Table of Contents

Vocabulary 3-6

Early year of Vietnam 7-9

Year of 1968 10-11

1960 Culture 12-15 later years of Vietnam 16-17

Nixon's Presidency 18-19

Ford's Presidency 20-21

Carter's Presidency 22-23

Reagan's Presidency 24-25

Other Presidents 26-27

Ho Chi Minh: Vietnamese Communist and Revolutionary Leader who was Chairman and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam

Dien Bien Phu: France was forced to surrender at northeastern Vietnam when France tried to retake Vietnam on May 4, 1954

Geneva Accords: A 1954 peace agreement that divided Vietnam into Communist. Also controlled North Vietnam and non-communist South Vietnam until unification elections could be held in 1956

Ngo Dinh Diem: South Vietnam's President, a strong anti-communist, refused to take part in the countrywide election of 1956

Viet Cong: The South Viedtnamese Communist who, with North Vietnamese support, fought against the government of South Vietnam in the Vietnam War

Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution- was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, 

Ho Chi Minh Trail- network of roads built from North Vietnam to South Vietnam 

Napalm- a highly flammable sticky jelly used in incendiary bombs and flamethrowers, consisting of gasoline 

 Agent Orange- a defoliant chemical used by the US in the Vietnam War.

Credibility Gap: A term that came into wide use with journalism, political and public discourse in the United States. At the time, it was most frequently used to describe public skepticism about the Lyndon B. Johnson administration's statements and policies on the Vietnam War.

Vietnamization: A strategy that aimed to reduce American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam.

Silent Majority: An unspecified large group of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly. It is also a term used by President Richard Nixon to indicate his belief that the great body of Americans supported his policies and that those who demonstrated against the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War amounted to only a noisy minority

My Lai Massacre: A company of American Soldiers brutally killed most of the people-- women, children and old men-- in the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968

Kent State University: a controversial incident on May 4, 1970 in which 4 Kent State University students were killed and 9 were injured due to unarmed students demonstrating against United States involvement in the Vietnam War

Pentagon Papers: This was the name given to a Secret Department of Defense. 7,000-page study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The top secret 'Pentagon Papers' were leaked, by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, to the New York Times newspaper in March 1971

War Powers Act: A federal law intended to check the president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress

The United States wanted to prevent areas of the world falling under Communist influence. The Cold War was at its height in the late 1940's and early 1950's, when the French appealed to the United States for aid. The US Government saw Vietnam as another Korea.

Robert McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He played a major rule in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnan War.

Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of International Peace and security in the Southeast Asia.

The Vietnam War was different than any other war that the United States had fought in at that point because it was not a war to take territory. The US were fighting in a friendly country, trying to destroy an insurgency.

The draft was unfair because they were chosen at random which meant the most skillful workers and ones with medical issues had to go. Minorities were drafted, and many came right out of high school.

The Tet Offensive changed the public because people thought we no longer had the ability to win.

Martin Luther King Jr., An American clergyman and civil rights leader, was shot by James Earl Ray at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospitial, and was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. CST.

Around 12:15 a.m. PDT on June 5, 1968, Sirhan fired a .22 caliber iver-Johnson Cadet revolver at Senator Robert Kennedy and the crowd surrounding him in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after Kennedy had finished addressing supporters in the main ballroom.

On January 31, 1968, North Vietnam launched a major invasion of South Vietnamese urban centers, known officially as the Tet Offensive. The goal of the offensive was to severely damage the United States and South Vietnamese forces as well as encourage an uprising against the government of South Vietnam.

CBS Broadcast in 1968, Walter Cronkite, gave his own personal opinion of the war. "It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate." Though he never actually said it, "on the record" the American public viewed the statement as labeling the war un-winnable.

During the 1960's and 1970's, Hippies of a counter-cultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American Life. Typically having long hair and wearing beads and taking of hallucinogenic drugs. The movement originated on college campuses in the United States. Hippies also spread to other countries, including Canada and Britain.

In April 1970, Nixon expanded the war by ordering U.S. and South Vietnamese troops to attack communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. Although Nixon did continue to decrease American troops strength in South Vietnam, the fighting continued.

Traveling

Hippies tended to travel light, and could pick up and go wherever the action was at any time. Whether at a "love-in" on Mount Tamalpais near San Francisco, a demonstration against the Vietnam War in Berkeley, or one of Ken Kelsey's "Acid Tests", if the "vibe" wasn't right and a change of scene was desired, hippies were mobile at a moment's notice.

Drugs

The hippies were usually associated with the use of drugs. During the 60's, a large amount of new types of drugs appeared. In fact, the hippies undertook the largest, uncontrolled experiment with drug use in the in the history of mankind. "In those days it wasn't unusual to be handed a pill, and swallow it with the only instruction 'You'll dig it, it's groovy" (Stone 1999). This situation emerged from the history of drug use. After World War II the pharmaceutical industry exploded with research into new drugs, along with methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and even heroin. Hippies tried whatever they could get their hands on. (Stone 1999).

The Peace Symbol was developed in the UK as a logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and was embraced by U.S. anti-war protesters during the 1960's. Hippies were often pacifists, and participated in non-violent, political demonstrations, such as The Civil Rights Movement, The marches on Washington, D.C., and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.

Peace Symbol

Four Kent State University students were killed and nine were wounded on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War.

Peace with honor is what Nixon called the strategy used to get out of Vietnam. The Paris Peace Accord of 1973 stipulated a ceasefire, that all American POWs be released, and that all American troops would be withdrawn. The United States left Vietnam March 29, 1973.

The trial of My Lai Massacre was so significant because eventually they had their charges dismissed or were acquitted by courts-martial except Calley, whose platoon allegedly killed 200 innocent people.

Soldiers when arrived home were greeted as heroes in the Unites States. Cities and towns across the country held parades to honor the returning veterans and recognize the sacrifices they had made.

During The Vietnam War, the U.S. had spent $141 billion dollars and a total of 1,118,000 people had died.

Allied Military Deaths- 58,000

NVA/VC Military Deaths- 444,000

Civilian Deaths (North & South Vietnam)- 627,000