Objective 11.04 Identify the causes of the United States Involvement in Vietnam and examine how this...

Objective 11.04

Identify the causes of the United States Involvement in Vietnam and examine how this involvement affected society

Tet Offensive

• Vietcong offensive against the cities of South Vietnam in 1968/turning point in US public opinion against the war.

Robert McNamara

• Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• North Vietnam attacks a US ship off the coast of Hanoi/ President Johnson asks Congress for the authority to respond/ Congressional approval leads to US active military involvement in Vietnam

War Powers Act of 1973

• Passed after the Vietnam War/limited a Presidents authority to wage war without Congressional approval

Ho Chi Minh

• Leader of Communist North Vietnam

My Lai Incident

• Lieutenant William Calley leads a raid against the village at My Lai killing aprox. 200 civilians

Agent Orange

• Defoliant/ used to eliminate the jungle to take away the hiding places of the Vietcong/ caused birth defects in children and cancer

Napalm

• Gas bomb used to destroy the jungle hiding places of the Vietcong

Vietcong

• South Vietnamese Communist sympathizers

Pentagon Papers

• Papers released by Daniel Ellsberg describing lies told by President Johnson during the Vietnam conflict/President Nixon tried to block their release on reasons of National Security/ NY Times v. Nixon

26th Amendment

• 18 year olds the right to vote

General William Westmoreland

• Commander of UN forces in Vietnam

Kent State

• University where anti-war demonstration turns violent when National Guard opens fire on the crowd

Cambodia/Laos

• Countries that border Vietnam that were bombed by President Nixon for aiding and supplying the Vietcong

Operation Rolling Thunder

• 8 week strategy of bombing Hanoi and other North Vietnamese targets to destroy North Vietnam’s economy and ability to supply the Vietcong

Paris Peace Accords

• Meetings between Henry Kissinger and Lo Duc Tho between 1969 and 1975 leading to the end of US participation in Vietnam

Fall of Saigon 1975

• April 30, 1975 North Vietnamese overrun the South Vietnamese capital