Mr. McCormackBig Idea Worksheet
US History IIStudy Guide
Chapter Twenty-Four – The Vietnam War (1954-1975)
Section One: The War Unfolds (p 792-797)
American involvement in Vietnam began in the early years of ______. It was based on the policy of ______, expressed as the ______, out of fear that one country falling to ______would lead to the fall of its neighbors. (p 792)
For much of its 2,000 years of history, the Vietnamese had to resist attempts by ______to conquer their country. In the 1800s, ______became their colonial master. During WWII they were conquered by ______, though control reverted to the ______after the war. ______, who sympathized with ______, fought for independence against these occupations as the head of the ______. (p 792)
The Republic of Vietnam, led by ______, collaborated with the colonial power. In May 1954, however, the ______were defeated at a battle in ______and decided to withdraw. Interested nations met in ______to arrange a peace settlement, and they decided to split Vietnam near the ______. Months later, the US and ______formed an alliance known as ______to contain communism. (p 793)
______became president of the Communist north, while ______(an exile who had been living in ______) became president of the south. The northern capital was ______; the southern capital was ______. Elections to unify the country were supposed to be held in ______, but ______refused to go along and the country remained divided. (p 793)
The US began providing ______to resist the communists in ______; by 1960, about ______military advisors were stationed in the south. When Kennedy took office he sent ______to South Vietnam to assess the situation. Based on his reports, Kennedy ______the number of military advisors. By the end of 1963, American troops in South Vietnam numbered more than ______. (p 794)
______aid could not ensure success. ______lacked the support of his own country due to his corrupt behavior and atypical faith (he was a ______in a predominantly ______country). He lost even more support when he launched a program to ______peasants to ______. ______began setting themselves on fire to protest his policies. With ______encouragement, ______assassinated ______and overthrew his government in November 1963. (p 794)
His successors established a new government that proved both ______and ______. Communist ______in the south, known as ______, gained more territory and loyalty. (p 795)
One of the architects of America’s Vietnam policy was ______, a ______who became one of ______closest advisors. As Secretary of ______he applied his business knowledge to cut ______while ______the armed forces. Later, under ______, he ultimately pushed for direct involvement in the war in spite of his previous doubts. (p 795)
Johnson came to office with mixed feelings, but ultimately determined to ______the war. In August 1964, he announced that ______had attacked ______in ______known as the ______. This was untrue, but Congress believed it and passed the ______authorizing the president to take ______to repel attack and prevent further ______. The measure passed by a vote of ______in the House and ______in the Senate. (p 796)
Mr. McCormackBig Idea Worksheet
US History IIStudy Guide
Chapter Twenty-Four – The Vietnam War (1954-1975)
Section Two: Fighting the War (p 798-804)
Nearly ______Americans served in the Vietnam War. They had to contend with ______far different from those they’d previously seen. In this hot and humid climate diseases including ______, ______, ______, ______, and ______were common. The typical Marine lost ______of his body weight on deployment. (p 798)
American forces had superior ______and ______, but the ______had their advantages. They were familiar with the ______, found protection across the borders of ______and ______, and could often count on the support of the ______. (p 799)
Soldiers found the war ______. They were trying to defend the ______of the South Vietnamese, but many of them seemed ______. As one soldier put it, “We are the ______working for the ______to do the ______for the ______.” (p 799)
Lacking the sophisticated ______of US troops, the Viet Cong avoided ______. Instead they used ______, working in ______to launch ______and practice ______. They often hid in elaborate ______, some of which even included ______and ______. (p 800)
Please describe some of the hazards encountered by US troops. (p 800)
Risk / DescriptionPunji Trap
Land Mine
Grenade
The war was also devastating for ______, who suffered just as much as ______. (p 800-801)
Please describe some of the weapons and tactics used by US troops. (p 801)
Weapon/Tactic / DescriptionSaturation Bombing
Fragmentation Bombs
Agent Orange
Napalm
After winning the 1964 election, Johnson started a gradual military ______of the war. Initially, US soldiers went as ______, but now they took on the task of ______the South Vietnamese government. But by 1965, the communists were expanding south via the ______which ran through ______. That year, after an initial request from Commanding General ______, the number of US troops in Vietnam grew from ______to ______. (p 801-802)
Despite this large buildup, between 1965 and 1967 the war was a ______. The American objective was not to ______but to force the enemy to ______. In 1965, Johnson authorized a relentless bombing campaign that continued for almost ______. (p 802)
Politicians split into two groups over Vietnam. ______supported the war, while ______opposed it. Senator ______held televised hearings to examine the war in 1966. Secretary of State ______supported the policy. ______, an expert in foreign policy, opposed it. The war continued. (p 802)
The number of US troops in Vietnam climbed to ______at the end of 1966, ______at the end of 1967, and ______at the end of 1968. (p 803)
On January 30, 1968 – during the Vietnamese New Year holiday called ______– the communists launched a ______. This included surprise attacks on ______throughout South Vietnam. In ______they even attacked the ______and ______. During this offensive the communists were ______. They massacred ______residents in the city of ______. (p 803)
