Vietnam - 2 Flashcards
total number of days of the battle at Dien Bien Phu
56
number of men the French lost at Dien Bien Phu
11,500
year Ho Chi Minh and Giap first meet
1940
year Ho Chi Minh and Giap are ready for a revolution
1945
M/D/Y Ho Chi Minh and Giap are ready to start a revolution
9/2/45
number of people in Giap’s family that died in French prisons
3
people that died in a French prison
Giap’s father, Giap’s wife, and Giap’s sister-in-law
“We’ll beat them at the moment they have the most men, the most weapons, the most hope of winning. Because all that strength will become a millstone around their necks”
– Giap
term for the battle between the US and NVA
Khesanh
NVA
North Vietnamese Army
VC
Vietcong
number of days that Khesanh lasted
77
term for the microcosm of the Vietnam War
Khesanh
person who had originally had no military experience at all
Giap
term for the base of Giap’s military education
books
age of Giap when his father died
10
year General De Gaulle came to Phnom Pehn
1963
person who came to Phnom Pehn
General De Gaulle
person who ordered the dropping of agent orange
Admiral Zumwalt
yeawr the first US Combat Troops entered Vietnam
1965
year there was the largest number of US Combat Troops in Vietnam
1968
year the last US Comabt Troops left Vietnam
1973
term for the increase of troops in Vietnam
escalation
term for the decrease of troops in Vietnam
withdrawal
“There was a light at the end of the tunnel”
– Westmoreland (in response to Khesanh)
M/D/Y of the Tet Offensive
1/30/68
“if we had fought the Soviet way, we wouldn’t have lasted more than two hours”
– Giap
“We’ll take as long as necessary, 10,15, 20, 50 years, until we acheive total victory. . . We’re not in a hurry, we’re not afraid.”
– Giap
“When you go out on the battlefield, only then do you know what the war is like. The leaders above us don’t understand. We search for the enemy everywhere and find nothing, but when we think there is no enemy, the the enemy appears. There are no front lines, yet the front lines are everywhere. We see a person and are afraid. We see a child and are afraid. We see a leaf shaking, and again, we are afraid.”
– first American lueitnant
PMED extended
Political, Military, Economic, Diplomacy
“There is never a strategy that is purely military. So our strategy included everything - political, military, economic, diplomatic aspects. And it was not a war fought solely by the military; it was fought by the whole people. This is apoint that American generals and politicians didn’t understand.”
– Giap
PMED
Giap’s strategy
US president who got all combat troops out of Vietnam by 1973
Richard Nixon
US president that put all cobat troops into Vietnam in 1965
LBJ
term for the document that gave the US 60 days to get all of its troops out of Vietnam
Paris Peace Treaty
number of days the US had to get all of its troops out of Vietnam under the Paris Peace Treaty
60
term for the Vietnamese New Year
Tet
term for the groups that were on the side of communism
VC and NVA
term for the nickname of the VC
“Charley”
term for the groups on the side of democracy
ARVN and US
ARVN
Army for the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese)
“First of all, no nation should ever put the burden of war on its military’s forces alone. Society itself must be willing to pursue the war.”
– General Westmoreland
“Giap was not my counterpart. My position was never as exalted as his. I was a soldier obeying orders, a field commander acting within the restraints of my own country’s gov’t. Giap on the other hand, was an influential member of his own gov’t. He was a playing political as well as a military role. He may have been my adversary but certainly not my counterparty.”
– Westy
“Giap was trained in small-unit, guerilla tactics, but he persisted in waging a big-unit war with terrible losses to his men. By his own admission, by early 1969, I think he had lost, what, a half million soldiers? He reported this. Now such a disregard for human life may make for a formidable adversary, but it does not make a military genius.”
– Westy
“But the newspaper and television reporting gave the impression, if not of American and South Vietnamese defeat, then of an endless war that could never be won.”
– Westy
“When the enemy is hurting, you don’t diminish the pressure, you increase it.”
– Westy
person who was in charge of the US military troops from 1964-1968
Westy
bookend years that Westy was in charge of the US military troops
1964-1968
term for the person that Westy had to talk to in order to get more things such as men or supplies
secretary of defense
term for the middle man who would talk to the Presidnet and give him his reccomendation on the General in field’s request
secretary of defense
term for the comparison of the number of deaths between two opposing forces and the measurement of the US winning
body count
“The enemy was soundly defeat”
– Westy
”. . . despite the final failure of the South Vietnamese, the record of the American military forces, of never having lost a war, is still intact.”
– Westy
M/D/Y South Vietnman became a communist country
4/30/75
M/D/Y Saigon falls
4/30/75
year Westy dies
2005
total number of communists (NVA/VC) that died during the Tet Offensive
32,000
number of American that died during the Tet Offensive
1,001
number of allied forces that died during the Tet Offensive
2,000
ratio of death of the NVA/VC to the Americans
10:1
person who was secretary of defense
Robert McNamara
person who was head of the Ford Motor Company
McNamara
person who brought about the idea of the body count to measure success
McNamara
Paris Peace Treat was signed
1/27/73
term for the event where the NVA and VC launched 70-100 surprise attacks on cities and villages in South Vietnam
Tet Offensive
