APUSH - Post-World War II Part II

Vietminh

This organization initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, it opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China. After World War II, it (under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh) opposed the re-occupation of Vietnam by France and later opposed South Vietnam and the United States in the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh

In the 1950s and 60s, he was the communist leader of North Vietnam, using guerrilla warfare to fight anti-comunist, American-funded attacks under the Truman Doctrine. His brilliant strategy drew out the Vietnam War and made it victory in-achievable for the Americans.

Dien Bien Phu

This was the decisive engagement in the first Indochina War (1946-54). It consisted of a struggle between French and Viet Minh (Vietnamese Communist and nationalist) forces for control of a small mountain outpost on the Vietnamese border near Laos. The Viet Minh victory in this battle effectively ended the eight-year-old war.

Geneva Accords

In 1954, at the Geneva Conference, the major European powers and Indochina drafted the this, which provided for the independence of Laos and Cambodia, the division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel, and the vote by the people of both North and South Vietnam by mid-1956 for a single all-Vietnam government.

Ngo Dinh Diem

He was the first president of South Vietnam (1955-1963). He was an American ally in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963; his repressive regime caused the Communist Viet Cong to thrive in the South and required increasing American military aid to stop a Communist takeover. He was killed in a coup in 1963.

Viet Cong

This was a political organization and army in South Vietnam and Cambodia that fought the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War (1959-1975), and emerged on the winning side. It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled. Many soldiers were recruited in South Vietnam, but others were attached to the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), the regular North Vietnamese army.

Domino Theory

This was a theory during the 1950s to 1980s, promoted at times by the government of the United States, that speculated that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.It was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

In 1964, two American destroyers, the Maddox and the Turner Joy, were running covert operations off the coast of North Vietnam. The two destroyers came under fire from North Vietnamese gunboats. Known as this, President Johnson used the incident to justify airstrikes against targets in North Vietnam.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Congress endorsed the presidential action through this. The Vietnam War was fought under the authority of this resolution. Johnson's decision to escalate the war included a variety of motivations, from a sense of being compelled to convince the Communist forces that he would stand firm against expansionism, to fear that his conservative opponent might tar him as "soft on Communism" in the upcoming presidential election.

Escalation

This is the phenomenon of something getting more intense step by step, for example a quarrel, or, notably, a war between states possessing weapons of mass destruction.

Hawks and Doves

Some argued for the necessity of the war as a means of halting Communist expansionism while others countered with arguments that the war was unnecessary. Some believed that the United States had no vital interests in Vietnam and was losing American lives in defense of a South Vietnamese government that did not command the loyalty of its own people.

Credibility Gap

Johnson developed this as the press and public refused to believe Johnson's predictions of Victory.This became worse following the Tet Offensive of early 1968. A military disaster for the Viet Cong, it was inaccurately reported by the American press and turned into a public relations triumph for Communists.

Tet Offensive

This was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the People's Army of Vietnam against the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the United States, and their allies. The purpose of the offensive was to utilize the element of surprise and strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam, during a period when no attacks were supposed to take place. A military disaster for the Viet Cong, it was inaccurately reported by the American press and turned into a public relations triumph for Communists.

Peace with Honor

This was a phrase U.S. President Richard M. Nixon used in a speech on January 23, 1973 to describe the Paris Peace Accord to end the Vietnam War. The phrase is a variation on a campaign promise Nixon made in 1968: "I pledge to you that we shall have an honorable end to the war in Vietnam."

Vietnamization

Following the election of 1968, the Nixon administration took the helm, calling for "peace with honor." Nixon attempted this through this policy, the process of transferring the main fighting from American troops to Vietnamese troops. By 1972, more than 500,000 troops had been withdrawn and only 27,000 troops remained.

Kent State Shootings

On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. This has certainly come to symbolize the deep political and social divisions that so sharply divided the country during the Vietnam War era.

POW's and MIA's

These are two acronyms that stand for prisoners of war and missing in action.

My Lai Massacre

This was the mass killing of as many as 500 unarmed villagers by U.S. soldiers in the hamlet of My Lai on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. My Lai was located in the province of Quang Ngai, an area believed to be a stronghold of the Viet Cong and thus a focus of the U.S. military. After receiving word that Viet Cong were in the hamlet, a company of U.S. soldiers was sent there on a search-and-destroy mission. Although no armed Viet Cong were found, the soldiers nonetheless killed all the elderly men, women, and children they could find; few villagers survived.

Khmer Rouge

This party took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. It created the state of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and ruled the country until January 1979. The party's existence was kept secret until 1977, and no one outside the CPK knew who its leaders were. While this party was in power, they set up policies that disregarded human life and produced repression and massacres on a massive scale. They turned the country into a huge detention center, which later became a graveyard for nearly two million people, including their own members and even some senior leaders.

