SHHS - History - GCSE Year 11 Unit 2 : USA and Vietnam, 1954-75

Question 1

What was the name of the peace treaty which ended the War in Indo-China, signed in 1954?

Answer 1

The Geneva Peace Agreement

Question 2

When was the Gulf of Tonkin Incident?

Answer 2

August 1964

Question 3

Who was the leader of the Vietminh and after 1954, leader of North Vietnam?

Answer 3

Ho Chi Minh

Question 4

Who was General Giap?

Answer 4

Former history teacher who led the Vietminh’s military campaign for independence.

Question 5

How far was USA involved in the War in Indo-China?

Answer 5

Supported France, paying for much of the fighting.

Question 6

Why did USA support France in the War in Indo-China?

Answer 6

The Americans saw the war as a fight against the spread of Communism, and not as a war of independence. They were especially concerned about the spread of Communism in Asia after the communist takeover in China in 1949.

Question 7

Why was the Battle of Dien Bien Phu important?

Answer 7

The humiliating defeat marked the end of French attempts to hold onto Indo-China. It sped up peace talks in Geneva.

Question 8

What was agreed in the Geneva Agreement of 1954?

Answer 8

Independence for Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Vietnam to be split in half, along the 17th parallel, until free elections could be held (scheduled for 1956).
The strip of land separating the 2 halves of Vietnam would be a demilitarised zone.

Question 9

Who did the Geneva Agreement leave in control of South Vietnam?

Answer 9

Emperor Bao Dai, who appointed Ngo Dinh Diem as Prime Minister. Diem then ousted Bao Dai and turned South Vietnam into. Republic with himself as President.

Question 10

What was SEATO?

Answer 10

South-East Asia Treaty Organisation set up in 1954, by a group of countries including USA. They pledged themselves to protect the countries of SE Asia, especially from the threat of communism.

Question 11

Which American President was the first to send military advisers to Vietnam, when and how many advisers were sent?

Answer 11

Eisenhower in November 1954. 17 officers were sent as military advisers to assist the ARVN (army of South Vietnam).

Question 12

How many military advisers were in South Vietnam by the Kennedy became president in 1961?

Answer 12

685

Question 13

What was the ‘Domino Theory’ and who was the main proponent of it in Eisenhower’s government.

Answer 13

The belief that pro-Western governments in Asia would fall, like dominoes, to Communism. Each one, it was argued, would be pushed over into Communism by its neighbour. It was promoted by John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower’s Secretary of State (Foreign Secretary).

Question 14

What was the ‘Vietcong’ and when was it formed?

Answer 14

‘Vietcong’ was the name used by the Americans to refer to the NLF (National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam). It was a guerrilla army formed in December 1960 by Communists in South Vietnam. It was supported and supplied by the North using the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Question 15

How many military advisers did America have in South Vietnam by the time Johnson became President in Nov 1963.

Answer 15

16,000

Question 16

How did several Buddhist monks protest against religious discrimination in South Vietnam in 1963?

Answer 16

Self-immolation - committed suicide by setting themselves on fire.

Question 17

When and what was ‘the Fall of Saigon’ ?

Answer 17

The Communist takeover of Saigon (and, as a result, South Vietnam) in April 1975.

Question 18

When was the Paris Peace Agreement signed?

Answer 18

27th January 1973

Question 19

Why were Vietcong soldiers difficult to identify?

Answer 19

They were guerrilla soldiers, who did not wear a uniform. They dressed liked ordinary Vietnamese peasants, typically in black pyjamas and wide straw hats. They deliberately blended in with peasant villages and communities to avoid detection.

Question 20

Who were the NVA?

Answer 20

Army of North Vietnam (Communist)

Question 21

Who were the ARVN

Answer 21

Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (non-Communist)

Question 22

What was the name of the American policy, started by Kennedy, of moving Vietnamese peasants into fortified villages to stop them from collaborating with the NLF (Vietcong)?

Answer 22

Strategic Hamlets Programme

Question 23

What was Operation Rolling Thunder?

Answer 23

American/ARVN large-scale aerial bombing of military and industrial targets in North Vietnam. It began on 11th Feb 1965, in reaction to the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the Vietcong’s attack on the air-base at Pleiku.

Question 24

What was the Vietcong ‘Code of Conduct’?

Answer 24

Principles followed by VC guerrillas, for example, to be polite, to return anything borrowed and to not damage crops. They followed these principles to win support from villagers.

Question 25

List typical guerrilla tactics used by the Vietcong.

Answer 25

‘Hit and run’ tactics, avoiding direct, face-to-face combat. They would ambush patrols, set booby traps and plant bombs on known routes of enemy patrols. They would then ‘disappear’ into the safety of villages/countryside.

Question 26

What was the Ho Chi Minh Trail?

Answer 26

A complex maze of truck routes, foot and bicycle paths, tunnels and river routes. It was over 600 miles in length. This system was used to transport supplies of people and weapons from the North, through neighbouring Laos and Cambodia, into South Vietnam and was impossible for the Americans to destroy.

