domino theory
The theory that, if South Vietnam fell to Communism, it would be followed by Cambodia, Laos, and additional South Asian countries.
Foreign Assistance Act of 1962
A United States Act of Congress. The Act reorganized the structure of existing U.S. foreign assistance programs, separated military from non-military aid, and created a new agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to administer those non-military, economic assistance programs.
Gulf of Tonkin
is a body of water located off northern Vietnam and southern China. It is a northern arm of the South China Sea.
Military Assistance Command Vietnam
The U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, MACV, (mack vee), was the United States' unified command structure for all of its military forces in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Ngo Dinh Diem
(3 January 1901-2 November 1963): the first president of South Vietnam (1955-1963). Amid religious protests that garnered worldwide attention, Diệm lost the backing of his U.S. patrons and was assassinated, along with his brother, Ngô Đnh Nhu by Nguyễn Văn Nhung, the aide of ARVN General Dưng Văn Minh on 2 November 1963, during a coup d'état that deposed his government and spread instability across South Vietnam.
North Vietnam
a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976. It was officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), and was proclaimed in Hanoi in 1945.
Viet Cong
Vietnamese military and political organization. in full Viet Nam Cong San, English Vietnamese Communists, the guerrilla force that, with the support of the North Vietnamese Army, fought against South Vietnam (late 1950s–1975) and the United States (early 1960s–1973)
General William Westmoreland
the chief US military commander in Vietnam.
Americanization
the nickname for the process by which US troops assumed the main duty of waging the Vietnam war, away from South Vietnamese troops.
Agent Orange
a chemical defoliant used heavily by American air forces, which contributed to lasting health issues for US veterans.
ARVN
the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)
Vietcong
a paramilitary force that fought alongside the main North Vietnam Army.
Ho Chi Minh
the primary military and political leader of North Vietnam.
napalm
jellied gasoline, a primary aerial weapon used by US forces during the Vietnam conflict.
tactical bombing v.strategic bombing
tactical bombing refers to aerial assaults against specific targets, while strategic bombing is aimed at accomplishing overall objectives (e.g., reducing the civilian population's will to support a war).
Psyops and "Hearts and Minds" operations
the US efforts to win popular support in South Vietnam and to reduce Northern support for their nation's efforts.
Strategic Hamlet Program: a program initiated by America and South Vietnam that was designed to reduce the influence of communist cadres in the rural countryside, by creating specially protected "hamlets" to which villagers would be relocated.
Commune
A small community, often rural, whose members share in the ownership of property and the division of labor; the members of such a community.
Counterculture
Any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture.
Martin Luther King, Jr
(January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. King has become a national icon in the history of modern American liberalism.
New Left
A range of activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who focused their attention on marginal identities and, eventually, identity politics. They rejected involvement with the labor movement and Marxism's historical theory of class struggle. Abandoning the Marxist goals of educating the proletariat, the New Left turned to student activism as its reservoir of power.
Quash
To defeat forcibly.
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy
(November 20, 1925 - June 6, 1968), also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and acted as one of his advisors during his presidency. From 1961 to 1964, he was the U.S. Attorney General.
rock music
A genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in 1950s America and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later. Musically, rock has centered around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. Rock has also embodied and served as the vehicle for cultural and social movements
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969. SDS has been an important influence on student organizing in the decades since its collapse.
"Summer of Love"
The summer of 1967, noted for its love-ins and the flourishing of the hippie movement.
The Tet Offensive
a military campaign during the Vietnam War that was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the People's Army of Vietnam against the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the United States, and their allies. The purpose of the offensive was to utilize the element of surprise and strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam, during a period when no attacks were supposed to take place.
Weather Underground
The Weather Underground was an American radical left organization. The Weatherman first organized in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). They were composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their supporters. Their goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the violent overthrow of the US government.
Woodstock
A music festival in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969; it is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history.
Fragging
The throwing of a fragmentation grenade at one's superior officer. Fragging most often involved the murder of a commanding officer or a senior non-commissioned officer perceived as unpopular, harsh, inept, or overzealous.
Operation Linebacker II
A U.S. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial bombing campaign, conducted against targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) during the final period of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The operation was conducted from December 18-29, 1972, leading to several informal names such as "The December Raids" and "The Christmas Bombings". It saw the largest heavy bomber strikes launched by the U.S. Air Force since the end of World War II.
Paris Peace Accords
The Paris Peace Accords of 1973, intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam War, ended direct U.S. military involvement, and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam. The governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries, signed the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973.
Pentagon Papers
government documents leaked to the New York Times that revealed the true nature of the conflict in Vietnam and turned many definitively against the war
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN)
was the Ground Forces branch of the official military of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) which existed from 1955 until the fall of Saigon in 1975.
The Cambodian Campaign
(also known as the Cambodian Incursion) was a series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia during mid-1970 by the United States (U.S.) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) during the Vietnam War. These invasions were a result of the policy of President Richard Nixon. A total of 13 major operations were conducted by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) between 29 April and 22 July and by U.S. forces between 1 May and 30 June.
The Nixon Doctrine
(also known as the Guam Doctrine) was put forth in a press conference in Guam on July 25, 1969, by President Richard Nixon. He stated that the United States henceforth expected its allies to take care of their own military defense, but that the U.S. would aid in defense as requested. The Doctrine argued for the pursuit of peace through a partnership with American allies.
Vietnamization
a policy of the Richard M. Nixon administration during the Vietnam War, as a result of the Viet Cong's Tet Offensive, to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops".