August 2009
37 posts
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“Go home, freedom”
– Laurie Pritchett, Chief of Police, Albany, GA during the 1962 Albany Movement protests
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“To fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost...”
– President Richard Nixon August 9, 1974
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“We have reached a moment when we are ready to debate resolutions…calling...”
– Representative Peter Rodino, Chairman, House Judiciary Committee on Impeachments July 24, 1974
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Vietnminh
The Việt Minh or “League for the Independence of Vietnam” was a national liberation movement founded in South China on May 19, 1941. Led by Ho Chi Minh, the Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from France and later to oppose the Japanese occupation.
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USS Maddox
The USS Maddox was one of two American warships involved in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964.
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Viet Cong
Việt cộng is a pejorative term for “Vietnamese communist”. The word appears in Saigon newspapers beginning in 1956. American soldiers referred to the Vietcong as Victor Charlie or VC. “Victor” and “Charlie” are both letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet. “Charlie” referred to communist forces in general, both Vietcong and PAVN.
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Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that began on January 31, 1968. Forces of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam, or Viet Cong, and the People’s Army of Vietnam, or North Vietnamese army, fought against the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the United States, and their allies. The purpose of the offensive was to strike military and...
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Vietnamization
Vietnamization is the term given to the Nixon administration’s policy of rearming and rebuilding South Vietnam’s armed forces in order to allow the withdrawal of American ground troops.
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strategic hamlet
The Strategic Hamlet Program was a plan by the governments of South Vietnam and the United States during the Vietnam War to combat the Communist insurgency by means of population transfer.
During the early 1960s, the “Strategic Hamlet Program” and its predecessor, the “Rural Community Development Program,” attempted to separate rural peasants from Communist insurgents by...
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POW
POW is the initialism for “prisoner of war,” a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict.
During the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese captured and held U.S. service members, especially pilots who had been shot down over North Vietnam and Laos. As POWs, many suffered from systematic mistreatment and torture. For its...
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nationalism
Nationalism refers to an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. The development of Nationalism is closely related to that of the modern state and the push for popular sovereignty that came to a head with the French Revolution in the late 18th century.
Since that time, nationalism has become one of the most significant political and social...
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Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained U.S. 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from 2 March 1965 until 1 November 1968, during the Vietnam War.
The four objectives of the operation, (which evolved over time)...
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National Liberation Front
The National Liberation Front, or NLF, was the Communist insurgency present in South Vietnam following the First Indochina War. The NLF was supported by the communist government in North Vietnam. The NLF had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled. Many soldiers were recruited in South Vietnam, but others were...
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People's Army of Vietnam
The People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) or North Vietnamese Army (NVA) both refer to the regular, uniformed army of Communist North Vietnam during the Vietnam War (1959-1975) and was used to distinguish the Northern Communists from Southern communists who were known as Viet Cong.
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North Vietnamese Army
The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) or People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) both refer to the regular, uniformed army of Communist North Vietnam during the Vietnam War (1959-1975) and was used to distinguish the Northern Communists from Southern communists who were known as Viet Cong.
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Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism is a communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency among the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin’s era. The term is derived from Karl Marx, a German philosopher whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism; and, the Bolshevik communist leader,...
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Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge was the totalitarian ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan.
This organization is remembered primarily for its policy of social engineering and the deaths this caused. Its attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the...
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guerrilla insurgency
A guerrilla insurgency or guerilla warfare is the antithesis of conventional warfare, Whereas regular armies aim to concentrate force to achieve a decision with maximum speed, guerrilla forces disperse and conduct small-scale operations over an indefinite period of time. The strength of this form of warfare is its resilience; its weakness is the inability of small forces to confront regular...
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Ho Chi Minh Trail
The Ho Chi Minh trail was a path that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) through the neighboring kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the Vietcong, or National Liberation Front, and the North Vietnamese Army, or People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), during the...
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French Indochina
French Indochina, established in 1887, was the part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. It was initially comprised of Cambodia and the three regions of Vietnam: Tonkin (North), Annam (Central), and Cochinchina (South), as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887. Laos was added in 1893.
