CHRONOLOGY

1961

  • Bay of Pigs invaded.

  • Berlin Wall erected.

  • Kennedy increases military aid to South Vietnam.

  • Peace Corps created.

    • 1962

  • Cuban missile crisis occurs.

    • 1963

  • President Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president.

    • 1964

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed.

    • 1965

  • Operation Rolling Thunder begins.

  • First combat troops sent to Vietnam.

  • U.S. troops invade Dominican Republic.

    • 1967

  • Arab-Israeli Six-Day War fought.

    • 1968

  • Demonstrations against Vietnam War increase.

  • Tet Offensive launched.

  • Johnson decides not to seek second term.

  • Violence erupts near Democratic convention in Chicago.

  • Richard M. Nixon elected president.

    • 1969

  • American astronauts land on moon.

    • 1970

  • Nixon orders invasion of Cambodia.

  • Students killed at Kent State and Jackson State.

    • 1971

  • Portions of Pentagon Papers published.

    • 1972

  • Nixon becomes first U.S. president to visit China.

  • Nixon signs arms limitation treaties with Soviets.

    • 1973

  • Paris Peace accords end U.S. fighting in Vietnam.

  • CIA backs military coup in Chile.

  • Arab oil embargo follows Yom Kippur War.

    • 1975

  • North Vietnam takes over South Vietnam, ending the war.

  • Helsinki accords signed.