AP®︎ US History: Topic 8.8 Flashcards

Cold War policy of preventing communist expansion; led U.S. officials to support France and then anticommunist South Vietnam

President who began financing and equipping France’s war against Ho Chi Minh as Vietnam became linked to Cold War containment

Vietnamese nationalist and communist who led the struggle against French rule and later headed communist North Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh’s League for the Independence of Vietnam, which fought Japan and then France for Vietnamese independence

War between France and the Viet Minh that ended with French defeat and the collapse of French colonial rule in Vietnam

The Viet Minh’s decisive 1954 defeat of French forces, which ended France’s effort to retain Vietnam

Settlement temporarily dividing Vietnam at the 17th parallel and calling for nationwide reunification elections in 1956

President who supported a separate anticommunist South Vietnam, backed Ngo Dinh Diem, and justified aid through the domino theory

Belief that a communist victory in South Vietnam would cause nearby Southeast Asian countries to fall to communism in succession

U.S.-backed anticommunist leader of South Vietnam whose repressive government lacked broad support; he was overthrown and killed in a 1963 coup

The NLF organized the southern insurgency in 1960; Americans called its communist-led armed forces the Viet Cong

Network through Laos and Cambodia that carried North Vietnamese troops and supplies into South Vietnam despite heavy bombing

Use of ambushes, sabotage, local organization, and concealment among civilians to avoid conventional American firepower

President who expanded counterinsurgency aid and increased U.S. military advisers in Vietnam from about 900 to over 16,000

U.S.-backed program that moved rural Vietnamese into fortified settlements to isolate the Viet Cong but often alienated displaced peasants

1964 naval incidents used by Johnson to claim North Vietnamese aggression, although the reported August 4 attack almost certainly did not occur as described

1964 measure authorizing Johnson to take “all necessary measures” in Vietnam, enabling major escalation without a declaration of war

President who used the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to begin sustained bombing and send large numbers of American combat troops

Johnson’s secretary of defense and an architect of gradual escalation intended to pressure North Vietnam without provoking China or the Soviet Union

Sustained 1965–1968 American bombing campaign intended to pressure North Vietnam into ending its support for the war

Conflict fought for restricted objectives and with limits on targets and geography to avoid direct Chinese or Soviet intervention

Chemical defoliant used to expose enemy forces and supply routes; later associated with severe environmental damage and long-term health problems

Commander of U.S. forces who pursued attrition through search-and-destroy operations and measured progress largely through enemy body counts

Strategy of killing enemy forces faster than North Vietnam and the Viet Cong could replace them

American missions that located and attacked enemy units before withdrawing rather than permanently controlling territory

System that conscripted young men for military service; unequal deferments and combat burdens intensified opposition to the war

Growing opposition driven by the draft, casualties, prolonged escalation, civilian harm, and doubts about official claims and legality

Coordinated communist attacks across South Vietnam in January 1968 that failed militarily but shattered claims that victory was near

Growing difference between government claims about progress in Vietnam and what journalists, soldiers, and the public believed the evidence showed

President who pursued “peace with honor” through Vietnamization, troop withdrawals, continued bombing, diplomacy, and expansion into Cambodia and Laos

Nixon’s policy of withdrawing U.S. ground troops while expanding and equipping South Vietnamese forces to assume responsibility for the war

Policy of aiding allies with weapons, money, and air or naval power while expecting them to provide most ground troops

Nixon’s national security adviser who directed diplomacy, bombing pressure, and negotiations leading to the Paris Peace Accords

1970 American–South Vietnamese attack on communist sanctuaries in Cambodia that widened the war and intensified U.S. antiwar protests

Classified history leaked in 1971 showing that several administrations concealed doubts and misrepresented the expansion of U.S. involvement

Former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971

1971 Supreme Court decision rejecting the government’s attempt to use prior restraint to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers

1973 agreement providing a ceasefire, U.S. withdrawal, and prisoner return while leaving North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam

North Vietnam’s capture of Saigon on April 30, 1975, ending South Vietnam and reunifying Vietnam under communist rule

1973 law requiring notice to Congress within 48 hours and generally limiting unauthorized deployments to 60 days plus 30 days for withdrawal

Postwar reluctance to enter conflicts requiring large ground forces, prolonged nation-building, or unclear objectives and exit strategies

Postwar process by which colonies gained independence; in Vietnam, the nationalist struggle against France became entangled with the Cold War

Position of remaining outside both the American-led and Soviet-led Cold War blocs, adopted by many newly independent nations

Belief that abandoning South Vietnam would weaken faith in U.S. commitments and encourage further communist expansion

1963 protests against Diem’s religious discrimination that exposed his government’s illegitimacy and helped lead to the U.S.-approved coup against him