Vietnam War History

Vocabulary terms and definitions covering the background, key figures, military operations, and political shifts of the Vietnam War.

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

The effort in $1954$ where France lost control of Vietnam to communist forces.

Vietminh

The communists in North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh.

Geneva Conference, 1954

An agreement that temporarily divided Vietnam into north and south along the $17^{th}$ parallel.

Ngo Dinh Diem

The pro-Western, Catholic autocrat who took control of the government in Saigon with U.S. support.

Domino Theory

The belief that if one country in Indochina fell to communism, surrounding countries like Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma would also fall.

Vietcong

Communist insurgents located in South Vietnam who were supported by Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh.

Self-immolation

A form of protest used by a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire to oppose Ngo Dinh Diem's regime.

Dean Rusk

The Secretary of State under Johnson and a major proponent of the domino theory.

Robert McNamara

The Secretary of Defense who served as the architect of the U.S. escalation policy in Vietnam.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964

Congressional action that gave Johnson authority to widen the war effort without a formal declaration of war.

Pleiku

The U.S. base attacked in February $1956$ (likely referring to $1965$ based on context of escalation) where $8$ Americans died, leading to the decision to escalate the war.

Operation Rolling Thunder

The first nonstop bombing of North Vietnam ordered by LBJ, which lasted for $3$ years.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

A network of trails through Cambodia and Laos used to send soldiers and supplies from North Vietnam to South Vietnam.

General William C. Westmoreland

The commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam who consistently demanded more troop reinforcements.

Napalm

A gelled gasoline used to burn out heavy jungle areas during the air war.

Agent Orange

A chemical defoliant used to kill jungle vegetation, which later caused cancer in many exposed U.S. soldiers.

Tet Offensive, 1968

A massive coordinated strike by North Vietnam on $100$ cities and bases that psychologically destroyed American hopes of winning the war.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

A member of the "New Left" that became more militant and used Marxism as its ideology during antiwar protests.

Teach-ins

Small campus sessions starting in $1965$ that eventually escalated into enormous public anti-war protests.

Eugene McCarthy

A liberal from Minnesota who ran an anti-war campaign in New Hampshire and earned nearly half the vote.

Southern Strategy

Richard Nixon's plan to court conservative southern Democrats who were dissatisfied with civil rights and anti-war protests.

Vietnamization

Nixon’s policy involving the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops while providing South Vietnam with money, weapons, and training to take over the fighting.