Question 27

How did the Americans attempt to’win ‘hearts and minds’ in Vietnam?

Answer 27

By spending money to improve the lives of peasants, digging drainage ditches, improving roads, canals and bridges, providing schools and medical services and moving peasants into ‘strategic hamlets’, where the Americans thought the peasants would be safe from communist influences.

Question 28

Why did the Americans fail to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of many Vietnamese peasants?

Answer 28

Because the Vietcong often dominated rural areas and were very effective in controlling peasants through a combination of persuasion and intimidation. American tactics like ‘Strateic Hamlets’ were highly unpopular and atrocities such as My Lai, and the use of chemical weapons, caused peasants to hate the Americans.

Question 29

What was Operation Ranch Hand?

Answer 29

The American tactic of using Agent Orange (a defoliant) to try and strip back the jungle to reveal Vietcong hiding places. It was first authorised by President Kennedy.

Question 30

What napalm?

Answer 30

A chemical weapon used by the Americans in their ‘Search and Destroy’ missions. It is a jellied petrol, which stuck to victims and caused horrific burns.

Question 31

When was the My Lai Massacre?

Answer 31

16th March 1968

Question 32

Name the only US soldier convicted for his actions in the My Lai Massacre.

Answer 32

Lieutenant William Calley

Question 33

Approximately how many unarmed Vietnamese civilians were killed in the My Lai Massacre.

Answer 33

Around 500

Question 34

How many ex-servicemen took part in the Veterans’ March in Washington in 1970?

Answer 34

Over 300,000

Question 35

What and when were the Fulbright Hearings?

Answer 35

Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by William Fulbright in 1971, which considered proposals and advice to end the war in Vietnam.

Question 36

Which veteran of the Vietnam War and future Democratic Party presidential candidate gave damning evidence of atrocities committed in Vietnam to the Fulbright Hearings, in 1971?

Answer 36

John Kerry

Question 37

When and what was the Tet Offensive?

Answer 37

January 1968, during the Tet festival. It was a huge, co-ordinated NVA and Vietcong attack on over 100 towns and military bases in South Vietnam.

Question 38

Which side suffered most casualties in the 1968 Tet Offensive.

Answer 38

Communist forces of NVA and Vietcong. Over 30, 000 Vietcong were killed.

Question 39

Which American newscaster was heard to say, in response to news of the Tet Offensive: ‘What the hell is going on? I thought we were winning the war.’

Answer 39

Walter Kronkite

Question 40

What was the effect of coverage of the Tet Offensive on the American public?

Answer 40

It convinced many Americans that the war should be ended as soon as possible. They were shocked at the scale and nature of the attack.

Question 41

Who were known as ‘draft-dodgers’?

Answer 41

Men who avoided call-up into the US army. Most men who avoided the call-up were educated, affluent, white Americans.

Question 42

At the start of 1968, according to a Gallup Poll, what percentage of Americans still believed it was essential to stop Communists from taking South Vietnam?

Answer 42

50%

Question 43

What attitude did hippies have to the War in Vietnam?

Answer 43

They were pacifists and many took part in anti-war protests. Typically they told people to ‘make love, not war’.

Question 44

What did Richard Nixon promise the American people in his 1968 presidential election campaign?

Answer 44

That he would end the war in Vietnam.

Question 45

When and where did peace talks between North Vietnam and USA open?

Answer 45

Paris in 1968

Question 46

Why did Nixon continue to authorise bombing of North Vietnam whilst the peace talks were being held?

Answer 46

Nixon hoped it would force the North to take the peace talks seriously.

Question 47

Why did Nixon order an invasion of Cambodia in 1970?

Answer 47

To try and stop North Vietnam continuing to send weapons to the Vietcong in the South along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos and Cambodia.

Question 48

How many US troops remained in South Vietnam by 1970?

Answer 48

150,000

Question 49

What was Operation Linebacker?

Answer 49

Nixon’s bombing offensive in April 1972 against North Vietnam. It destroyed the port of Haiphong as well as bridges, roads, trucks, tanks, railway lines and storage depots. It was designed to ‘persuade’ The North to give way in the Paris Peace talks.

Question 50

What was ‘fragging’ and why was it on the increase?

Answer 50

The use of a fragmentation weapon (usually a hand-grenade) by US soldiers to kill their own officers. It’s increase was evidence of increasingly poor morale amongst the American forces in Vietnam.

Question 51

How many American students were killed and injured in the Kent State University protest and by whom?

Answer 51

4 were shot dead and were wounded by the National Guard who were called out by the Governor of Ohio to control the protest.

Question 52

Why did South Vietnam not sign the ceasefire and Paris Peace Agreement in Jan 1973?

Answer 52

They objected to the terms allowing NVA to remain in the areas of the South that they controlled at the time of the cease-fire. It would only be a matter of time before the NVA attacked again.

Question 53

What happened when the NVA renewed its campaign in the South in 1975?

Answer 53

The ARVN collapsed in disarray. Saigon fell to the Communists, in a matter of days, in April 1975.