by Victoria Vincent

Domino Theory

vkatvincent — 2015-02-24 20:36:05 UTC

The domino theory was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s, that speculated that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world.

Robert S. McNamara

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-24 20:36:15 UTC

McNamara was the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Kennedy and Johnson. He was crucial in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War.

Viet Cong

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-24 20:36:29 UTC

a political organization and army in South Vietnam and Cambodia that fought the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War (1959–1975), and emerged on the winning side.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution/The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-24 20:39:17 UTC

This was the joint resolition that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964. This responded to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. President Johnson gave authorization without a formal declaration of war from congress, which was important historically.

Ho Chi Minh

vkatvincent — 2015-02-24 20:39:58 UTC

Ho Chi Minh first emerged as an outspoken voice for Vietnamese independence while living as a young man in France during World War I. Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution, he joined the Communist Party and traveled to the Soviet Union. He helped found the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and the League for the Independence of Vietnam, in 1941.

Operation Rolling Thunder

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-24 20:43:16 UTC

This is the title of a gradual 2nd Air Division aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the North Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the war. This was meant to boost the sagging morale of the Saigon regime in the Republic of Vietnam, to persuade North Vietnam to cease its support for the communist insurgency in South Vietnam without actually taking any ground forces into communist North Vietnam, to destroy North Vietnam's transportation system, industrial base, and air defenses, and to halt the flow of men and material into South Vietnam.

Vietminh

vkatvincent — 2015-02-24 20:43:35 UTC

a Vietnamese, Communist-led organization whose forces fought against the Japanese and especially against the French in Indochina: officially in existence 1941–51.

Dien Bien Phu

vkatvincent — 2015-02-24 20:44:40 UTC

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the decisive engagement in the first Indochina War (1946–54). After French forces occupied the Dien Bien Phu valley in late 1953, Viet Minh commander Vo Nguyen Giap amassed troops and placed heavy artillery in caves of the mountains overlooking the French camp

Escalation and Search-and Destroy Missions

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-24 20:44:46 UTC

US escalation into Vietnam came just after Lyndon B. Johnson was elected President of the United States. On March 8th, 3,500 Marines landed at ‘China Beach’, near Da Nang. America’s initial 3,500 combat troops had grown to more than 180,000 men at the end of 1965. From late 1965, American battle strategies revolved around search-and-destroy missions. American troops would move into enemy-held regions, usually by hiking or on helicopters; once there they would locate enemy bases or tracks, laying anti-personnel mines or setting ambushes. Once the enemy was located, soldiers on the ground would engage them with small-arms fire, grenades and mortars. Concentrations of enemy soldiers could be attacked with air strikes called in by radio, or artillery from naval ships if near the coast.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-24 20:46:53 UTC

Ho Chi Minh is a logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of Vietnam through the neighboring kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. This was supposed to provide support to South Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem

vkatvincent — 2015-02-24 20:47:08 UTC

Ngo Dinh Diem (1901-1963) was a staunchly anticommunist Vietnamese statesman who refused to ally with Ho Chi Minh after the Franco-Vietnamese War. With the support of the United States government, Diem led South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963, when he was assassinated alongside his brother in a military coup.

Students for a Democratic Society

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-24 20:49:24 UTC

The SDS was a student activist movement in the United States. It started in the 1960s and focused on direct action, democracy, radicalism, and student power.

J. William Fulbright

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-24 20:51:43 UTC

Fulbright was a United States senator for Arkansas from 1945 to 1974. He was a southern democrat and segregationist. He opposed American involvement in the Vietnam War.

Defoliants

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-24 20:52:25 UTC

at least 65 toxic chemicals were used during the Vietnam War. The three main ones were Agent Orange, Agent White, and Agent Blue. Each of these chemicals contains harmful toxins such as dioxin, arsenic, and hexachlorobenzen. Chemicals were used to destroy crops and trees, which eliminated the Vietnamese soldiers' ability to hide in trees and ambush the American soldiers from above. This was the largest chemical warfare and the first war that destroyed the environment.

Doves and Hawks

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-24 21:02:04 UTC

The term "Doves and Hawks" came into widespread use in the Vietnam War, where the country was divided into two ideologies. The Hawks believed that the Vietnamese aggression forced us into war. They believed that the United States military should do whatever it takes to stop the Vietnamese from spreading communism. The Doves were anti-war. They protested, saying that the war was unjust and unneeded.

The Draft

vkatvincent — 2015-02-26 20:22:14 UTC

During the Vietnam War, about two-third of American troops were volunteered, the rest were selected for military service through the drafts. In the beginning of the war, the names of all American men in draft-age were collected by the Selective Service. When someone’s name was called, he had to report to his local draft broad, which was made up of various community members, so that they could begin to evaluate. By this manner, local draft broads had an enormous power to decide who had to go and who would stay.

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-26 20:26:28 UTC

Henry Kissinger served as National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon. These men are important because Kissinger helped to end the involvement of America in the Vietnam War under the supervision of Nixon.