During World War II, the colony was administered by Vichy France and was under Japanese occupation.
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Geneva Accords
The Geneva Accords were a set of treaties signed on behalf of France by Pierre Mendès-France and of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam by Pham Van Dong at the Geneva Conference of 1954. The agreements were intended to end hostilities and restore peace to the region.
The key provisions included:
recognition of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Indochina thereby granting its...
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First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina (i.e. Vietnam) from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union’s French Far East Expeditionary Corps, led by France and supported by Bảo Đại’s Vietnamese National Army against the Việt Minh, led by Hồ Chí Minh and Võ Nguyên Giáp. Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in Northern Vietnam, although the conflict...
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Easter Offensive
The Easter Offensive of the Vietnam war was a military campaign conducted by the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN, the regular army of North Vietnam) against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN, the regular army of South Vietnam) and the United States between March 30 and October 22, 1972.
Although not designed to win the war outright, North Vietnam hoped to gain as much territory and...
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Communism
Within the context of the Cold War, Communism is a family of economic and political ideas and social movements related to the establishment of a classless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. It is also often used to refer to a form of government in which the state operates under a one-party system and declares allegiance to...
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“Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call...”
– President Dwight D. Eisenhower The Domino Principle April 7, 1954
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Battle of Dienbienphu
The Battle of Dienbienphu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union’s French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries.
The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a decisive French defeat that influenced negotiations over the future of Indochina at Geneva. Military historian Martin Windrow wrote...
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counterinsurgency
In the context of the Vietnam war, counterinsurgency is the military term for the combat against Vietcong guerillas, or “insurgents.” Counterinsurgency assumed many forms, including military missions, political propaganda and programs intended to win the “hearts and minds” of the local population and, thus, starve the insurgency of its popular support.
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Civil Rights Movement
Generally, the Civil Rights Movement refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring Suffrage (voting rights) in Southern states between 1954 and 1968.
The emergence of the Black Power Movement in the mid to late 1960s enlarged the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include racial dignity, economic and...
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Agent Orange
Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. More than 21,000,000 US gallons (79,000,000 L) of Agent Orange were sprayed across South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971.
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Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs proposed or enacted on the initiative of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the “war on poverty” and new civil rights legislation. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched during this period. The Great Society in...
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Gulf of Tonkin Incident
Summary of the Tonkin Gulf Crisis of August 1964
by Edward J. Marolda, Senior Historian, Naval Historical Center
A clash between naval forces of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in August 1964 marked a significant turning point in the Cold War struggle for Southeast Asia. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara, grew...
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1968
1968 was among the most tumultuous years of the 20th century.
The Tet Offensive, a broad military offensive by Viet Cong guerillas and troops of the North Vietnamese Army launched in February, underscored for many Americans the futility of the war in Vietnam.
President Lyndon Johnson announced to the nation that he would not seek a second full term as U.S. President;
Civil Rights leader,...
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Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties. Although the armistice signed on 11 November 1918...
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USS C. Turner Joy
U.S. Navy destroyer involved, along with the USS Maddox, in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. In August 1964, crew members of the two ships believed they had come under torpedo attack from North Vietnamese patrol boats. Both destroyers opened fire on numerous apparent targets. In retaliation, President Johnson ordered air attacks on targets in North Vietnam.
Later reports contradicted accounts of the...
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USS Maddox
Summary of the Tonkin Gulf Crisis of August 1964
by Edward J. Marolda, Senior Historian, Naval Historical Center
A clash between naval forces of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in August 1964 marked a significant turning point in the Cold War struggle for Southeast Asia. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara, grew...
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17th Parallel
The Seventeenth parallel was the provisional military demarcation line between North and South Vietnam established by the Geneva Accords of 1954. The demarcation line did not exactly coincide with the 17th parallel but ran south of it, approximately along the Ben Hai River in Quang Tri Province to the village of Bo Ho Su and from there due west to the Laos-Vietnam border. In 1976 the demarcation...
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President Dwight Eisenhower
The Domino Principle
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