Uprisings spread among Central Highlands communities

The law established special military tribunals and severe penalties for acts classified as communist subversion. The Diệm government presented it as a security measure; opponents experienced it as...

The North Vietnamese military created Group 559 to develop a supply network through Laos and later Cambodia toward the South. The routes depended on large-scale labor, repair and transport work and...

An attack on a U.S. military advisory compound at Biên Hòa killed Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand, the first U.S. military deaths in Vietnam recorded on the national memorial. Their...

The uprising in a mountainous district involved Kinh and Hre communities resisting government control and coercive practices. It became an early sign of rural revolt in central Vietnam. Accounts of...

A coordinated movement of demonstrations, local attacks, and community organizing began in Bến Tre and spread through the Mekong Delta. Women played visible roles in mobilization. It challenged the...

Rebel units seized key sites in Saigon and demanded political change. Diệm negotiated, stalled, and loyal forces ultimately defeated the coup. The episode exposed fractures within the South Vietnamese...

The National Liberation Front (NLF) brought together communist-led and other southern groups opposing the Diệm government. It had substantial local roots and also received direction and support from...

A U.S. aircraft sprayed herbicide near a military target in South Vietnam as part of the defoliation program later widely associated with Agent Orange. The campaign damaged forests and crops and...

National Security Action Memorandum 111 expanded U.S. assistance and advisory activity in South Vietnam. The United States increased its role while Diệm’s state faced armed opposition and deep rural...

The first U.S. Army helicopter units arrived at Saigon’s Tân Sơn Nhứt airfield as part of a major expansion of military assistance. Helicopters increased the mobility of U.S.-backed forces, bringing...