Vietnam War and Civil Rights Flashcards

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement.

Vietnam War Crossover Point

The point at which U.S. and ARVN forces were killing more northern troops than were replaceable, marking a war of attrition.

Search-and-Destroy Missions

U.S. operations aimed at bombing the Viet Cong and destroying their strongholds, resulting in few American losses but high civilian casualties.

Body Count

A measure of U.S. success in the Vietnam War based on the number of Viet Cong corpses, used in the absence of permanent territory gains.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

A supply route through Cambodia and Laos for North Vietnam to support the VC, heavily bombed by U.S. forces.

Agent Orange

A chemical defoliant used by the U.S. in Vietnam, causing severe health issues including birth defects.

JFK (John F. Kennedy)

The younger Democratic candidate in the 1960 election, feared by some for his Catholic background.

Lee Harvey Oswald

The individual who assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

Civil Rights Movement

A social movement aimed at achieving racial equality in the United States, that came as a surprise in the 1950s.

Jim Crow

Laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States.

Eisenhower

U.S. President who was ambivalent about the Civil Rights Movement, forcing the NAACP to use the courts

Mendez v. Westminster

A court case that resulted in the desegregation of Orange County schools, causing the california state legislature to repeal all school segregation under Gov. Earl Warren.

Earl Warren

California governor that repealed school segregation after Mendez v. Westminister ALSO the name of the chief justice of a very liberal supreme court that created the Miranda rights

Pleussy v. Ferguson

“Separate but equal” doctrine case, challenged by the NAACP in Brown v. Board 1954

Brown v. Board of Education

Supreme court rules segregation of schools violates the 14th amendment, under Chief Justice Warren, giving the Civil Rights Movement the support of federal courts

Earl Warren

Supreme court justice that ruled on Brown v. Board

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, focused on nonviolence methods mostly like courts and lobbying.

Rosa Parks

Refuses to give up her seat on a crowded segregated bus in Alabama and is arrested, starting the Montgomery Bus Boycotts

Montgomery Bus Boycotts

Boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama, after the arrest of Rosa Parks. Nonviolence, power of women in the Civil Rights Movement. Sets the nonviolent tone of the Civil Rights Movement

Freedom Schools

Schools organized for black children, by the black community, in the south

Martin Luther King

A prominent Civil Rights Activist and proponent of non-violence. Famous for his “I have a dream” speech at the March on Washington. Formed SCLC.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Formed by MLK as a desegregation coalition.

Southern Manifesto

Southern representatives sign a document denouncing Brown vs. Board and pledging to work around/against its implementation

Lyndon B Johnson

President after JFK’s assassination, known as a defender of Civil Rights and a fool for Vietnam.

Little Rock (Nine)

Governor Orval Faubus uses National Guard to prevent the integration of a school in Arkansas, but Eisenhower dispatches federal troops to ensure the nine black children could enter the school.

Orval Faubus

Arkansan governor who tried to prevent the integration of Arkansas schools

Murder of Emmett Till

Young black boy brutally beaten to death while visiting the South for the summer. The violence of his murder forced the American public to reckon with the realities of racism, they had to look.

Jo Ann Robinson

Main organizer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a woman-centered protest.

Charles Henry Alston

African-American artists that portrays the boycotts, including the huge role women played, in his painting “walking”

Ella Baker

Civil Rights activist and organizer of SNCC. Shows how college-aged students became a major force for political change.

SNCC

Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. Organized by Ella Baker. Important of students to the Civil Rights movement.

Congress of Racial Equality Freedom Rides

Tested interstate bus segregation, which was technically unconstitutional. KKK often attacked the interracial group of riders in the south while the police did nothing. The riders stayed committed to non-violence.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

MLK wrote after arrested for violating a protest ban. Appealed to American clergy.

Bull Connor

Police chief in Alabama, known for his brutality. When this brutality, especially against children, is televised, it pushed Kennedy to take a firmer stance on supporting Civil Rights.

Medgar Evers

NAACP field worker killed by a sniper while working in the south.

March on Washington

Interracial march on Washington calling for a Civil Rights bill, “Jobs and Freedom”. The movement saw the federal government, not states, as the path to racial equality.

