Colonial Legacy
This nationalist leader and founder of the Viet Minh declared Vietnamese independence in 1945 following the surrender of Japan.
Ho Chi Minh
Reaching a peak in 1969, this was the approximate number of U.S. soldiers serving in Vietnam.
500,000
This white supremacist group used bombings, arson, and intimidation to resist the Civil Rights Movement, especially in Southern states.
KKK
The U.S. entered the Vietnam conflict under this general foreign policy, which aimed to stop the spread of communism worldwide.
Containment
By the end of the conflict, more than this many U.S. troops had been killed in the Vietnam war.
58,000
France exercised complete control over the colonial economy, extracting these two primary valuable resources.
Rubber and rice
These guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam used hit-and-run tactics and underground tunnels to strike U.S. and South Vietnamese forces.
Viet Cong
Images of children being clubbed and attacked by police dogs in this Alabama city shocked the nation and forced the city to desegregate in 1963.
Birmingham
This U.S. President was convinced by the violence in Birmingham that a new, mandatory civil rights act was required.
John F. Kennedy
In 1963, South Vietnam’s Catholic-led government faced a major crisis and protests from this religious majority.
Buddhists
These three modern-day countries were colonized by France starting in the 1800s and were collectively known as French Indochina.
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
This 1964 congressional statement gave President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authority to use military force without a formal declaration of war.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
In 1962, this Air Force veteran required federal protection to enroll as the first Black student at the University of Mississippi.
James Meredith
After Lyndon Johnson refused to run for re-election, this man won the presidency in 1968 on a platform to end the war.
Richard Nixon
The U.S. sprayed millions of gallons of this toxic herbicide, which later caused severe health issues for both Vietnamese civilians and U.S. veterans.
Agent Orange
In 1954, the Vietamese decisively defeated French forces at this battle, forcing France to abandon its colonial claims in the region.
Dien Bien Phu
This U.S. General requested more troops in 1965 because he believed the South Vietnamese Army was too weak to fight alone.
William Westmoreland
This 1965 law protected African Americans' right to vote by banning discriminatory practices like literacy tests.
The Voting Rights Act
This was the name of the plan to gradually withdraw U.S. troops and shift combat duties to the South Vietnamese forces.
Vietnamization
Of the approximately 3.5 million Vietnamese people killed during the war, this many were estimated to be civilians.
2 million
This 1954 meeting resulted in the temporary division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel.
Geneva Conference
Although the U.S. war effort escalated significantly in 1965, American deaths in Vietnam began occurring as far back as this year.
1961
This specific act of terror in 1963 resulted in the deaths of four young girls and served as a turning point for federal intervention.
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
In November 1963, the government of Ngo Dinh Diem was toppled and the leader was assassinated by this specific group.
South Vietnamese Military
During a 1970 anti-war protest against the invasion of Cambodia, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on protesters at Kent State University, killing this many students.
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