• Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
Reading...
Front

Card Range To Study

through

image

Play button

image

Play button

image

Progress

1/77

Click to flip

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;

H to show hint;

A reads text to speech;

77 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
What country ruled Indochina from the late 1800's to WW2
Fracne
What countries made up Indochina
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
Who founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930
Ho Chi Minh
Vietminh
an organization whose goal it was to win Vietnam's independence from foreign rule
What year did US enter the struggle in Vietnam?
1950
How long did the US stay in Vietnam
1950-1954
Hoe much money did US send France
2.6 billion
What two events convinced the Truman administration to help France in Vietnam?
1. to maintain and Allie against the growing soviet presence in Europe
2. to stop another Asian country from becoming communist
President Eisenhower defended US policy in Vietnam by stressing what
domino theroy
What is the domino theory
when one county becomes communist the nearby countries will also become communist
What did the Vietminh use to frustrate the French
Guerrilla warfare
What did the Vietminh irregular troops do
blend into the general population making it difficult for the french regular army units to fight
What happened at Dien Bien Phu on 7 May 1954?
a. the last french stronghold in NW Vietnam
b. Gen.Giap's Vietnamese army surrounded the french; forced surrender
What did the Geneva Accordes do?
a. 1954 peace agreement
b. divided Vietnam into a communist north and a non-communist south
c. unification elections would be held in 1956
Who leaded the new South Vietnamese government?
Ngo Dinh Diam
Who was Ngo Dinh Diam?
a. a strong anti-communist who refused to take part in the 1956 unification
b. US supported him with economic and military aid despite his corruption
Identify the Vietcong
a. communist opposition group in south Vietnam
b. attacked Diem's government and killed thousands of SV officials and teachers
NLF
national liberation front
What was JKF's view on South East Asia>
saw SE Asia as an important battle against communism
Did JFK increase or decrease military advisers and military aid or decrease it?
increase
Why did Buddhist monks set themselves on fire?
to protest Diem's governmet
What happened on 1 November 1963
What impact dod this event have on SV?
What happened 3 weeks later
SV generals seized power in a bloody coup against Diem
government became weak and unstable
JKF assassinated
What happedn on 2 August 1964
President Johnson announced that NV patrol boats fired a torpedo at the US ship teh Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin
What happened 4 August 1964
second attack occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin but the NV denied it
What did the Tonkin Gulf Resolution (7 August 1964) do>
while not declaring war, it gave Johnson broad military powers in Vietnam
Describe Operation Rolling Thunder (Feb.1965)
first sustained bombing of NV
a. LBJ wanted to avoid civilian casualties
b. Hanoi and Haiphong military installations were hit with 643,000 tons of bombs
Who were President Johnson's foreign-policy adivers?
Secretary of State Dean Rusk
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Who was the American commander in SV
General William Westmoreland
The US entered the war in Vietnam believing what
its superior weaponry would lead it to victory over the vc
What were 5 strategies the VC used to resist US troops
a. Hit and run and ambush tactics using their keen knowledge of the jungle terrain
b. they moved secretly in and out of the general population which destroyed the notion of a front line by attacking US troops in both the cities and the countryside
c. They laces the terrain with countless traps and land mines
d. they turned us weapons against the r american using unexploded bombs as traps
e. they used elaborate tunnel networks that allowed the VC to launch surprise attacks on the US soldiers and then disappear quickly. Villages were interconnected with tunnels
What did the US miscalculate
the enemy's resolve
What was General Westmoreland's strategy for defeating the Vietcong?
a. to destroy their moral through a war of attrition
b. he introduced the concept of the body count to track the number of vc killed in battle
What was another key part of the American strategy
to keep vc from winning the support of sv's rural population
What three things did the US military use to battle the VC
napalm: a gasoline based bomb that set fire to the jungle
agent orange: a leaf killing toxic chemical that devastated the landscape
search and destroy mission: uprooting villagers with suspected ties to the vc, killing their livestock and burning their villages. This created 3,000,000 refugees who either fled to the cities or refuge camps by 1967
What did a US army majore quote in February 1968
We had to destroy the town in order to save it
What 6 things frustrated teh US troops fighting spirit
a. guerilla warfare
b. brutal jungle conditions
c. failure to make substantial headway against the enemy
d. many soldier turned to alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs to deal with and unwinnable war
e. May 1966 Buddhist monks who burned themselves in protest against the sv government
f. the racism that gripped many military units
What did students in the early 1960's do
become more socially and politically active
By the mid-1960's what did many youths beleive
the nation needed fundamental changes
What does FSM stand for and identify?
Free speech movement
a. an anti-establishment new left organization that originated in a 1964 clash between students and administrators at the University of California at Berkeley
b. The students insisted that the university administration lift a ban on "on campus" political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom to express their opinions without fear form institutional censorship or discipline
What does SDS stand for and identify?
Students for a democratic society
a. and anti-establishment new left group
b. founded in 1960; called for greater individual freedom and responsibility
What did American youths join together to do at college campuses across the country
protest the war
What happened from 1965-1967 and why?
The war movement intensified
a. protesters believed that "They were having no effect on the U.S. policy... sot they had to up the ante."
b.during the spring of 1967 about 500,000 protestors gathered in NYC's Central Park and shouted "burn cards, not people" and "hell no, we won't go." They thought the war was wrong
Who were teh doves
those who strongly opposed the war and believd teh US should withdraw from Vietnam
Who were the hawks
those who feld that America should unleash a greater show of military force to end the war
Describe the Tet Holiday