Civil Rights Act

Bans discrimination on the basis of race, huge success for the Civil Rights movement. Pushed through by LBJ.

Voting Rights Act

Allows judicial oversight of districts violating voting rights?

Freedom Summer

Mass mobilization by SNCC in the South to get black people registered to vote. Leads to murder of Goodman, Shwarner, and Chaney.

Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney

Interracial group of young men murdered while organizing people to vote during the Freedom Summer.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

Party formed by Civil Rights activists in Mississippi because black people were banned from the all-white Democratic Party branch there. They demanded Mississippi’s seats at the DNC, offered to share, which they rejected.

Diane Nash

The woman who was responsible for bringing the idea of nonviolence to the Civil Rights Movement, which was the amplified by MLK. Believed in working within the system.

Woolworth’s Sit-In

Segregated lunch counters, so students trained in non-violence sat down together to desegregate the counter in Nashville.

Jim Lawson

Advocate of non-violence, helped lead workshops to train people in the philosophy and tactics of non-violence. Before the sit-ins, he had students practice harassing each other.

John Lewis

Student organizer and eventual congressman, helped organize sit-ins with Diane Nash.

Watts Uprising

Huge riot in Los Angeles in response to police violence, but also poverty and segregation, reality of the brutality of life in Black ghettos. Riots such as this made it clear that the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act were not enough, and that economic reform was necessary to achieve racial justice. Johnson’s committee would find in 1967 that the root of this riot was segregation, but at that point, the president was too focused on Vietnam.

Chicago Freedom Movement

Organized by MLK to end discrimination, especially in housing, but failed because of strong white opposition and reluctant mayor.

Richard Daley

Mayor of Chicago during Freedom Movement, highly resistant to it.

Malcolm X

Black nationalist who rejected the non-violence doctrine. Also a devout Muslim man, who upon visiting Mecca, did see a possibility for interracial cooperation. Believed in achieving Black liberation “by any means necessary”

Black Nationalism

The ideology espoused by Malcolm X, promoting black control of resources and encouraging self-defense against white violence. CoRE, SNCC, and NOI all black Nationalist. Black people should care for their own communities.

Stokely Carmichael

Radical leader of SNCC who begins to reject non-violent doctrine and focus on Black Power.

Black Power

The ideology of Stokely Carmichael, that Black people should unite to achieve greater social and economic status. Potential for racial separation, but about Black people creating their own institutions, being self-reliant and exercising self-determination.

Black Panther Party

A group in California focused on providing resources to the Black community. They also believed in self-defense against police violence and open-carried weapons.

Organization of African Unity

Meeting of African countries that sent a warning message to Kennedy at the peak of Cold War tensions, further pushing him to back Civil Rights

Nation of Islam

The religion of Malcolm X and of great appeal to many Black Americans.

Robert Williams

NAACP chapter leader who advocated for self-defense against the KKK

Bayard Rustin

Non-violent Civil Rights activist and the main organizer of the March on Washington. Pushed out of the Civil Rights movement for being gay.

Baker v. Carr

Supreme Court decision that allowed for the redrawing of district lines, which lead to an increase in the power of the urban vote.

Bloody Sunday

March from Selma to Montgomery for Voting rights, over Edmund Pettus Bridge. Bull Connor beat up protestors as they crossed the bridge and almost killed John Lewis, another instance of televised cruelty that shook the nation.

Young Americans for Freedom

Conservative student group in the 1960s that were pro-market, small government, and anti-communist

Sharon Statement

The doctrine of YAF, espousing pro-market, small gov., anti-communist sentiment

William F. Buckley

Leader of YAF, the Sharon statement was written at a convention in his home.

Strom Thurmond

Notorious racist congressman, recieved the Freedom Award from the YAF.

Baldwin v. Buckley

A debate between James Baldwin and James Buckley, over whether the American Dream has been realized at the expense of Black people.

Gordon Parks

Photographer that documents the Doll experiments and the subtle (though often not at all subtle) prevalence of white supremacy in the South.

Doll Experiments

An experiment in 1947 in which Black and white children alike always chose to play with a black doll over a white doll.

