Key Players | America's Longest War | The War at Home | Major Happenings during the War | After the War |
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Who is Ho Chi Minh
Creator of the Indochinese Communist Party, he based the Vietnamese Declaration Independence on the American Declaration of Independence.
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What is France
The country America supported in 1950 when it tried to reestablish its rule in Vietnam after WWII
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What is the Great Society
This suffered due to the cost of the war, inflation, and tax increases
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What is the Tet offensive
An overwhelming Vietcong month-long attack on over 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam ,12 U.S. air bases, and the U.S. Embassy.
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What is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
About 15 percent of the 3.3 million soldiers developed this condition due to their involvement in the Vietnam War.
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Who is General William Westmoreland
A West Point graduate who commanded troops in South Vietnam.
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Who is John F. Kennedy
In 1961, he increased financial aid to Ngo Dinh Diem and sent thousands of military advisers to help train South Vietnamese troops; all to avoid looking "soft" of communism
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What is a credibility gap
The outcome between what the Johnson administration reported and what was really happening
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Who is Robert Kennedy
After winning the California primary, he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan
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What is the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial
This monument was revealed in 1982 in Washington D.C. to honor those who fought in the Vietnam War
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Who is Lyndon Baines Johnson
Contrary to his campaign position, he dispatched tens of thousands U.S. soldiers to fight in Vietnam
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What is the USS Maddox
The alleged attack on this American Destroyer prompted President Johnson to launch bombing strikes on North Vietnam
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What is the draft
Resistance to this forced service enlistment continued from 1967 until President Nixon phased it out.
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What is the My Lai Massacre
Searching for Vietcong rebels, troops were ordered to attack a small village
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What are "reeducation" or labor camps
In Vietnam, the North Vietnamese forced the South Vietnamese into these camps.
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Who is Robert McNamara
Once the Secretary of Defense, he left the Johnson Administration to become the head of the World Bank
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What are napalm and Agent Orange
Two weapons used by the United States to expose Vietcong tunnels and hideouts.
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What are the doves and the hawks
The two camps Americans divided themselves into; one that opposed the war and one that supported the war
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What is the Invasion of Cambodia
Despite not having Congress' approval, Richard Nixon approved this military offensive
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What is the War Powers Act
In November 1973, Congress passed this law which states that a president must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area and cannot keep troops there longer than 90 days without approval.
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Who is Henry Kissinger
He helped negotiate America's withdrawal from Vietnam and later helped forge new relations with China and the Soviet Union.
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What is to stop the spread of Communism
The main reason America became involved in the Vietnam Conflict
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What is the Pentagon Papers
This document confirmed that the U.S. government had not been honest about its war intentions
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What is the Fall of Saigon
In March of 1975, North Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion which resulted in this.
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Who is Gerald Ford.
This president refused to re-send American troops to Vietnam despite appeals from the South Vietnamese leader.
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