| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Indochina | a peninsula of southeastern Asia that includes Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam |
| France | America's involvement began when ______ tried to reestablish control during the French Indochina War |
| Ho Chi Minh | leader of Vietnamise revolutionaries, helped create Indochinese Communist Party. Manipulated Vietnams independence movement from exile in Soviet Union and China. |
| Viet Minh | organization whose goal was to win Vietnams independence from foreign rule |
| Bao Dai | ruler who was unable to exercise any of his powers without the support of French regime. Became premier of independent vietnam: ngo din diem outmaneuvered bao dai |
| Plebiscite | a vote by the electorate determining public opinion on a question of national importance |
| Domino Theory | Countries on the brink of communism are waiting to fall one after another |
| Diem Bien Phu | a Vietnam city that the French lost to the Viet Minh in May of 1954 |
| Geneva Accords | temporarily divided Vietnam along 17th parallel |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | South Vietnam non-Communist leader, refused to take part in election of 1956 |
| Viet Cong | communist oposition group in South Vietnam |
| Ho Chi Minh Trail | network of paths and tunnels along (in this order) North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam to support Viet Cong |
| USS Maddox | US battleship that was allegedly fired upon by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin |
| Tonkin Gulf Resolution | Congressional resolution passed in 1964 that authorized military action against armed atack on U.S.; passed by both both houses of congress |
| Harry S. Truman | FDR's VP, succeed FDR upon his death in 1944. Dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and tried to fight communism, sent a 35-man military advisory group to aid French fighting to maintain power in Vietnam |
| Eisenhower | president who pledged aid to countries who took stances against communism in 1957, decided to involve america in war |
| JFK | 35th President elected in 1960; assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, established the Peace Corps, assassinated by lee harvey oswald: Apollo Space Program |
| LBJ | Vise President to JFK,1963-1969, deomcrat, passed civil rights act of 64, included a program called Great Society, presidency based on vietnam war, passed Gulf of Tonkin and said "to take any measures nessesary",decided to escalate American involvement in Vietnam, proved to be extremely unpopular |
| Robert McNamara | secretary of Defense sent to Vietnam on fact-finding mission, convinced the president that the U.S. could win the war in Vietnam if we sent more troops |
| Dean Rusk | The American Secretary of State during the Vietnam War, dispatched tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers to fight in Vietnam. |
| William Westmoreland | American General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak from 1964 to 1968 |
| Napalm | jellied gasoline dropped by plane on jungles of Vietnam, gasoline-based bombs that stick to what they land and burn, more frightening than normal gas |
| Agent Orange | chemical the U.S. used to destroy plant life in the jungle, but comtaminated drinking water and caused birth defects from those who were contaminated |
| Search and Destroy | aka zippo raid, it tried to force viet cong out of south vietnamese villages |
| Crediblity Gap | a public distrust of statments made by the government. - Johnson administration |
| Booby Trap | an explosive mine hidden underground |
| Jungle Warfare | combat fought in the dense thick forest/jungles of Vietnam |
| NVA | North Vietnam Army/ helped Viet Cong |
| ARVN | Army of the Republic of South Vietnam |
| New Left | the growing youth/political movement whose members believed that problems such as poverty and racism called for radical changes; was largely influenced by SDS |
| SDS | an antiestablishement New Left group founded in 1960, that called for greater individual freedom and responsibility. |
| Free Speech Movement | led by Berkley college students who were fighting the restriction of free speech |
| Doves | strongly opposed the war, believed the US should pull out of the war |
| Hawks | believed U.S. should release all of its fury in Vietnam |
| Manipulatable Draft | men finding ways to aviod being drafted into the Vietnam war |
| Tet Offensive | surprise attacks on cities all over South Vietnam during their New Year- Tet |
| Clark Clifford | replace Robert McNamara as LBJ's Sec. of Defense in 1968 as McNamara becomes opposed to Vietnam War |
| RFK | was attorney general; ran for president in 1968 and was assasinated in june 1968 |
| Eugene McCarthy | Minnesota senator ran against Johnson on platform to end the war in Vietnam |
| Hubert Humphrey | LBJ's vice president and McCarthy's opposition in 1968 primary after LBJ stepped down. won nomination; not presidency. |
| George Wallace | racist gov. of Alabama in 1962, runs for pres. In 1968 on American Independent Party ticket of racism and law and order, loses to Nixon; runs in 1972 but is assasinated |
| Yippies | group that caused riots in Chicago at Democratic National Convention |
| Richard Nixon | he was elected to be US President after Johnson. He promised peace with honor in Vietnam which means withdrawing American soliders from South Vietnam, Watergate |
| Vietnamization | a gradual withdrawl of U.S. troopsin order for the South Vietnam to take on a more active roll in the war |
| Pentagon Papers | 7,000 page document that revealed the govt. had drawn up plans for entering the war even as LBJ promised to not send troops over there |
| Henry Kissinger | National Security Adviser whom confered with Nixon over the Vietnamization issue |
| War Powers Act | a president must inform congress within 48 hrs of sending forces into a hostile area without a declaration of war, so that congress can stop troop deployment even if the pres vetos it. |
| Hue | massacre by the North Veitnam Army by the South Vietnam people |
| Saigon | The capital of South Vietnam |
| Hanoi | The capital of North Vietnam |
| My Lai Massacre | Under William Cally Jr. in 1968, American troops massacred women and children in the Vietnamese village of My Lai; this deepened American people's disgust for the Vietnam War. |
| Invasion of Cambodia | Nixon's decision to expand the war which resulted in massive student protests |
| Khmer Rouge | the Cambodian Communist party |
| Kent State killings | National Guard shot protesters at Kent State protesting Nixons Invasion of Cambodia |
| Silent Majority | moderate, mainstream Americans who quietly supported the U.S. efforts in Vietnam according to Nixon |
| Paris Agreement | intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam Conflict, ended direct U.S. military involvement and temporarily stopped the fighting between north and south. |
| Vietnam Syndrome | after effects of war- doubts about US judgment, credibilty and power |
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