APUSH: The Vietnam War

The prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) attempting to prevent the spread of communism.

A group of Communist guerrillas who, with the help of North Vietnam, fought against the South Vietnamese government in the Vietnam War. AKA the National Liberation Front.

A Vietnamese revolutionary nationalist leader. He organized Vietnamese opposition to foreign occupation, first against the Japanese and then the French. Became leader of North Vietnam. He led the war to unify the country in the face of increased military opposition from the United States. He organized the Vietnamese Communist party.

He sent financial and military aid to the Diem's government.

A foreign policy developed by diplomat George Kennan that claimed that the only way to stop Russia's expansionist ways was to contain it. It was the basis of US foreign policy after WWII designed to stop the spread of communism.

South Vietnamese president that was catholic and strongly opposed communism. His poor leadership and corrupt government spelled doom.

This man takes office after JFK's assassination. He created the program, "The Great Society." He also created a department of housing and urban development. His most important legislation was probably medicare and medicaid.

A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in direct response to a minor naval engagement known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. It is of historical significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in Southeast Asia.

Here, there we no territorial goals. Televised as the first "living room" war. Where Vietcong supplies over the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

A network of jungle paths going from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam, used as a military route by North Vietnam to supply the Vietcong during the Vietnam War.

This is the sustained bombing of North Vietnam. The U.S. was not sure what it was shooting at but bombs it anyways; an attempt to bomb the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese forces launched a huge attack on the Vietnamese New Year, which was defeated after a month of fighting and many thousands of casualties; major defeat for communism, but Americans reacted sharply, with declining approval of LBJ and more anti-war sentiment.

Without Washington able to resrict media coverage of the war, TV let citizens watch the war in their living rooms.

A person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. McCain was a victim of this in North Vietnam.

LBJ's policies of fighting poverty and racial injustice, the term for the domestic programs of the Johnson administration.

1968, in which American troops had brutally massacred innocent women and children in the village of My Lai, also led to more opposition to the war.

This was where young students held Anti-War demonstrations.

An Ohio college where an anti-war protest got way out of hand, the Nat'l Guard was called in and killed 3 students in discriminate fire of M-1 rifles.

Nixon appealed to this group of people. A label Nixon gave to middle-class Americans who supported him, obeyed the laws, and wanted "peace with honor" in Vietnam.

Nixon's policy that involved withdrawing 540,000 US troops from South Vietnam over an extended period of time. It also included a gradual take over of the South Vietnamese taking responsibility of fighting their own war by American-provided money, weapons, training, and advice.

A chemical the U.S. used to destroy plant life in the jungle, but contaminated drinking water and caused birth defects from those who were contaminated.

Top-secret documents, published by The New York Times in 1971, that showed the blunders and deceptions that led the United States into the Vietnam War.

Term used for a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. This agreement was signed between US, South Vietnam and North Vietnam.

Battle where North Vietnam captured capital of South Vietnam and named it Ho Chi Mihn City, Marked the end of the Vietnam War in April, 1975 when North Vietnamese invaded South Vietnam, forcing all Americans left to flee in disarray as the capitol was taken.