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Ho Chi Minh
- Vietnamese Communist revolutionary & statesman; prime minister 1946-55 & president of the demo republic of viet (north) 1945-1969
- -led viet minh independence movement from 1941
- -establishing the communist-governed democratic republic of Viet in 1945 & defeated the french union in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu
- -lost political power in late 1950's
- -saigon, south viet renamed ho chi minh city
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Viet Minh
- 'League for the Independence of Vietnam'
- national independence movement founded in S. china on May 19, 1941
- initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from France
- but when japs occupied Viet they received funding from USA & china
- Jap surrendered August 1945
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Ngo Dihn Diem
first president of South Vietnam 1955-1963
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The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964
- a joint resolution of the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 135[1] and the destroyer USS Maddox on August 2, 1964, and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese torpedo boats and the US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy on 04 August 1964
- The Tonkin Gulf Resolution is of historical significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia
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Napalm
- a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in military operations
- Napalm was first used as fuel for flamethrowers and went on to be used more prevalently in firebombs
- mixture of chemicals was widely used in the Second World War in flame throwers and fire bombs. Napalm bombs burned out 40% of the area of Japanese target cities in the World War. Popular weapons continue to be developed, and napalm was no exception. With many more compounds available after World War II, a safer and just as effective napalm compound was developed
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National Liberation Front (NLF)/Viet cong
- National Liberation Front (NLF), was a political organization and army in South Vietnam and Cambodia that fought the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War (1955�1975)
- Vietcong's best-known action was the Tet Offensive, a massive assault on more than 100 South Vietnamese urban centers in 1968, including an attack on the US embassy in Saigon
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My Lai
- the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children (including babies) and elderly people.
- While 26 U.S. soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted
- made domestic opposition to involvement in Viet war grow
- effects: this showed the need for more & better volunteers to provide stronger leadership for the troops; pointed problems w/military's insistence on unconditional obedience to orders while at the same time limiting the doctrine of "command responsibility" to the lowest ranks; My Lai and related war crimes as a direct result of the military's attrition strategy, with its emphasis on "body counts" and "kill ratios". The fact that the massacre was successfully covered up for 18 months was seen as a prime example of the Pentagon's "Culture of Concealment"[41] and of the lack of integrity that permeated the Defense establishment
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William Calley
- a convicted American war criminal. He was the U.S. Army officer found guilty of ordering the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War.[2]
- only soldier convicted in My Lai 1969
- seen as a scapegoat used by the US Army for its failure to instill morale & discipline in its troops & officers
- served 3 years of an original life sentence, while on house arrest
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Tet Offensive
- NFL/Viet cong & People's army of viet versus Rep. of Viet (s. viet), US +allies
- The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that began on January 31, 1968
- The purpose of the offensive was to strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam and to spark a general uprising among the population that would then topple the Saigon government, thus ending the war in a single blow
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