Question 1

Vietnam War

Accepted Answer

Military conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam that served as a proxy war of the Cold War and put U.S foreign policy of containment to the test again.

Question 2

Ngo Dinh Diem

Accepted Answer

Controversial South Vietnamese leader supported by the United States who was eventually overthrown and assassinated, which helped lead to the fall of the South Vietnam government.

Question 3

Ho Chi Minh

Accepted Answer

Communist leader of North Vietnam supported by the Soviet Union and China who led North Vietnam through a majority of the Vietnam War and refused to give in to U.S. demands throughout the war.

Question 4

Domino Theory

Accepted Answer

President Eisenhower’s foreign policy idea that if South Vietnam fell to communism, one nation after another in Southeast Asia would also fall to communism.

Question 5

John Foster Dulles

Accepted Answer

Secretary of State to President Eisenhower who put together the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in 1954 to help stop the spread of communism.

Question 6

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

Accepted Answer

Defense pact led by the United States and joined by seven other nations involved in the region in which members agreed to defend one another in case of attack.

Question 7

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

Accepted Answer

Congressional authorization for President Johnson to use any means necessary to protect U.S. interests in Vietnam after North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fired on U.S warships.

Question 8

Vietcong

Accepted Answer

Communist guerilla soldiers based in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia who were supported by North Vietnam and launched major attacks on South Vietnam and U.S. forces.

Question 9

Operation Rolling Thunder

Accepted Answer

Prolonged aerial bombing by U.S. B-52 bombers against targets in North Vietnam that was authorized by President Johnson, but failed to eliminate North Vietnamese will to fight.

Question 10

Escalation

Accepted Answer

Process of increasing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, such as President Johnson’s initial refusal to send in U.S. troops to the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam swelling to 485,000 by 1967.

Question 11

General William Westmoreland

Accepted Answer

Commander of the U.S. forces in Vietnam who adopted a strategy of attrition against the Vietcong and North Vietnamese, which proved costly and failed to break their will to fight.

Question 12

Credibility Gap

Accepted Answer

Mistrust that developed between the American public and the federal government over the scope, costs and winability of the Vietnam War that put political pressure on ending U.S. involvement.

Question 13

Hawks

Accepted Answer

Supporters of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War who believed the United States was justified in stopping the spread of communism.

Question 14

Doves

Accepted Answer

Opponents of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War who believed the United States was sacrificing American lives and wasting resources on a civil war they should not be involved in.

Question 15

Tet Offensive

Accepted Answer

Major Vietcong surprise attack on almost every provincial capital and U.S. base in South Vietnam that U.S. forces successfully repelled, but the major loss of lives demoralized the American public.

Question 16

Robert F. Kennedy

Accepted Answer

President Kennedy’s brother and Attorney General who became a senator from New York and ran for president in 1968 before being assassinated for his support of Israel.

Question 17

George Wallace

Accepted Answer

Conservative governor of Alabama who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1968 by embracing the growing hostility of many Whites to federal desegregation, antiwar protests and race riots.

Question 18

Richard Nixon

Accepted Answer

37th President of the United States who won the Republican nomination over George Wallace in the 1968 primary and won the presidency as a war “hawk” and a “law and order” platform.

Question 19

Hubert Humphrey

Accepted Answer

Democratic nominee in the presidential election of 1968 whose loss is often marked as the turning of the tide against New Deal liberalism in favor of conservatism.

Question 20

Henry Kissinger

Accepted Answer

National security adviser and later Secretary of State to President Nixon who helped develop a pragmatic foreign policy called détente that reduced Cold War tensions.

Question 21

Vietnamization

Accepted Answer

President Nixon’s policy of gradually withdrawing U.S. troops from Vietnam and giving the South Vietnamese the money, weapons and training they needed to take over full conduct of the war.

Question 22

Nixon Doctrine

Accepted Answer

U.S. foreign policy issued in 1969 that declared that in the future Asian allies would receive U.S. support against the spread of communism, but without the extensive use of U.S. ground forces.

Question 23

Cambodia

Accepted Answer

Southeast Asian country that President Nixon controversially ordered the invasion of as part of the Vietnam War after promising to wind down U.S. involvement in the conflict.

Question 24

Kent State

Accepted Answer

University in Ohio where National Guard troops fired on students protesting President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia, which resulted in the deaths of four students.

Question 25

Jackson State

Accepted Answer

University in Mississippi where National Guard troops fired on students protesting President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia, which resulted in the deaths of two students.

Question 26

My Lai

Accepted Answer

Village in Vietnam where U.S. troops committed a massacre of women and children in 1970, which shocked the American public and increased calls to remove U.S. troops from the Vietnam War.

Question 27

Pentagon Papers

Accepted Answer

Secret government study documenting the mistakes and deceptions of government officials in dealing with Vietnam, which was published by The New York Times in 1971 and sparked outrage.

Question 28

Paris Accords

Accepted Answer

Failed peace attempt to end the Vietnam War in 1973 that allowed the United States to remove its troops, but the promised ceasefire and free elections did not occur.

Question 29

War Powers Act (1973)

Accepted Answer

Congressional law passed over President Nixon’s veto that limited presidential power to send troops into combat without Congressional approval.

Question 30

Fall of Saigon

Accepted Answer

Official end of the Vietnam War after communist North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam and reunified Vietnam under a communist regime, which hurt American prestige overseas and at home.

Question 31

Khmer Rouge

Accepted Answer

Radical communist faction that overthrew the U.S. backed government in Cambodia and committed a genocidal relocation program against its own people.

Question 32

Little Tigers

Accepted Answer

Nickname for Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia that did not fall to communism, but rapidly developed as part of the vigorously growing Asian (Pacific Rim) economy.

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Vietnam War