The Media and the War

vkatvincent — 2015-02-26 20:26:54 UTC

Before the 1960s, the U.S. media had no interest in Vietnam. American journalists followed events only when breaking news happened in the region. Those who covered the beginning of the war in Vietnam were only reporting the rise of communism in the country. The official agencies that handled the press in Vietnam during the early years had little control over what those reporters wrote. The French colonial government set up a system of censorship, but correspondents had only to travel to Singapore or Hong Kong to say what they wanted. American reporters who went to Vietnam at the beginning of the 1960s were reporting the story, while the government in America was telling them to get on the field

26th Amendment

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-26 20:29:34 UTC

The 26th Amendment prohibits the United States from using age as a reason for denying citizens who are at least eighteen years old the right to vote. The incentive to lower the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen was driven by the large student activism movement protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960's.

The Antiwar Movement

vkatvincent — 2015-02-26 20:30:56 UTC

leaders opposed the war on moral and economic grounds. The North Vietnamese, they argued, were fighting a patriotic war to rid themselves of foreign aggressors. Innocent Vietnamese peasants were being killed in the crossfire. American planes wrought environmental damage by dropping their defoliating chemicals. Ho Chi Minh was the most popular leader in all of Vietnam, and the United States was supporting an undemocratic, corrupt military regime. Young American soldiers were suffering and dying. Their economic arguments were less complex, but as critical of the war effort. Military spending simply took money away from Great Society social programs such as welfare, housing, and urban renewal.

Vietnamization

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-26 20:32:16 UTC

This strategy was aimed to end American envolvement in the Vietnam War by handing over military responsibilies to South Vietnam. Nixon used this to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops". This was important because American troops had to give the Vietamese weapons and training, which affected the US economy. However, the United States was able to withdraw from the war, which positively affect the US.

Credibility Gap

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-26 20:35:21 UTC

The term "credibility gap" was first popularized by Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright when he could not get a straight answer from President Johnson's administration in regards to the Vietnam War. During the 1960s and 1970s, it was used in the journalism and media world when referring to the blatant lies told by politicians to the US citizens. In the modern day, it is used to describe the "gap" between what government officials and politicians claim versus what the ci

Tet Offensive

vkatvincent — 2015-02-26 20:35:51 UTC

On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive (named for the lunar new year holiday called Tet), a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. General Vo Nguyen Giap, leader of the Communist People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), planned the offensive in an attempt both to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its support of the Saigon regime. Though U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold off the Communist attacks, news coverage of the offensive (including the lengthy Battle of Hue) shocked and dismayed the American public and further eroded support for the war effort. Despite heavy casualties, North Vietnam achieved a strategic victory with the Tet Offensive, as the attacks marked a turning point in the Vietnam War and the beginning of the slow, painful American withdrawal from the region.

Kent State Shootings

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-26 20:37:29 UTC

In 1970, the Ohio National Guards shot unarmed college students for protesting President Nixon's Cambodian Campaign. The students were arguing the involvement of the United States in Vietnam, and many other protests were happening at this time. This was imporant because it showed some sort of censorship among the state and people. The people were exercising their right for free speech, and they were attacked by the national guards. This also shows that the Americans were very opinionated about the involvement in the Vietnam War.

The War Powers Act of 1973

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-26 20:42:56 UTC

Also known as the War Powers Resolution, this act requires the US President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing the armed forces into military action and prohibits the military from remaining in action for more than sixty days, with a thirty day withdrawl period without making an authorization to declare war.

Pentagon Papers

jenna_wadman — 2015-02-26 20:43:07 UTC

This is a collection of the United States Department of Defense's history of the American involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945-1967. This revealed that the Johnson Administration lied to the public and to Congress. This also showed that the American involvement did not necessarily help with the war, but it englared it with bombings in Cambodia and Laos. The Pentagon Papers is important because it shows the truth behind the United States in the Vietnam War, and it shows that American citizens don't recieve all the information on what their country is actually doing.

The Fall of Saigon

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-26 20:51:32 UTC

The Fall of Saigon was the capture of South Vietnam's capital, Saigon, by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the People's Army of Vietnam on April 30, 1975. This event marked the end of the Vietnam War as well as the beginning of the reunification of Vietnam into a socialist republic, run by the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Bibligography

vkatvincent — 2015-02-26 20:58:01 UTC

"Vietnam War." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war>.

"Vietnamization." N.p., n.d. Web. .

"26th Amendment." 26th Amendment. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2015. <https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxvi>.

N.p., n.d. Web. .

"The Antiwar Movement." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/55d.asp>.

"Obama's Credibility Gap." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-limits-of-wishful-thinking/2015/02/22/0bbcf162-b845-11e4-aa05-1ce812b3fdd2_story.html>.

"Doves and Hawks." Doves and Hawks. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.choices.edu/resources/supplemental_tah_journal3.php>

"Domino Theory Principle, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954." Domino Theory Principle, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. .

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

emilylainecurl — 2015-02-26 21:03:08 UTC

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. serves as a symbol of recognition for the thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War.