Vietnam War Project by Ursula Kerley

Domino Theory

qursula — 2015-02-25 20:46:08 UTC

The Domino Theory was a theory prominent from the 1950's to the 1980's, that speculated that if on state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.

Search and Destroy Missions

disaac823 — 2015-02-25 20:55:14 UTC

The idea was to insert ground forces into hostile territory, search out the enemy, destroy them, and withdraw immediately afterward. The strategy was the result of a new technology, the helicopter, which resulted in a new form of warfare, the fielding of air cavalry and was thought to be ideally suited to counter warfare.

Ho Chi Minh

qursula — 2015-02-25 20:55:22 UTC

In 1945, Ho Ghi Minh declares Vietnam's Independence.At World War II’s end, Viet Minh forces seized the northern Vietnamese city of Hanoi and declared a Democratic State of Vietnam (or North Vietnam) with Ho as president. Known as “Uncle Ho,” he would serve in that position for the next 25 years, becoming a symbol of Vietnam’s struggle for unification during a long and costly conflict with the strongly anti-Communist regime in South Vietnam and its powerful ally, the United States.

Vietminh

qursula — 2015-02-25 21:05:42 UTC

The most effective of the nationalist organizations was the Viet Minh, or League for the Independence of Vietnam. It had been founded by Ho Chi Minh, and most of its leaders were members of the Indochinese Communist Party. However, its immediate program was more concerned with national independence than with Communism.

Doves and Hawks

disaac823 — 2015-02-25 21:06:57 UTC

The war divided the country into two different sections. The sections were the people who wanted war and the ones who didn't. The ones who wanted war were known as the "Hawks." The ones who didn't want war were known as the "Doves." The hawks believed that due to the agression of North Vietnamese it forced us into the war.They thought that the United States should do what ever is necessary to win. Doves think that the problem in Vietnam is a civil war. They thought that the United States had no right to be in their conflicts. They also believed that the money that was spent there that it would be much better invested in America for certain programs.

Dien Bien Phu

qursula — 2015-02-25 21:10:13 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.

Robert S. McNamara

disaac823 — 2015-02-25 21:10:41 UTC

He was was an American business executive and the 8th Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under President Kennedy and Johnson, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War.During President Kennedy's term, while he was Secretary of Defense, America's troops in Vietnam increased from 900 to 16,000 advisers, who were not supposed to engage in combat but rather to train the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The number of combat advisers in Vietnam when Kennedy died vary depending upon source. The first military adviser deaths in Vietnam occurred in 1957 or 1959 under the Eisenhower Administration, which had infiltrated Vietnam, through the efforts of Stanley Sheinbaum, with an unknown number of CIA operatives and other special forces in addition to almost 700 advisers.

Ngo Dinh Diem

qursula — 2015-02-25 21:13:37 UTC

Following the overthrow of his government by South Vietnamese military forces the day before, President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother are captured and killed by a group of soldiers. The death of Diem caused celebration among many people in South Vietnam, but also lead to political chaos in the nation. The United States subsequently became more heavily involved in Vietnam as it tried to stabilize the South Vietnamese government and beat back the communist rebels that were becoming an increasingly powerful threat.

Vietcong

qursula — 2015-02-25 21:16:10 UTC

The early insurgent activity in South Vietnam against Diem’s government was initially conducted by elements of the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai religious sects. After 1954 they were joined by former elements of the southern Viet Minh, a communist-oriented nationalist group. The overwhelming majority of the Viet Cong were subsequently recruited in the South, but they received weapons, guidance, and reinforcements from North Vietnamese Army soldiers who had infiltrated into South Vietnam.

Escalation

qursula — 2015-02-25 21:19:22 UTC

By August, 1964, the Johnson Administration believed that escalation of the U.S. presence in Vietnam was the only solution. The post-Diem South proved no more stable than it had been before his ouster, and South Vietnamese troops were generally ineffective. In addition to supporting on-going South Vietnamese raids in the countryside and implementing a U.S. program of bombing the Lao border to disrupt supply lines, the U.S. military began backing South Vietnamese raids of the North Vietnamese coast.

Defoliation

qursula — 2015-02-25 21:22:26 UTC

Agent Orange was a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them. The U.S. program of defoliation, code-named Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from 1961 to 1972.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution/The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

disaac823 — 2015-02-25 21:23:07 UTC

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 7, 1964) gave broad congressional approval for expansion of the Vietnam War. During the spring of 1964, military planners had developed a detailed design for major attacks on the North, but at that time President Lyndon B. Johnson and his advisers feared that the public would not support an expansion of the war. By summer, however, rebel forces had established control over nearly half of South Vietnam, and Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee for president, was criticizing the Johnson administration for not pursuing the war more aggressively.

Operation Rolling Thunder

disaac823 — 2015-02-25 21:29:11 UTC

During the Vietnam War (1954-75), as part of the strategic bombing campaign known as Operation Rolling Thunder, U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam from March 1965 to October 1968. This massive bombardment was intended to put military pressure on North Vietnam’s Communist leaders and reduce their capacity to wage war against the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder marked the first sustained American assault on North Vietnamese territory and thus represented a major expansion of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

disaac823 — 2015-02-25 21:29:59 UTC

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was not just one trail but a series of trails. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was used by the North Vietnamese as a route for its troops to get into the South. They also used the trail as a supply route – for weapons, food and equipment. The Ho Chin Minh Trail ran along the Laos/Cambodia and Vietnam borders and was dominated by jungles. In total the ‘trail’ was about 1,000 kilometers in length and consisted of many parts.

Students for a Democratic Society

disaac823 — 2015-02-25 21:33:14 UTC

The movement against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began small–among peace activists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses–but gained national prominence in 1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest. Anti-war marches and other protests, such as the ones organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), attracted a widening base of support over the next three years, peaking in early 1968 after the successful Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese troops proved that war’s end was nowhere in sight.

J. William Fulbright

disaac823 — 2015-02-25 21:34:57 UTC

Fulbright was a Southern Democrat and a staunch multilateral who supported the creation of the United Nations and the longest serving chairman in the history of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was also a Segragationist who signed the Southern Manifesto. Fulbright opposed McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee and later became known for his opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. His efforts to establish an international exchange program eventually resulted in the creation of a fellowship program which bears his name, the Fullbright Program.

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