jun 29, 1966 - The American's bomb ports in North Vietnam, in Honoi and Haiphong

Description:

[Johnson's plan to save South Vietname] "took the form of bombing North Vietnamese port facilities and supply lines, but by the summer of 1965 it also involved the dispatch of American ground forces to South Vietnam. By the end of the year 184,000 were in place with many more on the way" (Gaddis 2006, p. 133)

"Soviet leaders were no happier with the development. Khrushchev had sought to improve relations with the US after the Cuban missile crisis – which had itself grown out of his fear that an ally might collapse – and his successors, Leonid Brezhenev and Alexei Kosygin, had hoped to continue that process. Once the war in Vietnam began, though, they felt obliged to support the North Vietnamese, partly for reasons of ideological solidarity, but also because they knew that if they did not do so, the Chinese communists, who were by now hurling open polemics at them, would make the most of it….As Tito, a close observer of the situation explained: “The Soviet Union cannot fail in its stand of solidarity with Hanoi since it would otherwise expose itself to the danger of isolating itself in Southeast Asia and with Communist parties elsewhere." (Gaddis 2006, p. 134)

Added to timeline:

Date: