Vietnam / End of Cold War Term

French Indochina - The region the French ruled over, including parts of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

Ho Chi Minh - a Communist leader that fights against Japanese rule, forming a group named the Vietcong

Vietcong - the group of rebels Ho Chi Minh establishes to fight against Japanese rule, main soldiers who fight for the North Vietnamnese during the war

First Indochina War - french comes back to control this region, but ho chi minh leads an 8 year fight

Battle of Dien bien Phu - where the french are defeated by the Vietcong

Geneva Accords - creates a boundary between north and south vietnam at the 17th parallel and tells the french to withdraw out of Vietnam

Domino Theory - the idea that once a country falls to communism, it’s neighbors will also fall, eventually spreading to America, coined by Eisenhower

North Vietnam - communist government under Ho Chi Minh

Hanoi - Capital of North Vietnam

South Vietnam - democratic government (supported by french and u.s.)

Republic of Vietnam (GVN) - the official name of South vietnam

National Liberation Front (NLF) - another name for the Viet Cong, a group of North Vietnamnese rebels

Covert operations - secret actions (they go undercover, aims to conceal the party involved)

Dwight D. Eisenhower - known as “Ike”, coined the domino theory and sends u.s. advisors to train South Vietnamnese forces

JFK - sends first u.s. combat soldiers to South Vietnam

Lyndon B Johnson - highly involved in the Vietnam war, continually to increase U.S. troops in Vietnam

Gulf of Tonkin Incident - North Vietnam torpedo ships attacked U.S. ships in international waters twice, declaration of war against U.S.

August 2, 1964 + August 4, 1964 - days where the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred

Operation Rolling Thunder - large bombing campaign against the North Vietnamnese from 1965-68 (650 million bombs dropped and over 1 million flights over North Vietnam), was to force North Vietnamese into surrendering

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - gave the president the position of commander in chief, which gave him the power to take any military action necessary

August 10, 1964 - passing of the gulf of tonkin resolution (was drafted August 7, 1964)

Search and Destroy - the name for the U.S.’ military strategy: the idea of locating the enemy in South Vietnam and taking them out, usually through helicopters and in small groups of men

Selective Service Act - made all males 18-26 register, around 1.8 million men were drafted from 1964 to 1973

Deferments - college students could skip out on the war or get out for medical reasons

Draft Lottery - people would go on tv and draw numbers on screen, and if your birthday was chosen, you’re drafted

“Agent Orange” - a herbicide clearing trees and plants during the war

James Webb - marine corps officer near Da Nong

Mines by Bruce Weigl - poetry that shows the uncertainty and lots of traps

Somewhere Near Phu Bai by Yusef Komunyakaa - looks at the moons and mines of Vietnam

Lieutenant Joseph Anderson - one of the few african americans to graduate from west point, recieved a silver star for his courage, and led a mixed race unit

How I Learned to Sweep - a poem that shows the brutality of war being portrayed on tv

Tet Offensive - north vietnamnese / vietcong launch surprise attacks against the u.s., americans are surprised by these images, even though it is a u.s. win, americans are appalled

January 30, 1968 - date of tet offensive

Walter Cronkite - CBS news anchor who exposes the tet offensive and the brutalities of war

Democratic National Convention - 10k anti-war protesters protest the war, but get into a fight with police (this is recorded on TV)

My Lai Massacre - occured in March 1968 but only known to the U.S. in november 1969, where American soldiers killed the women, children, and the elderly, furthers the anti-war movement

Siege of Khe Sanh - the north vietnamnese attacked a marine base, which creates an elongated battle (6 months) between the Viet Cong and u.s. + south vietnam

“Peace with Honor” - Nixon’s plan to deescalate U.S. involvement in vietnam, which was to peacefully end the war, reduce u.s. involvement, continue peace talks, and restore stability in the u.s.

