Unit 3G: US Involvement in the Vietnam War

IB HOTA YR 2

Viet Minh

Vietnamese nationalists led by Ho Chi Minh.

Geneva Accords

Agreements reached at Geneva in 1954 by France, China, Ho Chi Minh and the USSR, that Vietnam should be temporarily divided, with national elections held in 1956.

SEATO

SouthEast Asia Treaty Organization; defensive alliance of USA, UK, France, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan, who agreed to protect South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Viet Cong

Vietnamese Communists in South Vietnam.

ARVN

Army of the Republic of Vietnam.

Commitment Trap

Historians' theory that successive US presidents were committed to Vietnam by the actions of their predecessors.

Rolling Thunder

Sustained US bombing of North Vietnam from March 1965 to November 1968. Sabotage and subversion Destruction of property, designed to damage and undermine Batista's regime.

Domino Theory

Eisenhower believed that if one country fell to Communism, surrounding countries might follow, like falling dominoes.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Congressional resolution giving the president power to do as he saw fit in Vietnam.

Search and Destroy

General Westmoreland's tactics included finding and killing groups of Viet Cong guerrillas.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Route through Cambodia and Laos, by which Hanoi sent troops to South Vietnam. Hotline Direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin.

Vietnamization

Nixon's policy under which South Vietnam's government and forces took the main responsibility for the war.

'Peace with Honor'

Nixon wanted Thieu's government to stay in power in a viable South Vietnamese state, so that the USA could withdraw from Vietnam with its dignity intact.

Linkage

Linking American concessions to the USSR and China to their assistance in ending the Vietnam War. 'Loss of China' Belief that Truman could have prevented Communist victory in China in 1949 with more aid to Chiang Kai-shek.

NLF

Communist National Liberation Front in Vietnam.

Sino-Soviet Split

Chinese-Soviet mutual hostility became increasingly obvious to the rest of the world. in the 1960s.

Great Society

President Johnson's policy to bring about greater social and economic quality in the USA.