Vocabulary
Counterculture
Promoting a way of life different from normal behaviors (hippies)
Lyndon B. Johnson
36th President of the US
Operation Rolling Thunder
Air strike campaign over North Vietnam, supposed to weaken enemy's ability and will to fight
Buddhist Crisis
Persecution of Buddhists by Ngo Di Diem
My Lai Massacre
American soldiers killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians
War Powers Act
Restricted the president's war-making powers
Richard M. Nixon
37th President during Vietnam Conflict
War of Attrition
Fight small skirmishes
Gulf of Tonkin
North Vietnamese ships torpedoed US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin
Pentagon Papers
American leaders misled the Congress and American people about the war
Credibility gap
Difference in perception between the Johnson Admin and its people
Robert McNamara
JFK and LBJ's Secretary of Defense during Vietnam War
Why did the Tet Offensive damage American morale?
Because it demonstrated that the communists had not lost the will or ability to fight.
My Lai Massacre
American soldiers killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians
Why did Nixon order the secret bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail?
To reduce the flow of communist supplies coming to SV
Viet Cong
South Vietnamese rebels who used guerilla warfare to try to topple US powers in Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh
Communist leader of North Vietnam
Napalm
Highly flammable chemical dropped from US planes in firebombing attacks during the Vietnam War.
Kent State Shooting
Protesters at Kent State University were shot at for protesting, 4 died
What 1968 event caused U.S. military leaders to be concerned that a quick end to the war was not possible?
The US military suffered a major strategic blow in the Tet Offensive
SDS
Organization founded in 1960 at the University of Michigan to fight racism and poverty, but quickly turned efforts to ending the Vietnam War
Commander of American troops on the ground in Vietnam
Flexible response
Defense policy allowing for the appropriate action in any size or type of conflict
End of Vietnam War ended with these countries falling to communism
Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam
To eliminate deferment abuses, the Selective Service system did what?
Adopted a lottery-based draft system