richard Nixon becomes U.S. president

The 1st Cavalry Division linked up with Marines after months of siege and air supply. The corridor ended the encirclement, but did not erase the costs of the battle to nearby communities or settle the...

Representatives of the United States and Democratic Republic of Vietnam opened talks in Paris. Disputes over who could participate and the war’s political future delayed progress; the NLF and the...

Notes by Nixon aide H. R. Haldeman record discussion of efforts to “monkey wrench” Johnson’s peace initiative before the election. The episode demonstrates how domestic electoral calculation entered...

Johnson ordered a halt to U.S. bombing of North Vietnam ahead of the Paris peace talks. The move followed years of bombing and domestic opposition, but did not stop U.S. operations elsewhere or end...

A cable to Johnson reported that Chennault contacted South Vietnamese ambassador Bùi Diễm and urged Saigon to wait for a better deal under Nixon. The intervention complicated peace efforts and...

The United States began the secret Operation Menu bombing of Cambodian border areas. The campaign violated Cambodian neutrality and intensified conflict across Indochina; estimates of civilian...

U.S. veteran Ronald Ridenhour sent letters to members of Congress and senior officials after hearing accounts of the killings at Mỹ Lai from soldiers. His intervention helped trigger investigations....

U.S. Army histories estimate that troop strength reached roughly 543,000 in April 1969. This peak came as Nixon’s administration began publicly emphasizing withdrawals and “Vietnamization.” The number...

At Midway, Nixon and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu announced the first planned U.S. troop withdrawal. The policy became known as Vietnamization: shifting more combat responsibility to South Vietnamese forces while...

A Congress of People’s Representatives in South Vietnam convened to establish the Provisional Revolutionary Government. The archival record dates the congress to June 10; sources differ on whether...