18: The Impossible Victory: Vietnam

Question 1

This political leader led his country in ousting Japan colonial occupation in 1945

Answer 1

Ho Chi Minh

Question 2

The US was financing 80% of this war effort, begun in 1946

Answer 2

French invasion of Vietnam

Question 3

What did the French do in Vietnam in 1954?

Answer 3

Unable to draw local support and losing, they withdrew, being forced into the South and agreeing to let Vietnam have an election in 2 years to choose their government

Question 4

This leader was installed by the US in French-controlled South Vietnam

Answer 4

Ngo Dinh Diem

Question 5

The NLF formed in South Vietnam in 1960 because of this

Answer 5

Dissatisfaction with Diem

Question 6

What famous act was committed by a Buddhist Monk in Vietnam in June 1963 in protest of the Diem regime?

Answer 6

Self-immolation

Question 7

JFK was assassinated three weeks after the assassination of whom?

Answer 7

Diem

Question 8

True or False: President Johnson’s administration lied about an unprovoked attack on a U.S. ship in 1964 (dubbed “the Tonkin Affair”) as an excuse to start a full-scale war against North Vietnam

Answer 8

True

Question 9

True or False: The amount of bombs that were dropped on Vietnam during the war-7 million tons-was equal to the amount dropped on Europe and Asia in WWII

Answer 9

False, it was more than double the amount

Question 10

Lieutenant William Calley was the only officer found guilty in this massacre

Answer 10

My Lai 4

Question 11

Assistant Secretary of Defence John McNaughton, 1966: “Destruction of locks and dams-if handled right-might offer promise. Such destruction doesn’t kill or drown people…it leads after a time to widespread __________ (more than a _______?) unless ** is provided–which we could offer to do “at the conference table”

Answer 11

Starvation; million; food

Question 12

Richard Nixon ran for President pledging this about Vietnam

Answer 12

That he would get the troops out

Question 13

Where and when was the largest mass arrest in American history?

Answer 13

14,000 arrested in Washington, 1971, protesting the Vietnam War

Question 14

These two men released the Pentagon Papers (US Department of Defence’s history of the war in Vietnam)

Answer 14

Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo

Question 15

National Guardsmen killed 4 students among a gathering protesting the Vietnam war at this Ohio University

Answer 15

Kent State

Question 16

True or False: Overall, studies/surveys found lower support of the Vietnam war among the college-educated

Answer 16

False, lower socioeconomic status folks seemed to oppose the war in higher percentages

Question 17

The United States agreed to withdraw from Vietnam in ____, and North Vietnam took back the whole country and unified it in ____

Answer 17

1973; 1975