Terrible Conditions
The temperature in Vietnam was often over this many degrees Fahrenheit, making it super hot for soldiers.
What is 90°F?
This is the name for the communist rebel fighters from South Vietnam who used surprise attacks.
What is the Viet Cong?
The U.S. commander in Vietnam, General Westmoreland, measured success by counting these.
What is the "body count"?
Before 1966, these were the three main groups of people who protested the Vietnam War.
What are college students, pacifists, and radical groups?
This group of Americans believed the war was morally right and wanted to expand fighting to win.
What are Hawks?
This rainy season in Vietnam lasted from May to October and made marching very muddy.
What is the monsoon season?
Enemy soldiers would hide in these underground spaces that sometimes had kitchens and living areas.
What are tunnels?
This jellied gasoline was dropped from planes in bombs that burned everything—and everyone—they touched.
What is napalm?
This is the term for people who hate war and believe all fighting is wrong.
What is a pacifist?
This group of Americans believed the war was immoral and that the U.S. should not interfere in Vietnam's civil war.
What are Doves?
This disease, spread by insects in the tropical climate, made many U.S. soldiers sick.
What is malaria?
A soldier who hides and shoots at enemies from a concealed, or hidden, spot.
What is a sniper?
This poisonous chemical was sprayed on the jungle to try to remove trees where enemies were hiding.
What is Agent Orange?
In March 1965, teachers at this university held the first all-night "teach-in" to debate the Vietnam War.
What is the University of Michigan?
This famous boxer refused to be drafted, saying, "I ain't got no quarrel with no Viet Cong."
Who is Muhammad Ali?
Besides swamps and jungles, soldiers also had to march across these soggy, watery fields where rice is grown.
What are rice paddies?
This was an explosive device buried just below the ground that would explode when a soldier stepped on it.
What is a land mine?
The name for the U.S. military missions where small platoons would go find the enemy and call in airstrikes.
What is "search-and-destroy"
In 1969, the Supreme Court ruled in this case that students have the right to wear black armbands to protest—it's called "symbolic speech."
What is Tinker v. Des Moines?
This law, passed in 1971, lowered the voting age to 18 because young men could be drafted but couldn't vote.
What is the 26th Amendment?
A soldier used these three "U" words to describe how he felt about being drafted: "We are the ______..."
What is "unwilling, unqualified, and unnecessary"?
This enemy tactic meant the Viet Cong could look like ordinary farmers or even children, so U.S. troops couldn't tell who was the enemy.
What is "hiding in plain sight"?
This was General Westmoreland's military plan to wear down the enemy by killing more soldiers than they could replace.
What is a war of attrition?
Borrowed from the civil rights movement, this type of protest involved students occupying campus buildings to show they were against the war.
What is a sit-in?
Martin Luther King Jr. called Vietnam this unfair phrase because more poor people and minorities were sent to fight than wealthy college students.
What is "a white man's war, a black man's fight"?
("A rich man's war and a poor man's fight.")