Major events
In 1965 200,000 American combat troops arrive in South Vietnam then in 1966 US troop numbers in Vietnam rise to 400,000, then to 500,000 the following year. In 1968 Tet Offensive is a combined assault by Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army on US positions. More than 500 civilians die in the US massacre at My Lai. Thousands are killed by communist forces during their occupation of the city of Hue. In 1969 Ho Chi Min dies and Nixon reduces the troops in Vietnam. In 1973 a Ceasefire agreement in Paris, US troop pull-out completed by March. In 1975 North Vietnamese troops invade South Vietnam and take control of the whole country after South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh surrenders.