Background & Key Events
The 1954 defeat of French forces at this decisive battle ended France's colonial rule in Indochina and led to the division of Vietnam.
What is the Battle of Dien Bien Phu?
Guerrilla warfare, including hit-and-run ambushes, booby traps (spike pits), an extensive underground tunnel system, and using the Ho Chi Minh Trail to transport supplies.
What military tactics were used by the Viet Cong?
Large demonstrations, including marches, sit-ins, draft card burning, and peace rallies.
What were the methods of protest used by students?
It officially ended direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War, requiring a complete withdrawal of American troops, a ceasefire, and the release of all U.S. prisoners of war.
What were the 1973 Paris Peace Accords?
A Vietnamese revolutionary leader who fought for independence, who founded the communist movement, and served as President of North Vietnam, and declared Vietnam independent after World War II.
Who is Ho Chi Minh?
This Cold War foreign policy theory held that if Vietnam fell to communism, neighbouring Southeast Asian nations would quickly fall like a row of blocks.
What is the "Domino Theory"?
Communist forces countered U.S. firepower using tunnels, booby traps, and hit-and-run ambushes.
What is guerrilla warfare?
National Guard troopers shot at anti-war student demonstrators protesting the invasion of Cambodia, killing four students and injuring eleven, leading to nationwide student strikes.
What happened at Kent State University in May 1970?
The war ended on April 30, 1975, when communist forces captured this South Vietnamese capital, which was soon renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
What is Saigon?
A South Vietnamese leader supported by the United States.
Who is Ngo Dinh Diem?
Taken by AP photographer Nick Ut in 1972, this Pulitzer-winning photograph showing 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc fleeing a strike became an iconic symbol of civilian suffering known by this nickname.
What is 'Napalm Girl'?
Operation Rolling Thunder (massive aerial bombing), Search and Destroy missions, chemical weapons (Agent Orange and Napalm), and the Strategic Hamlets Programme.
What were the main tactics used by the USA and South Vietnamese forces?
Why did Civil Rights leaders (like Martin Luther King Jr. and Julian Bond) oppose the war?
President Nixon’s policy of training and building up the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) to take over the fighting so American troops could be gradually withdrawn.
What was "Vietnamisation"?
This former military analyst leaked the classified Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971, exposing decades of secret U.S. government deception regarding the Vietnam War.
Who is Daniel Ellsberg?
It gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to take all necessary measures to fight in Vietnam, effectively allowing the USA to escalate from using military "advisers" to engaging in full-scale combat.
What was the significance of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?
To locate and eliminate enemy forces hiding in the dense jungle, the U.S. military relied heavily on helicopter air mobility, napalm, defoliants like Agent Orange, and this offensive strategy.
What are search-and-destroy missions?
Vietnam was the first "living-room war". Raw footage of atrocities (the My Lai Massacre) broadcast into homes fueled anti-war sentiments and mistrust of government reports.
How did television and media coverage affect American public opinion?
Passed in 1973 in response to the Vietnam War, this law limited the President's power to send U.S. military forces into action without congressional approval.
What is the War Powers Act or War Powers Resolution?
After visiting South Vietnam following the 1968 Tet Offensive, this CBS News anchor famously declared that the war was mired in a stalemate, leading LBJ to remark that he had lost 'Middle America'.
Who is Walter Cronkite?
Launched during the 1968 Lunar New Year, this massive surprise attack by communist forces across South Vietnam shattered claims that the U.S. was close to winning the war.
What is the Tet Offensive?
Lieutenant William Calley was the only U.S. soldier convicted for his role in this 1968 massacre of unarmed Vietnamese civilians
What is the My Lai Massacre?
Because televised coverage brought the raw violence of the Vietnam War directly into American homes and turned public opinion against it, Vietnam earned this nickname.
What is the "living room war"?
Leaked government documents published in 1971 showing that previous US administrations had lied to Congress and the public about US intentions and the war's progress.
What were the "Pentagon Papers" and why were they significant?
Serving as Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson, he was considered the primary architect of U.S. military escalation in the Vietnam War.
Who is Robert McNamara?