8.8

Question 1

French loses Vietnam

Answer 1

a large French army at Dien Bien Phu was trapped and forced to surrender. After this defeat, the French tried to convince Eisenhower to send in U.S. troops, but he refused.

Question 2

Geneva Conference

Answer 2

(1954) - France agreed to give up Indochina, which was divided into the independent nations of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Vietnam was to be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel until a general election could be held (Didn’t happen because South (which was supported by US) feared North victory).

Question 3

Vietnam Division

Answer 3

In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh established a Communist dictatorship. In South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem established a government supported by anti- Communist, Catholic, and urban Vietnamese (North escapees).

Question 4

American Aid to South

Answer 4

the United States gave over $1 billion in economic and military aid to South Vietnam in an effort to build a stable anti-Communist state.

Question 5

Domino Theory

Answer 5

Eisenhower used to justify supporting South Vietnam. If South Vietnam fell under Communist control, one nation after another in Southeast Asia would also fall, until Australia and New Zealand were in dire danger.

Question 6

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

Answer 6

(1954) - John Foster Dulles put together a regional defense pact where eight nations agreed to defend one another in case of an attack within the region. Included: the United States, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, and Pakistan.

Question 7

John Foster Dulles

Answer 7

US Secretary of State

Question 8

Vietnam Under Kennedy

Answer 8

Kennedy followed the Domino Theory and increased the number of military “advisers,” who trained the South Vietnamese army, guarded weapons and facilities, and helped create “strategic hamlets” (fortified villages).
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Question 9

Fires in South Vietnam

Answer 9

Buddhist monks set themselves on fire in the streets of Saigon to protest Diem’s policies.

Question 10

Kennedy and Diem’s assasinations

Answer 10

1963 - Just two weeks before Kennedy himself was assassinated in Dallas, Diem was overthrown and killed by South Vietnamese generals. Historians later learned that the generals worked alongside the Kennedy administration.

Question 11

Gulf of Tonkin

Answer 11

• Johnson gained Congress approval of intervention by forcing North Vietnam to attack US warships in South Vietnam territory making it seem like an aggressive act needing military response.

Question 12

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

Answer 12

(1964) - gave the president, as commander-in-chief, a blank check to take “all necessary measures” to protect U.S. interests in Vietnam.

Question 13

Operation Rolling Thunder

Answer 13

(1965) - After a Vietcong attack on the U.S. base at Pleiku, Johnson authorized a prolonged air attack using B-52 bombers against targets in North Vietnam.

Question 14

Search-and-destroy tactics

Answer 14

Since there was no frontier, the US army measured daily success by killing enemies.

Question 15

General William Westmoreland

Answer 15

commander of the U.S. forces in Vietnam. Assured the American public that he could see “light at the end of the tunnel” despite the deaths.

Question 16

Credibility Gap

Answer 16

Misinformation from military and civilian leaders combined with Johnson’s reluctance to speak frankly to the American people about the scope and the costs of the war differing from what was shown in the news and shared by soldiers.

Question 17

Robert McNamara

Answer 17

US Secretary of Defense who in his memoirs, years after the war, concluded that the leaders in Washington had failed to understand both the enemy and the nature of the war.

Question 18

Hawks

Answer 18

Supporters of the war who believed that the war was an act of Soviet-backed Communist aggression against South Vietnam and that it was part of a master plan to conquer all of Southeast Asia.

Question 19

Doves

Answer 19

Opponents of the war who viewed the conflict as a civil war fought by Vietnamese nationalists and some Communists who wanted to unite their country by overthrowing a corrupt Saigon government. Some opposed it because of costs in lives and money which could be used to help the poor in the US. College graduates feared being drafted.

Question 20

Senator Eugene F. McCarthy

Answer 20

(1967) - A political leader for the antiwar movement. First to challenge Johnson for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination.

Question 21

Tet Offensive

Answer 21

(1968) - The Vietcong launched an all-out surprise attack on almost every provincial capital and American base in South Vietnam. U.S. military counterattacked, inflicted major losses on the Vietcong, and recovered the lost territory. The Americans who watched TV news footage of the destruction interpreted the attacks as a setback for Johnson’s Vietnam policy and demoralized them. More troops were requested but rejected.

