Vietnam War - LBJ & Nixon

August 1964

When was the Gulf of Tonkin Incident?

Gulf of Tonkin Indicent

What was the name of the event where US ships thought that they had been fired upon with torpedoes?

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

What was the name of the bill passed by Congress to allow President Johnson to escalate US military involvement in Vietnam without having to declare war?

Ho Chi Minh Trail

What was the name of the supply route that North Vietnam used to supply and arm its guerrilla fighters in the South?

Laos and Cambodia

Which other countries did the Ho Chi Minh Trail pass through?

Operation Rolling Thunder

What was the name of the US bombing campaign under President Johnson in which chemical defoliants (such as Agent Orange) and incendiaries (such as napalm) were dropped on Vietnam?

napalm and Agent Orange

What were two of the substances that the US dropped on Vietnam as part of Operation Rolling Thunder?

“Napalm Girl”

What is the name of the famous photograph of a Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack?

1972

When was the “Napalm Girl” picture taken?

2-3 times

How many more bombs were dropped as a part of Operation Rolling Thunder than had been dropped on the whole of Europe during WWII?

college students, men employed in ‘vital’ sectors like engineering

Which groups of people had previously (before 1965 and SSS) been exempted from the military draft?

SSS (Selective Service System)

What was the name of the new draft system that President Johnson established in 1965?

class rank and score on the Selective Service Qualification

How was intellectual ability proven under SSS?

William Westmoreland

What was the name of the general in charge of the US operation in Vietnam?

Tet Offensive

What was the name of the major North Vietnamese offensive in 1968?

1968

When did the Tet Offensive take place?

credibility gap

What was the name of the public’s distrust of President Johnson following his overly optimistic communication strategy?

Eddie Adams

What was the name of the Associate Press photographer who captured a picture of the execution of a suspected Viet Cong officer by a South Vietnamese General during the Tet Offensive?

Martin Luther King

Who publicly denounced the war in 1967?

Beyond Vietnam

What was the name of the speech that Martin Luther King gave criticising US militarism in Vietnam?

J. Edgar Hoover

Who was the director of the FBI during President Johnson’s presidency?

Yippies (Youth International Party)

What was the name of the Youth anti-war movement?

Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Jerry Rubin and “Wavy Gravy”

What were the names of the leaders of the Yippies?

Pigasus the Immortal

What was the name of the pig that the Yippies nominated for President in 1968?

Chennault Affair

What was the name given to Nixon’s attempt to halt peace talks with the North Vietnamese until he became president, undermining Johnson’s negotiations?

Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defence

Which key Johnson administration official resigned in protest of the Vietnam War?

Walter Cronkite

Which news reporter gave a famous report on the Tet Offensive, changing public perception of the war?

hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?

What was the protest chant used by protestors against the Vietnam War outside of the White House during the Johnson administration?

Robert F. Kennedy

Which candidate for president was assassinated during the campaign?

1968

When were RFK and MLK killed?

Henry Kissinger

Who was Nixon’s National Security advisor?

Peace with Honour

What did Richard Nixon promise during his election campaign regarding Vietnam?

Vietnamisation

What was the strategy that Kissinger pushed for where the US would shift the burden of the war to the South Vietnamese?

My Lai

What was the name of the village in which one of the most well-documented US war crimes was committed during the Vietnam War?

504

How many civilians were killed as a result of the My Lai massacre?

“search and destroy” missions

What was the name given to the operations by the US that aimed to root out Vietcong fighters in South Vietnam?

Lieutenant William Calley

Who was the only person ever convicted for their role in the My Lai massacre?

Madman Theory

What was the name of the policy advised by Henry Kissinger in 1970 that aimed to pressure North Vietnam into peace negotiations?

Cambodia

Which country did President Nixon bomb as a part of his “madman” strategy?

Operation Menu

What was the name of the US bombing campaign on Cambodia?

Khmer Rouge

Whose regime did the US bombing of Cambodia inadvertently give rise to?

4th May 1970

When was the Kent State University Shooting?

4

How many students were killed at the Kent State University shooting?

9

How many students were injured at the Kent State University shooting?

100

How many National Guardsmen confronted assembled students at Kent State University?

June 1971

When were the Pentagon Papers leaked?

Daniel Ellsberg

What was the name of the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers?

The Plumbers

What was the name of the group set up by President Nixon following the Pentagon Papers leak in an attempt to prevent future leaks?

Watergate

What scandal were “the Plumbers” notoriously involved in?

1974

When did Nixon resign as President?

Espionage Act

Under which Act was Ellsberg initially indicted?

115 years

What was the maximum sentencing Ellsberg could have gotten for leaking the Pentagon Papers?

triangular diplomacy

What was the strategy proposed by Henry Kissinger which aimed to exploit the rivalry between the Soviet Union and China to secure US geopolitical interests including a favourable outcome in Vietnam?

1972

When was the Moscow Summit?

Paris Peace Accords

What was the name of the peace treaties signed regarding Vietnam?

1975

When did North Vietnam ultimately achieve victory?

Mao Zedong

Who had Nixon met while in China?

Christmas bombing

What was the name of the military campaign authorised by Nixon in an attempt to keep pressure on the Vietcong during peace talks in Paris?

12 days

How long was the Christmas bombing?

“stone-aged barbarism”

What did the New York Times denounce Nixon’s Christmas bombing strategy as?

1973

When did the US finally withdraw its troops from Vietnam?

Silent Majority

Who did Nixon appeal to during a TV address?

27th January 1973

When were the Paris Peace Accords signed?