The Vietnam War Flashcards
How long was the Vietnam war
1945-1975
The Vietnamese war can also be referred to as?
The American war or the ten thousand day war
What territory was called French Indo-China
The territory that France had colonised in 1885 it was Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos
What is Viet minh
The league for independence of Vietnam founded by communist leader Ho Chi Minh in1941
What does imperialism mean
The state policy practise or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economical control
What are colonial powers
Wealthy or powerful nations maintaining or extending its control over other countries
Order of presidents in the USA
Harry.S Truman David Eisenhower J.F kennedy Lyndon Johnson Richard Nixon
Who was the leader of north Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh
Who was the leader of south Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem
What was Ho Chi Minho’s goal?
To reunify Vietnam under a communist government
What was Ngo Dinh Diem’s goal?
To prevent the spread of communism in Vietnam
Who was Giap
A military leader and a communist politician in the Vietnam war
What was the dividing line called which separated north Vietnam from south Vietnam
The 17th parallel
What was the capital of north Vietnam
Hanoi
What was the capital of south Vietnam
Saigon
At what battle did the viet minh beat the French
At the battle of dien bien phu
When and where were peace talks held after the battle dien bien phu
In Geneva 1954
Why was the 17th parallel created
At the Geneva peace talks the 17th parallel was created to temporarily divide Vietnam into north and south. Elections would be held in1956
Who agreed to the Geneva agreement and who didn’t and why?
Ho Chi Minh agreed because he knew he would win the elections. Harry S. Truman refused because he also knew Ho Chi Minh would win. Instead Truman sent advisors to south Vietnam in 1956
What is the domino theory
The domino theory was created by president Eisenhower in 1954. He believed that if Vietnam fell under the rule of communism then the rest of south-east Asia would follow
What did the USA do to try and stop the spread of communism in Vietnam
Within a year of the Geneva accords, the United States therefore began to offer support to the anti-communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem. With help from the US, Diem took control of the south Vietnamese government in 1955 and promptly canceled the elections that had been scheduled for 1956.
How did the Diem regime prove to be
The Diem regime proved to be corrupt, oppressive and extremely unpopular. However the US continued to prop it up, fearful of the increasing communist resistance activity noted in south Vietnam.
What is another name for the Viet Cong
The national liberation front
What was the Viet Cong
A resistance against Diem’s regime which was backed by Ho Chi Minh
Why did the US back a coup that overthrew Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963
In 1962 John F. Kennedy sent military advisers to train the south Vietnamese army (ARVN) but quickly realised that the Diem regime was unsalvageable. Therefore they backed the coup to overthrow Dinh Diem and install a new leader. However the new US backed leader proved to be just as corrupt and ineffective.
What started the Vietnam war
The gulf of to king is what officially started the Vietnam war
What happened at the gulf of Tonkin
North Vietnamese forces allegedly attacked US navy ships in the gulf of Tonkin 1964. This gave Johnson carte blanche and he started sending US troops to Vietnam.
What is guerrilla war
a war in which small groups of soldiers not belonging to regular or established army units engage in fighting against typically larger regular forces.
What was operation rolling thunder
A US bombing campaign in 1965 to bomb North Vietnam
What is the strategic hamlet program
a plan by the government of South Vietnam in conjunction with the US government and ARPA during the Vietnam War to combat the communist insurgency by pacifying the countryside and reducing the influence of the communists among the rural population.
What is agent orange
Agent orange is the use of phosphorus napalm and chemical defoliants by the Americans since American bomber planes didn’t have much targets because of the largely rural presence in Vietnam
What is self immolation.
To put yourself on fire. This was done by several monks in Vietnam because of Diem’s anti-Buddhist policies
What was the Tet offensive
A massive campaign launched by the north Vietnamese army and the Viet cong in 1968, where nearly thirty US targets and dozens of other cities in south Vietnam were attacked at once.
What did the gulf of Tonkin help Johnson do
It helped Johnson persuade Congress to pass the Tonkin Resolution
Why was the Tet offensive bad for the Americans
Even though the US won a tactical victory, American media coverage characterised the conflict as a defeat, and US public support for the war plummeted.
What is the my Lai massacre
A tragic event where hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians in a small village were killed in 1968
What led to the anti war movement
Because the Vietnam war was the first televised war. People were able to see the atrocities of the war (eg. The my lai massacre) this lead to people who changing their opinion on the war and become anti war. Many students protested against being drafted into the military and mass marches were held.
How did Nixon increase the scope of the war
He bombed Cambodia and Laos
What is the Vietnamisation
A plan To withdraw US troops gradually from Vietnam and hand over management of the war effort to the south Vietnamese.
Why did Nixon introduce Vietnamisation
Due to the growing pressure at home and across the world
What eventually forces Nixon to push for a peace settlement
Even though Nixon made good on his promise (Vietnamisation) he also illegally bombed Viet Cong sites in Cambodia and Laos all without consent or authorisation of the US Congress. This along with the publication of the secret pentagon papers in the US newspapers in 1971 caused an enormous scandal and forced Nixon to push for a peace settlement
What did Nixon do to try and pressure the north Vietnamese into a settlement
After a secret negotiations between the US emissary Henry A. Kissinger and the north Vietnamese representative le Duc Tho in 1972, Nixon engaged in diplomatic Manoeuvring with China and the USSR and stepped up bombing in north Vietnam to try and pressure them into a settlement
When was the cease-fire finally signed and when did the last US military personnel leave Vietnam
In 1963 and The last US military personnel left Vietnam in March 1973
What ended the Vietnam war
The north Vietnamese forces stepped up their attacks on the south and finally launched and all out offensive in the spring of 1975 . On Apr 1975 the south Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the north Vietnamese, who reunited the county under communist rule as the socialist republic of Vietnam. This marked the end of the Vietnam war.
How did the Vietnam war affect The americas
The fall of Saigon in 1975 represented a humiliation for the planet’s most powerful nation: peasant revolutionaries had prevailed over American will, wealth and hardware
Name some of the booby traps that the Vietcong had set in the jungle
- The punji trap was a faeces-smeared spike buried into the ground. If a soldier stood on this spike, it would penetrate his boot and the wound would become septic and sometimes gangrene would set in.
- trip wires would be concealed in the forest. These wires were attached to explosive devices or formed part of a Vietcong ambush
- the toe-topper was a round of ammunition in a bamboo sleeve and that was partially buried in the undergrowth and if a soldier stepped in it his foot would be blown off
List five reasons why the USA lost the Vietnam war
They were fighting in a terrain they were not used to and don’t know.
Their bombing tactics were not enough because of the largely rural presence
They wore uniforms so they were easily recognisable and therefore easily targeted
They broadcasted the war which showed the US and the world the atrocities of the war thus they lost public support which then forced them to retreat and hand over the war to the south Vietnamese
Most were in favour of the Vietcong instead of the US so many people worked for the Vietcong to kill or badly injure US soldiers
List five reason why the North and the Vietcong won the Vietnam war
The set booby traps in the jungle which badly injured it killed American soldiers
They didn’t wear uniform thus they were hard to identify
They used guerrilla tactics to attack the American soldiers
They knew the terrain thus they were at an advantage in terms of using the jungle to their advantage (booby traps, tunnels)
The USA alienated the south Vietnamese leaving them vulnerable to the Vietcong.
