Study Guide Eighteen

Vietnam War

FINAL EXAM

NOTE: If you can answer these questions satisfactorily, you should do well on this section of the final exam. The material below consists of important material from the lecture. Questions on the test will be largely taken from this material.

Terms (definition and significance):

North Vietnam

South Vietnam

Laos

Cambodia

North Vietnamese Army (NVA)

Viet Cong

Khymer Rouge

My Lai

Ho Chi Minh

Battle of Dien Bien Phu, 1954

Viet Minh

Geneva Agreement

Ngo Dinh Diem

Nguyen Nhu

Enclave Approach

Search and Destroy Approach

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

General Maxwell Taylor

General William Westmoreland

Battle of Ia Drang Valley

Tet Offensive

Siege of Khe Sanh

Eugene McCarthy

Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)

Henry Kissinger

Richard Nixon

Fall of Saigon, 1975

Questions to Think About:

What were the motivations of the US for becoming involved in the Vietnam War?

What were the problems that the US faced politically and militarily when it tried to fight a war in Vietnam?

Why was it a crucial error for US leaders to ignore the history of the Vietnam region when they fought a war there?

How did Vietnam’s background as a French colony affect the Vietnam War?

Why did the government of Diem fail to win the loyalty of the South Vietnamese people?

How did the murder of Diem affect the government of South Vietnam and how did those developments affect the war in Vietnam?

What were the tactics of the US and its allies in the Vietnam War?

What were the tactics of the North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies in the Vietnam War?

How did US bombing of North Vietnam effect the war?

What events caused anti-war sentiment to grow in the US?

How did Kennedy try to fight the Vietnam War?

How did Lyndon Johnson try to fight the Vietnam War?

How did Richard Nixon try to fight the Vietnam War?