Vietnamization - gradually reducing number of troops in vietnam, leaving the fight to south vietnam

Invasion of (Laos and) Cambodia - Nixon’s army bombs parts of the Ho Chi Minh trail (reasoning was that Vietnamization did not help negotiations with North Vietnam), very controversial action because Nixon broke his promise

Ho Chi Minh trail - parts of Laos and Cambodia the Vietcong used to enter South Vietnam

Kent State - students protest at kent state university against invasion of cambodia and laos, the national guard is called and 9 students are wounded, 4 are killed

Jackson State - at an all-black college in missisippi, national guard is called and wound 12 students and kill 2

December 1970 - Gulf of Tonkin resolution is repealed

Pentagon Papers - reports leaked from the New york times that showed evidence that johnson deliberately lied to the american public about military progress and the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, Nixon gets most of the backlash

1971 - guy is convicted for authorizing the my lai massacre

Paris Peace Accords - officially the end of the Vietnam war, enforces a cease-fire, all prisoners of war released

cease-fire - temporarily stopping a war where both halt agressive actions

Le Duc Tho - advisor representing north vietnam during the paris peace accords, gets nobel peace prize

Henry Kissinger - Nixon’s national security advisor and Secretary of state that helped him with realpolitik and detente, attends paris peace accords and gets nobel peace prize

Ho Chi Minh City - what Saigon is renamed to

Robert McNamara - LBJ’s Defense Secretary

William Westmoreland - commander of U.S. forces under LBJ

David Horowitz - anti-war radical activist who regretted his activism later

War Powers Act (1973) - in addition to repealing the gulf of tonkin resolution, further limits the president’s power to wage war without approval of congress (must notify within 48 hours to use military, get approved within 60 days of congress or remove troops)

Detente - easing tensions with foreign policy

Realpolitik - going against traditional policies or making ‘wrong’ decisions, but is in the U.S.’ best interest

Nikita Khrushchev - the leader of the USSR two terms after stalin, who Leonid Brezhnev replaces, reached a truce with Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Leonid Brezhnev - in 1964, this guy replaces Krushchev, also known for having thick eyebrows and famous for Salt 1

“Ping Pong Diplomacy” - Americans travel to China to play ‘table tennis’ with Chinese athletes, first time in a while

Nixon’s Visit to China - nixon goes to china, invited by Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, develops the Shanghai Communique

Shanghai Communique - established that China and U.S. would work towards establishing a diplomatic relationship after Nixon’s visit to China

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) - between Nixon and Brezhnev, and restricts the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and froze the number of weapons each side had

Helsinki Accords - in 1975, ford attends a conference in a city in finland and sign several declarations that aimed to improve relations with communist countries and give human rights to people on both sides of the Iron Curtain

Gerald Ford - the president after nixon who attends the helsinki accords, the 38th president

Jimmy Carter - the democratic president after Ford, inexperienced and is treated as an outsider, known for Salt 2, which is the death of detente (“I’ll never lie to you'‘)

“stagflation” - stagnation and inflation

1973 Arab Oil Embargo - where shipments of oil ceased from Arab nations due to supporting israel in the yom kippur war, an oil crisis occurs in America, gas prices increase and this creates stagflation

1979 Iranian Revolution - where Iranian rebels revolt against the leader of Iran who was supported by the U.S., the U.S. feared that Iran would get closer to the soviet union and that they’d lose control over the middle east

Salt 2 - in june 1979, carter and brezhnev negotiate reducing arms, but u.s. does not ratify, which results in the death of detente

Iran Hostage Crisis - 52 United States diplomats + citizens were held hostage by Iranian college students during a period of unrest in iran, people lost fate in Carter because of his handing

Ronald Reagan - the guy who is known for being tough on the cold war (“Cold Warrior”), ended the cold war with gorbachev

“Evil Empire” - Reagan’s name for the soviet union, as he saw the USSR and communism as a direct threat to u.s. and freedom

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) - also known as the star wars program, Reagan’s administration created this, and used the largest peacetime spending on protecting the U.S., aggressive military buildup

Reagan Doctrine - President Ronald openly supporting anti-communist movements around the world, especially in Latin America and the middle east

Iran-Contra - the u.s. sells nuclear weapons to iran to earn money to support the anti-communist rebels in nicaragua (contras)

The Sandinistas - nicaraguan communists

Solidarity in Poland - independent trade union that protested against the economic system of the USSR, the soviet bloc was very unhappy this was made

Mikhail Gorbachev - is known for glastnost and perestroika, youngest premier and wants to bring change and reform, ends the cold war with reagan

glastnost - openness

perestroika - reform

Immediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty - an agreement between gorbachev and reagan that destroyed all nuclear weapons on both sides

The National Security Act and the Arms Export Control Act - requires that Congress be notified of covert U.S. operations

The Anti-Deficiency Act - prohibits use of federal funds for purposes that Congress didn’t intend

The Presidential Records Act - law that prohibits tampering with, or destroying White House documents

The Boland amendment - various rules restricted the use of federal funds to provide military and other assistance to the Contras