Question 22

Johnson’s announcement about Reelection and the War

Answer 22

March 31, 1968 - President Johnson went on television and told the American people that he would limit the bombing of North Vietnam and negotiate peace. And announced that he would not run for reelection.

Question 23

Attempted Peace Talks

Answer 23

May 1968 - peace talks between North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the United States started in Paris, but they were quickly deadlocked over minor issues. War continued.

Question 24

Robert F. Kennedy

Answer 24

Ran for president in 1968 and was successful. However, was assassinated by an Arab that hated him for supporting Israel.

Question 25

Democratic Convention in Chicago

Answer 25

Democratic party was divided. Police Riot by antiwar demonstrators showed nation violence. Hubert Humphrey was the Democratic nominee.

Question 26

White Backlash

Answer 26

growing hostility of many Whites to federal desegregation, antiwar protests, and race riots

Question 27

George Wallace

Answer 27

the first politician of late-20th-century America to marshal the general resentment against the Washington establishment (white backlash) and the two-party system.

Question 28

Richard Nixon

Answer 28

Republican nominee for 1968 election. A “hawk” in the Vietnam War and ran on the slogans of “peace with honor” and “law and order.”

Question 29

Results of Election of 1968

Answer 29

Supporters of Nixon and Wallace had had enough of protest, violence, permissiveness, the counterculture, drugs, and federal intervention in social institutions. Shows turning away from liberal and into conservative ideas.

Question 30

Henry Kissinger

Answer 30

national security adviser under Nixon

Question 31

Vietnamization

Answer 31

1969 - Best method to achieve “peace with honor.” Gradually withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam and give the South Vietnamese the money, the weapons, and the training that they needed to take over the full conduct of the war. Reduced the number of antiwar protests.

Question 32

Nixon Doctrine

Answer 32

1969 - Declared that in the future Asian allies would receive U.S. support but without the extensive use of U.S. ground forces.

Question 33

Cambodia

Answer 33

U.S. forces invaded in an effort to destroy Vietnamese Communist bases in that country. Caused nationwide antiwar protests especially in colleges.

Question 34

Kent State

Answer 34

Response to Cambodia. College campus protest that had four youth killed by National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio. (Two at Jackson State University in Mississippi.)

Question 35

Repeal of Gulf of Tonkin

Answer 35

The U.S. Senate (but not the House) voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in response to war expansion.

Question 36

Mai Lai Massacre

Answer 36

In 1970, the American public was shocked to learn about a 1968
massacre of women and children by U.S. troops in the Vietnamese village of Mai Lai.

Question 37

Pentagon Papers

Answer 37

A secret government study documenting the mistakes and deceptions of government policymakers in dealing with Vietnam (Leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst).

Question 38

Attempts to Find Peace with Vietnam

Answer 38

1972- Nixon had Kissinger conduct secret meetings with North Vietnam’s foreign minister, Le Duc Tho. When peace couldn’t be agreed upon, Nixon ordered a massive bombing of North Vietnam to force settlement. After several weeks of bombing, North Vietnam agreed to an armistice (didn’t end war between North and South).

Question 39

Paris Accords

Answer 39

(1973) - United States would withdraw the last of its troops and get back more than 500 prisoners of war (POWs) and promised a cease-fire and free elections.

Question 40

War Powers Act

Answer 40

(1973) - After it was revealed that Nixon had authorized 3,500 secret bombing raids in Cambodia, a neutral country, required Nixon and any future president to report to Congress within 48 hours after taking military action. Additionally, Congress would have to approve any military action that lasted more than 60 days.

Question 41

Fall of Saigon

Answer 41

(1975) - War between North and South continued after armistice. The U.S.-supported government in Saigon fell to the enemy, and Vietnam was reunified under the Communist government in Hanoi (North Vietnam’s capital). Marked a low point of American prestige overseas and confidence at home.

Question 42

Genocide in Cambodia

Answer 42

(1975) - Cambodia fell to the Khmer Rouge, a radical Communist
faction that killed between 1 million and 2 million of its own people, in a brutal relocation program to rid the country of Western influence.

Question 43

“Little Tigers”

Answer 43

Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Growing economy that could resist communism.