I - Vocabulary

• Ho Chi Minh: Vietnamese prime minister and communist revolutionary
• Dien Bien Phu: Location of battle that would cause division of Vietnamese territory
• Geneva Accords: Conference between several countries meant to resolve disputes from the earlier Korean War
• Ngo Dinh Diem: President of South Vietnam until being overthrown and killed in 1963 military coup

• Vietcong: Communist guerrilla army that countered South Vietnamese and US forces
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: Authorized LBJ to use conventional military force without approval of Congress
• Ho Chi Minh Trail: Road network used as a supply line to support the Vietcong and North Vietnamese
• Napalm: Various incendiary weapons used by US forces in Vietnam
• Agent Orange: Herbicide chemicals used by the US against enemies in Vietnam, carrying devastating side effects

• Credibility Gap: Described skepticism in the press about the LBJ administration's public statements about the Vietnam War
• Vietnamization: Withdraw of US troops and placing of responsibility for handling the war on the government of South Vietnam
• Silent Majority: Term popularized by Nixon, referring to an unstated amount of people with an opinion that they don't express openly, despite being the majority
• My Lai Massacre: Murder of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by US troops in Son Tinh district

• Kent State University: State of a shooting where National Guardsmen shot and killed four unarmed students at a protest of the US bombing of Cambodia
• Pentagon Papers: Department of Defense secret study of the US' military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967
• War Powers Act: Limited the POTUS' power to wage war against a foreign power without the consent of Cognress

II - Early Years of Vietnam

Some of America's early involvement in the Vietnam War stemmed from Kennedy's desire to prevent the South from falling under communist control after the split at the 17th Parallel. This involvement was intensified by then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who saw several thousand more of Kennedy's military "advisers" sent overseas during his time in office. Later in the war, during Johnson's administration, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, mentioned previously in this book, granted the president more free use of the military without consulting congress for a declaration of war.

In an effort to avoid conscription, many people in America evaded the draft through various methods, such as fleeing the country, falsifying medical information, or claiming to be homosexual (they could not legally enlist in the military back then). This provided an unfair edge over those that had no way of getting out the draft. People would have to leave behind a lot of their old lives to avoid serving. Those that fought witnessed immense levels of carnage and fear that hadn't always been seen in prior wars. The guerrilla tactic used by the opposition resulted in numerous lost American and South Vietnamese lives.

Previously kept in the dark about events overseas, the Tet Offensive caused a lot of Americans to shift to an antiwar standpoint and begin protesting the government's actions in Vietnam.

1968

On April 4, 1968, at his hotel in Memphis, Martin Luther King, Jr. was standing out on the balcony when James Earl Ray shot and killed him from an adjacent building. He was pronounced dead at the hospital later. Just months later, on June 5th, Robert F. Kennedy suffered the same fate when he was shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan after giving a speech during his campaign for the presidency. Overseas, the Tet Offensive would soon begin, changing the course of the war. Many casualties were suffered on both sides, but a South Vietnamese victory resulted.

1960s Culture

The movement of people known as "hippies" in this time period were young people who became more rebellious, gathering in large numbers to use drugs and explore sexuality more openly than what was considered socially acceptable at the time period.

As mentioned in the video, kids would explore new things more freely, such as drugs, genres of music that were unpopular with older generations, and spreading an ideal of "peace" for all people that was considered taboo by many people in the United States.

Nixon and Vietnam

President Nixon put his faith in the aforementioned strategy of "Vietnamization", hoping to build up South Korea's military forces so he could safely withdraw ours without worrying about them being overtaken without our presence. During this time, a protest took place at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 with students that were opposed to the war. During the assembly, the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four unarmed students, drawing nationwide media controversy. The people involved with the My Lai Massacre and the impending trial were heavily scrutinized and watched because of the disturbing nature of the incident. US troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilians, garnering a bad image for America.

After several years of fighting, the last of the American combat troops deployed in Vietnam pulled out in 1973, bringing an end to the heavily controversial military presence that had been there for so long. Because of the bad image painted by American actions, returning troops were received poorly and wholly blamed for a lot of the atrocious acts committed by some of them. The death toll for the US alone numbered in the tens of thousands, and federal money used was well over a hundred billion dollars, which would be even higher today.

Nixon Presidency

President Nixon was a major political scandal during the former's presidency in which his administration tried to conceal his involvement in a break-in at the DNC headquarters. This would play one of, if the not the greatest role in his resignation on August 19, 1974 because of the controversy and scrutiny surrounding his presidency.

Nixon, shortly before his televised resignation, 1974

Ford's Presidency

As president, one of the major acts that President Gerald Ford carried out was an official pardon of any suspected crimes that Nixon may have committed during the controversy in his own presidency on September 8, 1974. He claimed that he thought it was in the best interest of the United States to issue this pardon.