Vietnam War: Key Events, Policies, and Civil Rights Impact

French Rule over Vietnam

French held garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam fell after a four month siege led by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh.

Role of Truman/Eisenhower/Kennedy

Eisenhower upheld the stance begun in the Truman administration; a stance that marked Berlin as a pivotal locale in the Cold War struggles.

Geneva Accords 1954

Ended the first Indochina war by splitting Vietnam along the 17 parallel into a communist North and a non communist South.

Vietcong

Revolutionist, the trail named after him was a network of road and trails that ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia.

Guerrilla Warfare

Unconventional, small war such as paramilitary units or armed civilians against a much larger, traditional military force.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident/Resolution

Naval confrontation in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam, which led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam war.

Operation Rolling Thunder

A gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States against North Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968.

Robert McNamara

Transformative US Secretary of Defense (1961-1968) under Kennedy and Johnson, largely known as the primary architect of the Vietnam War escalation.

General Westmoreland

Best known as the commander of U.S. forces in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968, guiding the strategy of attrition and massive troop increases.

Napalm / Agent Orange

Weapons used during Vietnam War.

Credibility Gap

The phrase 'light at the end of the tunnel' are linked to the American public's loss of trust in their government during the Vietnam War.

Draft

The rise in college attendance rates in the mid-1960s is often attributed to draft avoidance behavior.

My Lai Massacre

A United States war crime committed on 16 March 1968, involving the mass murder of unarmed civilians in Sơn Mỹ village.

Lt. Calley

William Laws Calley Jr. was convicted by court-martial of the murder of 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre.

Living Room War

Refers to the Vietnam War being the first armed conflict heavily broadcast into American homes via television.

Homefront / Protests

Constituted a massive, diverse movement driven by college students, activists, and later Vietnam veterans.

Doves vs. Hawks

'Hawks' advocate an aggressive foreign policy based on strong military power, while 'Doves' try to resolve conflicts without force.

Tet Offensive

A massive, surprise military campaign launched on January 30, 1968, by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces against South Vietnam.

Election of 1968

The election that followed the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

Silent Majority

Richard Nixon's presidential campaign successfully mobilized a 'silent majority'—largely white, blue-collar, suburban, and rural voters.

Vietnamization

A policy enacted in early 1969 aimed at ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by expanding and training the South Vietnamese armed forces.

Christmas Bombings

Operation Linebacker II, a massive 11-day U.S. aerial bombing campaign against North Vietnam from December 18-29, 1972.

Pentagon Papers

A top-secret 1967 Department of Defense study revealing that multiple U.S. administrations systematically lied to the public about the Vietnam War.

Henry Kissinger

An American diplomat who served as the 7th national security advisor and later as the 56th United States secretary of state.

Paris Peace Accords

The 1973 agreement that ended direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.

Fall of Saigon

Saigon was captured by North Vietnam on 30 April 1975, causing the collapse of South Vietnam to communism.

War Powers Act

Limits the U.S. President's authority to commit armed forces to hostile foreign situations without congressional approval.

26th Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged.

Urban Riots

The urban riots of the 1960s were primarily caused by deep-seated racial injustice, systemic poverty, police brutality, and frustration over slow civil rights progress.

Malcolm X

The provocative yet charismatic face of Black Nationalism and spokesman for the Nation of Islam before he was gunned down.

Black Power

A political and social movement whose advocates believed in racial pride, self-sufficiency, and equality for all people of Black and African descent.

Black Panthers

A political and social movement advocating for racial pride, self-sufficiency, and equality for all people of Black and African descent.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The assassination of the civil rights leader in 1968.

Anti-authority

Opposed to or hostile toward authority.

Hippies vs. Mainstream

In the mid-1960s, Haight-Ashbury became the epicenter of a countercultural revolution where hippies rejected mainstream American materialism.