Vietnam War, Cold War, and 20th Century Political Movements

Geneva Conference

A conference between many countries that agreed to end hostilities and restore peace in French Indochina and Vietnam.

Ho Chi Mihn

Communist leader of North Vietnam who orchestrated the defeat of US and South Vietnam who orchestrated the defeat of US and South Vietnamese forces. The North will conquer South Vietnam and become one unified

Vo Nguyen Giap

military commander of the Viet Minh and the victor at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

Why did US got involved in Vietnam war?

to stop the spread of communism

Eisenhower policy toward Vietnam

directed aid to South Vietnam in hopes of creating a bulwark against further Communist expansion.

JFK + Vietnam

JFK's involvement in Vietnam saw a significant escalation of U.S. commitment through increased military advisors (from 700 to over 16,000), aid, and covert operations against North Vietnam

Robert McNamara

He played a major role in promoting the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution

involved alleged North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. destroyers, leading to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, a congressional act granting President Lyndon B. Johnson broad power to escalate the Vietnam War, serving as its legal justification for increased military action

Rolling Thunder

U.S. bombing campaign (1965-1968) against North Vietnam, designed to cripple its war-making ability, stop aid to the Viet Cong

My Lai Massacre

1968, in which American troops had brutally massacred innocent women and children in the village of My Lai, also led to more opposition to the war.

Why US could not win Vietnam War

North Vietnam's fierce nationalism, superior guerrilla tactics, strong popular support, and willingness to endure immense casualties

Credibility gap

an apparent difference between what is said or promised and what happens or is true.

Pol Pot

Cambodian politician, revolutionary, and dictator who ruled the communist state of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 until his overthrow in 1979

Khmer Rouge

Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea

Sihanouk

member of the House of Norodom who led Cambodia as King, Chief of State and Prime Minister

Lon Nol

Lon Nol was a Cambodian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice,

Deurbanization

the demographic shift of people moving from dense urban centers to less populated suburban or rural areas

Security Prison 21- Tuol Sleng

primary torture and execution center of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979

Killing Fields

Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge regime executed and buried over a million people in mass graves between 1975 and 1979

SDS

Students for a Democratic Society-an antiestablishment New Left group, founded in 1960, this group charged that corporations and large government institutions had taken over America; they called for a restoration of "participatory democracy" and greater individual freedom

Yippies

the Youth International Party, a political party formed in 1967, which called for the establishment of a New Nation consisting of cooperative institutions that would replace those currently in existence

Counterculture

cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society

Weathermen

group that branched off of the SDS; advocated terrorism in the US to stop another Vietnam from happening; name came from Bob Dylan lyrics "don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"; dwindle away after 4 of them die in an explosion in Greenwich Village

Nation of Islam

A group of militant Black Americans who profess Islamic religious beliefs and advocate independence for Black Americans

Malcolm X

Charismatic Black Muslim leader who promoted separatism in the early 1960s

Black Panthers

A black political organization that was against peaceful protest and for violence if needed. The organization marked a shift in policy of the black movement, favoring militant ideals rather than peaceful protest.

Stonewall Riots

a group of riots in new york by homosexuals, marked the beginning of the gay rights movement

NOW

National Organization of Women, 1966, Betty Friedan first president, wanted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforce its legal mandate to end sex discrimination

Betty Friedan

American feminist writer and activist

Roe v Wade

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an abortion prior to the point of fetal viability

Equal Rights Amendment

a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing discrimination based on sex

Protest at DNC

famously in 1968 Chicago over the Vietnam War, leading to police riots

Nixon campaign strategies

appealing to a "silent majority" craving order, using coded language (the "Southern Strategy") to attract conservative white voters, promising to end the Vietnam War, and crafting a "New Nixon" image via managed media appearances to appear more statesmanlike

Prague Spring

The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.

Tlatelolco Massacre

The Tlatelolco massacre was a military massacre committed by the Mexican Armed Forces against the students of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the National Polytechnic Institute and other universities in Mexico

Columbia University protests

In 1968, a series of protests at Columbia University in New York City were one among the various student demonstrations that occurred around the globe in that year.

Baltimore and Washington Riots

1968 riots after MLK Jr.'s assassination, causing widespread damage and deaths

May in France

a period of massive student-worker protests, strikes, and civil unrest that nearly toppled President Charles de Gaulle's government

Stagflation

a difficult economic situation with three simultaneous problems: stagnant economic growth, high inflation, and high unemployment

OPEC

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

Richard Nixon and Watergate

The events and scandal surrounding a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972 and the subsequent cover-up of White House involvement, leading to the eventual resignation of President Nixon under the threat of impeachment.

Jimmy Carter

(1977-1981), Created the Department of Energy and the Depatment of Education. He was criticized for his return of the Panama Canal Zone, and because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, he enacted an embargo on grain shipments to USSR and boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and his last year in office was marked by the takeover of the American embassy in Iran, fuel shortages, and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, which caused him to lose to Ronald Regan in the next election.

Iran-Hostage Crisis

November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran,

Ronald Reagan

served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement

"Welfare queen"

"welfare queen" image has significantly influenced public perceptions of welfare programs and has been linked to broader societal attitudes regarding race and poverty

Supply Side economics

a theory focusing on boosting economic growth by increasing the supply of goods and services, primarily through tax cuts

"Evil Empire"

most famously refers to President Ronald Reagan's 1983 description of the Soviet Union, framing the Cold War as a moral struggle

Iran-Contra

a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitated by senior officials

Margaret Thatcher

British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990