| A | B |
|---|
| Ho Chi Minh | leader of Communist North Vietnam |
| Vietminh | organization whose goal it was to win independence for Vietnam from foreign rule |
| domino theory | theory that the countries of Southeast Asia would all fall to Communism if Vietnam fell |
| Dien Bien Phu | 1954 battle in which the Vietminh decisively defeated the French |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | president of South Vietnam who cancelled the election of 1956 |
| Vietcong | Communist opposition group in South Vietnam |
| Ho Chi Minh Trail | supply trails from North Vietnam to the Vietcong in South Vietnam |
| Tonkin Gulf Resolution | Congressional approval for President Johnson's escalation of military action in Vietnam |
| Robert McNamara | Secretary of Defense under President Johnson |
| William Westmoreland | American commander in Vietnam |
| Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) | Army of South Vietnam |
| napalm | jellied gasoline that cannot be extinguished by water |
| Agent Orange | leaf-killing toxic chemical |
| credibility gap | difference between what the Johnson administration was reporting and what was really happening |
| draft | mandatory military service |
| Students for a Democratic Society | believed large corporations and large government institutions had taken over America |
| Tet offensive | February 1968 attack by the Vietcong on ARVN and American forces |
| Richard Nixon | elected president in 1968 |
| Henry Kissinger | Richard Nixon's Secretary of State |
| Vietnamization | Nixon's policy of gradual withdrawl from Vietnam |
| silent majority | the moderate mainstream Americans who supported America's efforts in Vietnam |
| My Lai | American troops massacred 200 Vietnamese villagerss |
| Kent State University | site of the shooting of student protesters by National Guardsmen in 1970 |
| Pentagon papers | leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, showed that the Johnson administration had not been honest about the war |
| War Powers Act | limited the president's authority to send soldiers into combat without specific Congressional approval |
