civil rights & vietnam war Flashcards
Who was the leader of the Vietnamese rebels?
Ho Chi Minh
What happened at the International Conference at Geneva in 1954?
- Vietnam divided at 17th parallel
- Ho Chi Minh’s nationalist forces controlled the North
- Ngo Dinh Diem controlled the South
Why did President Kennedy send more support to South Vietnam?
- to fight against communism
- made him unpopular
What was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?
- gives President power to wage battle without declaring war
- Johnson claimed that US Navy boats were torpedoed off of coast of North Vietnam, even though they shot first and missed
What was Operation Rolling Thunder?
- bombing Hanoi nonstop for 3 years
- targets Ho Chi Minh Trail
What did Operation Rolling Thunder cause?
- supply route through Laos and Cambodia
- supplies and soldiers
- protests criticize escalation of war
What was the Tet Offensive?
- turning point of war
- massive Viet Long attack across South Vietnam
- brutality against civilians who supported US
- distrust in military
What happened as a result of the Tet Offensive?
- My Lai Massacre
- American soldiers destroy village and kill 500 civilians
- rape and kill women
- kill women, children, elders
- popularity of Johnson plummets
When is Robert Kennedy assassinated?
June 1968
Who won the election of 1968?
Richard Nixon
What is Vietnamization?
- withdraws US forces and replaces them with South Vietnamese
- expanded war into Cambodia and Laos
What happened at Kent State University in Ohio?
- 4 students killed and 9 wounded from National Guardsmen
- students had been protesting expansion of war
Who wins the Vietnam War?
North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam
What were the reasons of why the US did not win the war?
- unpopularity at home
- low morale and drug abuse by US troops
- Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army used guerrilla warfare
How did unpopularity at home cause the US to not win the war?
- people protested the war and dodged draft
- first “televised war”
How did low morale cause the US to not win the war?
- disproportionate representation of poor people and minorities
- too long and no clear purpose
How did guerrilla warfare cause the US to not win the war?
- farmers by day, guerrillas at nights
- North Vietnamese were very patient people who were willing to accept many casualties
- US grossly underestimated their resourcefulness
What was the Vietnam War to America?
longest and least successful American War
How many Vietnamese died?
3,000,000
How many Americans were killed and wounded?
- 58,000 killed
- 300,000 wounded
How much did the US spend on the war?
$150,000,000,000
What were Nixon’s intentions as president?
- end war, confront anti-war movement, fix economy
- reduce power of federal government and emphasis on state government
What did Nixon do because of his suspicion?
- ordered wire tapes of members of press
- secretly taped conversations in Oval Office
What happened during Nixon’s re-election campaign?
- 5 men caught breaking into Democratic campaign headquarters at Watergate Hotel in DC
- men were members of Nixon’s re-election campaign
- prosecutors ordered White House to turn over Oval Office tapes
- Nixon refuses
- gives court tapes with conversation cut out
What does Nixon do after discussion of impeachment?
- fearful of impeachment and removal from office
- resigns in 1974
- Gerald Ford assumes the office
When did the Jim Crow Era begin?
after reconstruction
What did Plessy vs Ferguson create?
“separate but equal”
What was Brown v Board of Education?
- NAACP Thurgood Marshall leads defense
- overturns Plessy v Ferguson
- ends segregated schools
- ordered to desegregate with “all deliberate speed”
- many ignore ruliing
What was the reaction to Brown v Board of Education?
- resistance across South
- “white flight” from public schools to private
- National Guard called to Little Rock High
- “Little Rock Nine”
Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.?
- baptist minister from Atlanta
- coordinated nonviolent resistance
- led Montgomery Bus Boycott
- youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner
Who was Rosa Parks?
- began Montgomery Bus Boycott
- member of NAACP
- called “first lady of Civil Rights Movement”
Who was Malcom X?
- fierce advocate for African Americans
- member of Nation of Islam but later left
- disagreed with MLK’s non-violent strategy for equality
Who was Robert F. Kennedy?
- US attorney General
- helps protect freedom riders
- supports desegregation as New York Senator
- assassinated in 1968 as he began campaign for presidency
What was Boynton vs Virginia?
expanded ban on bus segregation to include bus stations and restaurants that served interstate travelers
What were the Freedom Rides?
- organized to test southern compliance with ruling of desegregation
- riders expected resistance, Alabama war more than expected
What was the Birmingham Children’s March?
- one thousand students skipped classes and gathered at 16th Street Baptist Church to march downtown
- hundreds were arrested and carried off to jail in wagons and school buses
- Americans horrified by the violence against children
- water hoses and being beaten
What was the March on Washington?
- MLK’s I have a dream speech
- builds support for civil rights legislation
- shows power of non-violent protest
What were the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
- introduced by JFK
- prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, or gender
- Johnson gets it passed
What was the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
- outlawed literacy tests for voting
- increase African American voters
What happened as a result of MLK’s assassination in 1968?
riots erupted in over 100 cities
