Containment timeline

  • Battle of Osan

    The Battle of Osan was the first engagement between United States and North Korean forces during the Korean War. U.S. Task Force Smith of 540 men... Read more

  • Battle of Pusan Perimeter

    The Battle of Pusan Perimeter was fought in August and September 1950 between United Nations Command forces combined with South Korean forces and... Read more

  • Battle of Inchon

    The Battle of Inchon (Korean: 인천 상륙 작전, Hanja: 仁川上陸作戰, Incheon Sangnyuk Jakjeon; code name: Operation Arthur) was an amphibious invasion and battle... Read more

  • Chinese forces intervene in Korean War

    The United Nations troops drove the North Koreans back past the 38th parallel. Urban combat in Seoul, 1950, as U.S. Marines fight North... Read more

  • Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

    The Battle of Chosin Reservoir, also known as Battle of Changjin Lake (simplified Chinese: 长津湖之战; pinyin: Cháng Jīn Hū Zhī Zhàn), was a battle in... Read more

  • Operation Courageous

    Operation Courageous was a military operation performed by the United States Army during the Korean War designed to trap large numbers of Chinese... Read more

  • Battle of Triangle Hill

    The Battle of Triangle Hill, also known as Operation Showdown or the Shangganling Campaign (simplified Chinese: 上甘岭战役; pinyin: Shànggānlǐng... Read more

  • Battle of Pork Chop Hill

    The Battle of Pork Chop Hill comprises a pair of related Korean War infantry battles during the spring and summer of 1953. These were fought while... Read more

  • Battle of the Hook

    The third Battle of the Hook was a battle of the Korean War that took place between a United Nations force, consisting mostly of British troops,... Read more

  • Korean Armistice Agreement

    The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, with neither side able to claim outright victory. Fifty years on, the truce is still all that... Read more

  • Viet Minh Defeat French at Dien Bien Phu

    The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (French: Bataille de Diên Biên Phu; Vietnamese: Chiến dịch Điện Biên Phủ) was the climactic confrontation of the First... Read more

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion

    The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as La Batalla de Girón in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade... Read more

  • Operation Chopper

    Operation Chopper occurred on January 12, 1962 and was the first time US forces participated in major combat in the Vietnam War. In December of... Read more

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War. In Russia,... Read more

  • Hue Vesak Shootings

    The Hue Vesak shootings refer to the deaths of nine unarmed Buddhist civilians on May 8, 1963 in the city of Huế in South Vietnam, at the hands of... Read more

  • Xa Loi Pagoda Raids

    The Xa Loi Pagoda raids were a series of synchronized attacks on various Buddhist pagodas in the major cities of South Vietnam shortly after... Read more

  • Cable 243 is Sent to Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the US Ambassador to South Vietnam

    DEPTEL 243, also known as Telegram 243, the August 24 cable or most commonly Cable 243, was a high profile message sent on August 24, 1963 by the... Read more

  • President Kennedy Issues NSAM 263, Ordering the Withdrawl of 1,000 Military Personnel from Vietnam by the End of 1963

    Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military in Vietnam from 800 to 16,300. It remains a point of some controversy among historians whether or not... Read more

  • Arrest and Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem and His Brother, Nhu

    The arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, then president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d'état led... Read more

  • Operation Barrel Roll Begins

    On 12 December 1964, Barrel Roll was approved by Souvanna Phouma. The program originally consisted of only two U.S bombing sorties per week that... Read more

  • Vung Ro Bay Incident

    The Vung Ro Bay Incident refers to the discovery of a 100-ton North Vietnamese naval trawler unloading munitions on a beach in South Vietnam's Vung... Read more

  • U.S. Military Launches Operation Steel Tiger

    Operation Steel Tiger was a covert U.S. 2nd Air Division, later Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial interdiction effort targeted... Read more

  • Battle of Ba Gia

    The Battle of Ba Gia or Bãi Xoan was a battle of the Vietnam War, that began after an ARVN battalion was ambushed by Viet Cong (VC) forces on May... Read more

  • Operation Arc Light Begins

    Operation Arc Light was the 1965 deployment of B-52F Stratofortress as conventional bombers from bases in the US to Guam. By extension, Arc light,... Read more

  • U.S. Marine Corps Initiates Combined Action Program

    Drawing from previous experience in "small wars", the United States Marine Corps operated the Combined Action Program during the Vietnam War, from... Read more