a. 30 January was teh Vietnamese equivalent of New Year's Eve, beginning of the lunar new year festivities known in Vietnam as Tet
b. Throughout the day in 1968, villagers streamed into the cities across SV to celebrate their new year
c. During these festivities many funerals were being held for the victims of the war- coffins contained weapons that were going to be used in a surprise attack
Tet Offensice (Feb.1968)
a. A massive surprise attack by the VC on all SV towns and cities
b. over 100 towns and cities along with 12 us air force bases were attacked by 84,000 VC
c. the fighting was especially fierce in Saigon and Hue as well as at the us embassy in Saigon
d. the Tet Offensive continued for nearly a month before US and SV forces regained control
Why did General Westmoreland declare the attacks an overwhelming defeat for the VC?
a. He said "The VC's well-laid plans went afoul and that the enemy exposed himself by virtue of his strategy, and he suffered heavy casualties."
b. The VC lost about 32,000 soldiers and the US and SV lost about 3,000
What did the Tet Offensive do?
Greatly shook the american public that had come to believe that the enemy was close to defeat
the Johnson administration's credibility gap suddenly widened
What did Walter Cronkite tell his viewers
"It now seemed more certain than ever that the bloody experience in Vietnam is the end in a statement."
After learning of Cronkite's pessimistic analysis what did President Johnson say?
"If I've lost Walter, then it's over. I've lost Mr.Average Citizen."
What happened 3-4 April 1968
MLK assassinated
What happened 4-5 June 1968
RFK assassinated
Who was Governor George Wallace
a. A democrat running as a independent and longtime champion of school segregation and states right
b. He was labeled as the white backlash candidate during the 1968 election
Who were the three presidential candidates in the 1968 election
Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and George Wallace
In the summer of 1969, President Nixon began pulling US troops out of Vietnam. However he continued the war against the NV to achieve what
peace and honor
What was Vietnamization
a. Nixon's strategy to end America's involvement in Vietnam
b. The plan called for the gradual withdrawal of US troops in order for the SV to take on a more active combat role in the war
What did Nixon secretly order in order to maintain US clout at the negotiation table
a. a massive bombing campaign against supple routs and bases in NV
b. Nixon also ordered that bombs be dropped on the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia which held many VC sanctuaries
What happened on 16 March 1968?
a. A platoon commanded by Lt. William Calley, Jr. entered the small village of My Lai south of Da Nang in search of VC.
b. finding no sign of the enemy, Calley's platoon rounded up the villagers and shot them
c. His men massacred between 200-500 innocent villagers- mostly women and children
d. His men insisted that they were following order; on soldier when asked about the orders he received said the orders were to "kill anything that breathed"
e. result: 25 Us Army officers were charged with involvement in the massacre and cover up, but only Calley was convicted and imprisoned
Despite the shock of the My Lai massacre, the country's mood by 1970 seemed to be growing what
less explosive
A New York Times survey pf college campuses on 1969 revelaed what
Many students were shifting their attention from the anti war movement to the environment
What did President Noxon announce on 30 April 1970
a. US troops had invaded Cambodia to clear out North Vietnamese Army and VC supply bases
b. College students across the US erupted in protest
c. 1.5 million students demonstrated on 1,200 college campuses
What happened on 4 May 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio
a. A massive student protest led to the burning of the ROTC building
b. the local mayor called in the national guard which fired into the crown of campus protesters who were throwing rocks at them
c. The gun fire wounded 9 people and killed 4, including 2 who were nonparticipants
What did the Pentagon Papers reveal in June 1971
a. A former department of defense worked, Daniel Ellsberg, leaked the press the Pentagon Papers
b.a 7,000 page document which revealed the government's plans for entering the war even as President Johnson promised that he would not send American troops to Vietnam
c. the papers showed that there was never any plan to end the war as long as the NVA attacked
d. The papers confirmed American's belief that the government had not been honest about its intentions
Henry Kissinger
a. The President's adviser for national security affairs, Nixon's top negotiator in Vietnam
b. a German emigrant who had earned 3 degrees from Havard
What happened on 27 January 1973
a. the warring parties returned to the peace table
b. the us signed an agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam
c. the NVA remained in SV
What happened on 29 March 1973
the last us combat troops left for home
What happened on 30 April 1975
a. NVA tanks rolled into Saigon and captured the city
b. soon after, SV surrendered to NV
Casualties for US
58,000+ killed 300,000+ wounded
Casualties for SV and NV
2 million dead
What did the Vietnam leave many Americans with
a more cautious outlook on foreign affairs and a more cynical attitude toward the government
How did Americans welcome home US military personnel returning from Vietnam
a. the nation as a whole extedned a cold hand to its returning Vietnam veterans
b. there were no brass bands, victory parades, or cheering crowds
c. many Vietnam veterans faced indifference or even hostility from an America still torn and bitter about the war
In 1962 what did the US government do in an effort to honor the men and women who served in Vietnam
unveiled the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC which consists of two black granite walls inscribed with the names of all Americans who died in the war
What happened in Cambodia in 1975
a. a Civil war broke out in which a communist group known as the Khmer Rouge seized power
b. In an effort to transform the country into a peasant society, the Khmer Rouge executed many government officials and educators
c. During its reign of terror about 1 million Cambodians were killed
What did Congress pass in November 1973
War powers act
What did the War Powers act do
it stipulated that the President must inform Congress within 48 hours if US forces are send into a hostile area without a declaration of war
the troops may remain there no longer than 90 days unless Congress approves the President's actions or declares war
Vietnam Syndrome
Americans now pause and consider possible risks to their own interests before deciding to intervene in the affairs of other nations
The Vietnam Conflict contributed to what
an overall cynicism in Americans about their government and political leaders that persists today