Vietnam Country Profile - BBC News

Some key dates in Vietnam's history:

1859-83 - France slowly colonises Indochina.

1940 - Japan takes control of Indochina.

1945 - The Viet Minh seizes power. Ho Chi Minh proclaims independence and establishes the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1946 - French forces attack Viet Minh in Haiphong in November, sparking the war of resistance against the colonial power.

1950 - Democratic Republic of Vietnam is recognised by China and USSR.

1953-54 - Viet Minh forces attack and eventually capture a key isolated French military base in the town of Dien Bien Phu after a seven-week battle. The battle effectively spells the end of France's field army in Vietnam. During the siege the French government agrees to peace talks in Geneva.

1954 - Vietnam is split into North and South at the Geneva conference.

1956 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem begins campaign against political dissidents. Conflict between the two rival states rages for the next two decades, in what is known as the Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War. The US becomes heavily involved in support of the South.

1964 - Gulf of Tonkin incident: the US says North Vietnamese patrol boats fired on two US Navy destroyers. US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorising military action in region.

1965 - 200,000 American combat troops arrive in South Vietnam.

1966 - US troop numbers in Vietnam rise to 400,000, then to 500,000 by 1967.

1968 - Tet Offensive - a combined assault by Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army on US positions - begins.

1969 - Ho Chi Minh dies. President Nixon begins to reduce US ground troops in Vietnam as domestic public opposition to the war grows.

1973 - Ceasefire agreement in Paris, US troop pull-out completed by March.

1975 - North Vietnamese troops invade South Vietnam and take control of the whole country after South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh surrenders.

1976 - Vietnam is reunified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands flee abroad, including many "boat people".

1979 - Vietnam invades Cambodia and ousts the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot. In response, Chinese troops cross Vietnam's northern border. They are pushed back by Vietnamese forces.

1986 - Nguyen Van Linh becomes party leader. He introduces a more liberal economic policy.

1989 - Vietnamese troops withdraw from Cambodia.

1994 - US lifts its 30-year trade embargo.

1995 - Vietnam and US restore full diplomatic relations. Vietnam becomes full member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

2000 - US President Bill Clinton pays a three-day official visit.

2001 - US and Vietnam implement a trade agreement which normalises the trade status between them.

2002 - Russia hands back the Cam Ranh Bay naval base, once the largest Soviet base outside the Warsaw Pact.

2004 - First US commercial flight since the end of the Vietnam War touches down in Ho Chi Minh City.

2007 - Vietnam joins the World Trade Organization.

2011 - Vietnam begins joint operation with the United States to clean up contamination from the toxic Agent Orange defoliant widely used by the US military during the Vietnam war. China and Vietnam sign an agreement to manage the South China Sea dispute

2014 - State media for first time marks anniversary of South Vietnam's 1974 clash with China over Paracel Islands, in sign of growing tension over Chinese intentions in the area.

2016 - US lifts long-standing ban on selling weapons to Vietnam.

2024 - Vietnam rocked by $44bn fraud scandal. Billionaire property develop Truong My Lan is sentenced to death for looting one of the country's largest banks over a period of 11 years.