Great Society

LBJ’s vision of having a right to certain securities, opportunities and labor participation — also an end to poverty (War on Poverty), the beginning of racial justice, and education for all. Where the New Deal was trying to grow the economy, LBJ was trying to use the economic prosperity to improve the welfare. Instead of blaming a social group, LBJ blames system racism for the nation’s inequities. Ultimately, the Great Society was killed by the war in Vietnam

Claudia Taylor

Lady Bird, LBJ’s wife.

Barry Goldwater

Republican nominee in 1964, who would have previously been thought to be radically conservative. Fighting hard against a warmonger image.

Daisy Ad

LBJs famous ad against Golwater, fearmongering a nuclear future if Goldwater becomes president.

Gulf of Tonkin and Gulf of Tonkin resolution

U.S. half-mistakenly think they’re being torpedoed, and congress gives the president broad powers to fight in Vietnam how he best sees fit.

Robert Macnamara

Secretary of Defense and key advisor for LBJ during the Vietnam War.

General Westmoreland

LBJ’s point person for knowing what’s happening on the ground in Vietnam, but he is not reliable. Westmoreland is always pushing for more troops.

Rolling Thunder

Bombing of North Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin, totally ineffective and only strengthens the communists’ resolve

Operation Phoenix

CIA operation brutally killing suspected Viet Cong civilians on the street with no trial.

Mai Lai Massacre

One of many atrocities U.S. Troops committed against civilians in Vietnam.

SDS

Students for a Democratic Society forms as part of the New Left, promoting the idea of “participatory democracy” and disavowing corporate entanglement in government affairs. Founded under the Port Huron Statement. Campaigns against the draft and organizes burning of draft cards.

Port Huron Statement

Founding paper of Students for a Democratic Society, written primarily by Tom Hayden.

Tom Hayden

Main author of the Port Huron Statement, which founded the SDS

FSM

Free Speech Movement student protest at UC Berkeley after the administration tried to control political speech. It lasted a year, and included sit-ins and teach-ins.

Tet Offensive

The NLF’s attempts at overthrowing the South Korean government. Although the VC forced had the advantage of surprise, their decision to fight U.S. soldiers in a traditional attack lead to the U.S demolishing them and quickly bouncing back. A tactical disaster, but fueled communist propaganda and anti-war activists in the U.S. and abroad as television exposed the lies of the communist and western governments. The Tet offensive forced the U.S. to the bargaining table.

NLF

South Korean National Liberation Front, similar to the Viet Cong. coup

Ngo Dinh Diem

Brutal dictator of South Vietnam backed by the U.S. until coup in ‘63 backed by the U.S.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of north Korea

White Flight

Movement of white people out of cities and into suburbs, leaving Black people stranded in jobless cities and leading to race riots.

Muhammed Ali

Boxer, and outspoken proponent of/symbol of Black Power. Muslim consciousness objector to Vietnam.

New Left

A social movement that started in Britain in the 1950s, anti-war, wanted civil rights, there were feminist strains as well.

League for Industrial Democracy

Organization out of which the SDS grows

Counterculture

A rejection of social norms and embrace of personal liberation, valuing friendship and pleasure over the pursuit of wealth

Yippies

Members of the Youth International Party, who used humor as a method of bringing attention to social issues.

Abby Hoffman

Founder of the Youth Itl. Party

Woodstock

1969 music festival celebrating counterculture

National Council of Churches

Protestants who backed racial and economic justice, creating a divide between politically liberal and conservative churches.

Jesus Movement

California movement embracing hippie culture, but still politically conservative

24th Amendment

Abolishes the poll tax

Hart-Cellar Act

Bans immigration quotes based on nationality, as immigration shifts away from Europe

Thich Quang Duc

Buddhist Monk in South Vietnam who set himself on fire to protest Diem’s Christian rule and brutal religious oppression.

Saigon

Capital of South Vietnam

Elijah Muhammed

Leader of the nation of Islam, whose followers killed Malcolm X

17th parallel

The dividing line between North and South Vietnam.

Johnson Doctrine

LBJ had zero tolerance for communism and saw Vietnam as key to containing communism, not wanted to appear un-masculine and soft on communists. There was also fear of Vietnam being a domino affect.