Pathet Lao

This was a left-oriented nationalist group in Laos that took control of the country in 1975. Founded in 1950, this movement joined with the Viet Minh, the Communist-oriented Vietnamese nationalist organization, in armed resistance to French rule in Indochina.

Boat People

This refers to refugees, illegal immigrants, or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made. The term came into common use during the late 1970s with the mass departure of Vietnamese refugees from Communist-controlled Vietnam, following the Vietnam War.

War Powers Resolution

Congress adopted this in 1973. This resolution requires the president to inform Congress within 48 hours if he commits troops to combat. Congressional permission must be secured for combat for more than 90 days. If he does not do so, Congress can order the troops home by means of concurrent resolution.

Boland Amendment

In response to the Ford Administration's covert assistance to anti-communist forces in Angola, Congress ordered him to stop out of fear that it might lead to another Vietnam situation. It adopted this during the Reagan Administration in the 1980sto frustrate the President's desire to assist anti-communists in both El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Nikita Khrushchev

He led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. His party colleagues removed him from power in 1964.

Peaceful Coexistence

A theory developed and applied by the Soviet Union at various points during the Cold War in the context of its ostensibly Marxist-Leninist foreign policy and was adopted by Soviet-influenced "Communist states" that they could peacefully coexist with the capitalist bloc (i.e., non-communist states). This was in contrast to the antagonistic contradiction principle that Communism and capitalism could never coexist in peace.

Geneva Summit

Following Khrushchev's lead, Eisenhower met with British Prime Minister Anthony Ede, French Premier Edgar Faure, and leaders of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin in Geneva, July 1955. They discussed disarmament and German reunification at the Geneva Summit, but no concrete results were produced. Dulles left the Geneva summit impressed by the Soviet leaders desire for good relations with everyone -- what was called the spirit of Geneva. Khrushchev left Geneva still concerned about Soviet competition with the West and what he called their tricks.

U-2 Incident

However, the "thaw" in relations between the USA and the USSR ended with this incident, in which an American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union. Eisenhower denied any American knowledge or responsibility. However, Powers was still alive, and Eisenhower acknowledged his own personal culpability. Khrushchev, in his anger, cancelled the Paris Summit.

Paris Summit

This was a scheduled meeting that was canceled as a result of the U-2 incident involving Francis Gary Powers.

Vienna Summit

A summit meeting held on June 4, 1961 in Vienna between President John F. Kennedy of the United States and Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union. The leaders of the two superpowers of the Cold War era discussed numerous issues in the relationship between their countries. During the summit, Khrushchev bullied an ailing and inexperienced Kennedy. This led Khrushchev to believe Kennedy would not stand up to him.

Military-Industrial Complex

This is described as an all-too friendly relationship that may develop between defense contractors and government forces, where both sides receive what they are perceivably looking for: a successful military engagement for war planners and financial profit for those manning the corporate boardrooms. It can be viewed as a "war for profit" theory.

Berlin Wall

This was a barrier constructed by East Germany that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

In 1963, all major powers except China and France agreed to this which prohibited all atmospheric testing of atomic weapons.

Detente

This is known as the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1971, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War. The period was characterized by the signing of treaties such as the SALT I and the Helsinki Accords.

China Card

Improved relations first began with China. The Chinese and Soviets had split in the rupture of 1963, and sought normal relations with the United States. In July 1971, influential Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made a secret trip to China to discuss the extension of American recognition to mainland China. In February 1972, Nixon visited China and made the recognition of China official and public. Nixon's playing of this allowed détente with the Soviet Union.

SALT I

Nixon's playing of the "China card" allowed détente with the Soviet Union. Worried by Sino-American agreements and the size of both countries' nuclear arsenals, they sought actively sought détente. In May 1972, Nixon visited Moscow for discussions with Premier Leonid Brezhnev. It resulted in this which placed limits on intercontinental ballistic missiles and restricted the development of antiballistic missile systems. Both sides agreed to work towards complete nuclear freeze.

SALT II

This was a controversial experiment of negotiations between Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev from 1972 to 1979 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which sought to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons. It was a continuation of the progress made during the SALT I talks, led by representatives from both countries. It was the first nuclear arms treaty which assumed real reductions in strategic forces to 2,250 of all categories of delivery vehicles on both sides.

Strategic Defense Initiative

Proposed by Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983, this sought to use ground and space-based systems to protect the US from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.

Mutually Assured Destruction

This was a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.

START

Proposed by Ronald Reagan, this was a treaty between the US and the USSR on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994. The treaty barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers. It negotiated the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history, and its final implementation in late 2001 resulted in the removal of about 80 percent of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence.

Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

This was an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.