Vietnam War

  1. Deferments- men could receive deferments for religious reasons or attending college full time
  2. Peace with Honor- campaign slogan that Nixon ran under
  3. Support of the war- people became less supportive of the war as time went on (credibility gap)
  4. Kent State Massacre- was an example of the widening credulity gap
  5. Vietcong- military forces of the National Liberation Front that wanted to overthrow the South
    Vietnamese government
  6. My Lai Massacre- murder of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers
  7. Operation Rolling Thunder- bombing campaign in North Vietnam
  8. Vietnamization - plan to reduce U.S. troops and turn the war over to the South Vietnamese
  9. Ho Chi Minh Trail- network of paths from North to South Vietnam
    1. Dien Bein Phu- battle where French lost control of Vietnam in 1954
    2. Gulf of Tonkin- congress authorized military action in southeast Asia, gave congressional Johnson congressional action to escalate the Vietnam War
    3. Robert McNamara- U.S. secretary of defense 1961-1968
    4. Geneva Conference- international meeting to restore peace in Indochina
    5. William Westmoreland- commander of U.S. ground troops in Vietnam
    6. Domino theory- principle by Eisenhower that became associated with the involvement in
      Vietnam, fear that it one country fell to communism that the rest would as well
    7. Tet offensive- a major attack by the Vietcong and N. Vietnamese on the South in 1968
    8. Guerilla warfare- advantage of the Vietcong
    9. End of the war- reunited country under communism, south Vietnamese did not appreciate the efforts by the US
    10. Vietnam War Memorial- goal was to help heal the wounds created by the war
    11. JFK contribution - sent more American troops to support the war
    12. End of My Lai Massacre - an American helicopter arrived and stopped the bloodshed

The Kent State Massacre, My Lai Massacre, and media coverage led to a widening credibility gap.

The Lottery System was a randomized drafting process that had all possible birthdates in pills scrambled in a bowl. A random pill would be chosen and whoever had that birthday was forced to enter into the military, with the earliest ones being immediately forced to leave. This form of drafting was fair due to it being a more random version of the draft, based only on what day someone was born, not where they live or how.