APUSH Reading Quiz 8

• Bay of Pigs

  • With the approval of president Eisenhower, the CIA had begun training a small army of Anti-Castro revolutionaries, and it continued under Kennedy

  • JFK approved 2,000 of the revolutionaries to land in Bay of Pigs in Cuba expectring American air support and an uprising from the Cuban people, but they received neither

    • JFK never provided support as he could tell it was going wrong, the invasion was crushed

• Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Americans discovered on October 14 that the Russians had missile sites in Cuba

    • Russians did this as retaliation for US sites in Turkey, believed it was equivalent

  • The US panicked because of this, blockaded Cuba, and planned a ground invasion before Kruschev (russian premier) backed off and agreed to remove missiles in exchange for US not invading Cuba

• Dien Bien Phu

  • During the first Indochina war, the French (supported by the US) fought against the vietnamese

  • Early in 1953, the French and Vietnamese war engaged in a battle in the northwest at Dien Bien Phu

    • The position was almost indefensible and the French were surrounded

  • At this point the US decided they would not intervene to save the French, the French decided the leave the country and the war ended. 

• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

  • Initially after taking office as president, Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) only slightly expanded US involvement in Vietnam

  • Then, in August 1964, Johnson announced that American destroyers on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats

  • Because of this, Congress passed the Gulf Of Tonkin resolution, which allowed the president to “take all necessary measures” to protect American forces, which Johnson saw as open-ended legal authorization for the conflict

• Henry Kissinger

  • Nixon brought Kissinger, a harvard professor, into the government as the National Security Advisor

  • Kissinger quickly established power, dominating over the secretary of state and secretary of defense

    • Kissinger was Nixon’s leading advisor and the two of them managed the Vietnam war and foreign policy together

  • As the 1972 election approached, Kissinger negotiated with the North Vietnamese (communists, against US) in Paris, seeking a peace plan

    • Kissinger announced just before the election that “peace was at hand” but the South Vietnamese (capitalists, supported by US) sought more, and the talks fell apart

Go back to Cambodia/ Kent State

• Ho Chi Minh

  • In the mid-nineteenth century, Vietnam became a colony of France, and then fell under the control of Japan during WW2

    • After WW2, there was a question on who would take over the colony, and two sides both appealed to the US for help; France, who wanted to reassert colonial control, and a vietnamese nationalist movement led by Ho Chi Minh

  • Ho Chi Minh was a communist educated in Paris, and a committed Vietnamese nationalist, who created the “Vietminh”

    • The Vietminh declared Vietnam an independent country, and set up a government based in Hanoi

• Ho Chi Minh Trail

  • Supply route which North Vietnamese used to supply troops and allies

    • North Vietnamese moved these routes  frequently, which made it challeninging for their enemies to locate supply routes

• Ngo Dinh Diem

  • Once the French left Vietnam, the US became the principal benefactor of the new Southern government, which was led by Ngo Dinh Diem

  • Diem was an aristocratic Catholic from central Vietnam, who was an outsider in the South, but also starkly nationalistic

  • Diem took on powerful religious sects and the Vietnamese mafia with the help of the American CIA, and the Americans regarded him as an ally and powerful leader

  • Diem tried to reject democratic elections, as both he and the US believed the revolutionary Minh would win the popular vote

    • Diem tried to suppress remaining Vietminh supporters, and was successful enough that the North found it necessary to respond, as Minh formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) also known as the Vietcong

  • The NLF began military operations in the 1960s, attempting to reunify the nation and overthrow Diem

    • The NLF were quite successful, killing large amounts of government officials and gaining traction while Diem was rapidly losing support

  • Diem tried to repress Vietnamese buddhists, while led to major backlash, and decreased his popularity further

  • After this crisis the US tried to get Diem to reform his government, and when he refused they supported a coup from a group of other Southern generals, leading to Diem’s assassination

• Nixon Doctrine

  • Central to the Nixon-Kissinger foreign policy was the idea of maintaining the status quo in the third world, without becoming excessively involved in local disputes

  • Nixon doctrine described this idea by saying that the US would “participate in the defense and development of allies and friends” but would leave the basic responsbility of the nation’s futures to themselves

• Richard Nixon

  • Nixon assumed office in 1969, hoping to restore stability both at home and globally 

    • Central to this accomplishment was the conflict in Vietnam, but he felt like he was unable to abandon the war belieivng a retreat would ruin the US’ honor and reputation

• Robert Kennedy

  • Kennedy entered the 1968 Democratic primaries, challenging LBJ

    • Kennedy led Johnson by large margins, as Johnson was very disliked

  • Kennedy campaigned strongly, but vice president Hubert Humphrey entered the race, gaining the support of the President and many party leaders and delegations, becoming the front-runner

  • In the midst of his campaign for nomination, Kennedy was assasinated during a speech on June 6 by a Palestinian who was angered by some pro-Israel statements he had made

• Tet Offensive

  • On the first day of the Japanese new year, communists launched atacks on several American strongholds throughout South Vietnam, claiming a few cities and causing major harm to many of their enemies

  • During the offensive, Americans back home saw many images and videos of the conflict, espeically in the city of Saigon

    • These visuals further decreased support for the war, and caused anger among many Americans

  • Americans fought back against the Tet Offensive, and ended up causing enough casualties to permamently impact the Northeners, and deplete the ranks of the NLF

  • Within a week of the Tet Offensive, public opposition to the war doubled

• Viet-Cong

  • Northern Vietnamese, Communist, led by Ho Chi Minh

  • Also known as the National Liberation Front, or NLF

• Vietnamization

  • Nixon and Kissinger’s Vietnam war policy was based on several fronts, first of all was limiting oppositon to the war

    • Aware that the draft was a major source of opposition, they devised a new lottery system where only some would be drafted to serve in the war

  • They also focused on “Vietnamization” which involved training and equipping the South Vietnamese army to fight effectively, hoping to decrease the necessity of US troops in the country