Vietnam War

Question 0

What did the veit cong do?

Answer 0

The attacked the South Vietnamese government as well as officials and buildings.

Question 1

Who was the viet cong?

Answer 1

Was the south Vietnamese opposing communist group

Question 2

How did Kennedy support them?

Answer 2

Sending them military personnel to fight with the viet cong

Question 3

What were the 4 reasons why the USA got involved with Vietnam?

Answer 3

Containment
Domino theory
Military industrial complex
American politics

Question 4

Explain the domino theory

Answer 4

It was closely linked to containment, president Eisenhower figured that china and ussr were planning to spread communism through Asia.

Question 5

Explain containment ?

Answer 5

Containment meant stopping the advance of communism wherever it looked like it was possible. Like they had previously done with Korea, Greece and Cuba.

Question 6

Why did the USA get involved in Vietnam?

Answer 6

As an accumulation of events, the USA wanted to prevent Vietnam from becoming communist, with the influences of china and French not being very pro active, the USA stepped in to help. They put diem in place, sent in their advisers, gave money to French and diem

Question 7

What did the us do in retaliation of the veit Minh trying to remove diem through guerrilla warfare ?

Answer 7

Sent in advisers to support the South Vietnamese army

Question 8

Who were the viet cong/viet Minh?

Answer 8

A communist group trying to enforce it over Vietnam it’s leader was Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnamese army

Question 9

How much money did the us give to the French to control the spread of communism?

Answer 9

$500 million every year

Question 10

How much did the USA give Diem between 1955-1960?

Answer 10

$1.6 billion

Question 11

Why did the USA ban the election set up by the French in 1945?

Answer 11

Because there was too much risk of all the votes being for communism

Question 12

How many people were in the viet cong?

Answer 12

170,000 soldiers

Question 13

What was the viet congs aim?

Answer 13

To turn the whole of Vietnam communist

Question 14

who supplied the weapons for the viet cong? And why?

Answer 14

Ussr and china
Ussr- promoted communist, didnt like USA
China - also promoted communist

Question 15

What advantages and disadvantages did the viet cong have over the USA?

Answer 15

A lot of fighting experience after fighting with the Japanese and French however they were heavily outnumbered by the us army

Question 16

Who had the viet cong previously fraught with?

Answer 16

Japan and France

Question 17

Name the 3 USA tactics?

Answer 17

Search and destroy
Chemical warfare
Bombing

Question 18

Explain search and destroy

Answer 18

Us went around locating the viet cong and destroyed everything; due to the fact viet cong were not uniformed the USA often killed civilians.

Question 19

What were the 3 problems for the search and destroy ?

Answer 19

Raids were based on poor information.

Often troops fell in traps or were ambushed. Many innocent civilians died.

Question 20

Explain chemical warfare?

Answer 20

The viet cong hid easily and well in the jungle. So the Americans carried out a policy of defoliation. The leaves of the trees were removed and killed by agent orange and the jungle became very toxic, lead to tunnels tactic by viet cong. Killed many people.

Question 21

Explain bombing?

Answer 21

USA bombed industrial and military targets in North Vietnam, targets then became towns and cities in North Vietnam as well as cities along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Question 22

Why was the bombing effective ?

Answer 22

It disputes communist supply routes and eventually forced north Vietnam to negotiate.

Question 23

Why did the USAs tactics turn people against the USA?

Answer 23

It only slowed communism spread down it didn’t remove it. It cost the USA $400,000 to kill one viet cong. Killed innocent civilians.

Question 24

What were the 4 tactics of the viet cong?

Answer 24

Guerrilla tactics/warfare
Booby traps
Determination
Working with the Vietnamese civilians

Question 25

Explain guerrilla warfare?

Answer 25

The viet cong couldn’t match the technology of the USA. So they used guerrilla tactics. They had no base or headquarters, no uniforms, worked in small groups with limited weapons, attack and then disappear into the jungle, villages or tunnels.

Question 26

What were the principles of guerrilla warfare?

Answer 26

“Retreat when the enemy attacks;raid enemy camps; attack when enemy tires; pursue when the enemy retreats”

Question 27

Explain booby traps?

Answer 27

Booby traps were very simple but effective devices which proved very very effective. They made them with whatever they could find the were cheap and easy to make. There was more sophisticated traps such as ‘bouncing Betty land mine’. Booby traps caused 11% of the us casualties

Question 28

What percentage did the booby traps cause us casualties?

Answer 28

11%

Question 29

Explain determination?

Answer 29

The viet cong refused to give in. They believed in what they were fighting for whereas many us soldiers were unaware of their view.

Question 30

Explain working with the Vietnamese civilians ?

Answer 30

The majority of the people in South Vietnam were peasant farmers, Ho Chi Minh encouraged the viet cong soldiers to be respectful towards them, to gain their like ability and trust,
They helped the farmers with their reading and writing and harvest in return in help with damaged supply routes and helped them to hide.

Question 31

What happened to the peasants that wouldn’t help?

Answer 31

The viet cong were ruthless to them. They treated them harshly. And were prepared to kill them if need be.