American soldiers also committed the rare ______, such as the massacre at ______. In March 1968, Lieutenant ______ordered his men to kill the entire population, which consisted of ______, ______, and ______. Probably more than ______died, but some were saved by American pilot ______and his crew. (p 803)
Breaches of American military rules did not go ______. In 1971, ______began serving a life sentence. Many saw him as a ______, however, as many ______went unpunished. As a result, ______commuted his sentence to ______years. He was released on good behavior ______later. (p 804)
The ______became a turning point in the war. Even though the ______were unsuccessful and suffered ______, they won a ______victory. The event demonstrated that the Viet Cong could launch a ______throughout South Vietnam. (p 804)
Many Americans began to express ______about continued involvement in Vietnam. Others supported a policy ______than the one pursued by the ______. Caught in the middle, President Johnson saw his popularity ______. (p 804)
Mr. McCormackBig Idea Worksheet
US History IIStudy Guide
Chapter Twenty-Four – The Vietnam War (1954-1975)
Section Three: Political Divisions (p 805-811)
As the war progressed, many favored ______the war effort to achieve ______; others viewed the war as ______and urged the ______of US troops. (p 805)
In the early 1960s, members of the ______began to graduate from high school. Years of ______gave many of these people opportunities to continue their ______. On college campuses across the country,______activists laid the foundations for a ______movement. This movement included a tiny organization of radicals known as the Students for a ______Society that had a larger influence on a political movement known as the ______. (p 805-806)
Student activism led to a 1964 confrontation at the University of ______at ______. The university administration had refused to allow students to distribute ______. A series of unfortunate events culminated in ______of students occupying the ______. Police arrested more than ______for trespassing. ______, encouraged by some ______, then stopped ______in protest. Although ______remained the most radical campus, students at several others also launched protests. (p 806-807)
Students were among the first to protest the ______. Some opposed what they regarded as ______, while others viewed it as a problem to be resolved by the ______alone. At the University of ______, some faculty members pioneered a new protest method known as a ______. ______as well as ______of the war appeared at the early events, but soon ______dominated them. (p 807)
A ______Act allowed the government to draft men between the ages of ______and ______. Relatively few people refused the draft in the ______, and most of these were ______who opposed fighting on ______or ______grounds. (p 807)
As more and more young men were called to fight, Americans began to question the ______and ______of the draft system. ______could receive a ______, which usually meant they would not go to war. Those who could not ______did not have this opportunity. In 1966, the system began to draft ______who ranked ______. (p 808)
In 1967, ______swept the country. Many tried to avoid it by claiming they had ______. Others applied for ______status. Others – an estimated ______– left the ______. (p 808)
In early 1968, more than ______major demonstrations erupted at colleges around the country. One of the most dramatic occurred at ______, where students from two organizations took over the ______. Police were called and ______were arrested. The university closedfollowing a ______. (p 808)
Continuing ______and a growing list of ______steadily increased opposition to ______leadership. By 1967, ______had lost faith in the war and he urged the president to turn more of the ______over to the ______and to stop the ______of ______. He refused. (p 808)
As a result of the ______, ______showed a majority of Americans opposed the war. Millions watched as trusted news anchor ______opined that the experience would end in ______. Johnson, hearing this, reportedly said that he had lost ______. (p 808-809)
Johnson rarely left the ______for fear of being ______by ______. He watched the campaign of antiwar candidate ______gain momentum. Then another war critic, ______, joined the race. On March 31, 1968, President Johnson dramatically declared that he would ______. (p 809)
The same issues dividing America split the ______in the 1968 election. ______had been assassinated and ______seemed too radical. Party regulars wound up supporting Vice President ______for the nomination, but he was hurt by his defense of ______. The party’s image was further tarnished when ______moved against nearby protestors. Connecticut Senator ______claimed Chicago Mayor ______had used ______tactics. (p 809)
Republicans, meanwhile, had nominated ______. He tried to act ______while letting his running mate, Maryland Governor ______, attack his opponents. Alabama Governor ______, a lifelong ______, also chose to run for the ______Party. (p 810-811)
Though the popular vote was very close, ______won ______electoral votes and the presidency. His win marked the start of a ______hold on the presidency that would last, with ______, for more than ______. This political shift reflected how ______the 1960s had become for ______Americans. In an era of ______and ______, ______turned to the ______for stability. (p 811)
Section Four: The End of the War (p 812-817)
As Johnson’s term drew to a close, he called for ______that began in ______in May 1968. No agreement could be reached, and ______’s claim that he had a ______to help end the war helped him win the election. (p 812-813)
In June 1969, he announced a new policy known as ______. This involved removing ______and replacing them with ______. By 1972, American troops numbered only ______. As much as Nixon wanted to defuse ______at home, he did not want to lose the war. Therefore, he ordered ______on some major targets. He also widened the war by moving ground forces into ______to clear out ______. He was willing to ______the war to strengthen the American position at the ______, but he also brought ______to ______and a fresh wave of ______at home. (p 813)
One of Nixon’s campaign pledges had been to restore ______and ______. This seemed important when, in 1969, a branch of ______known as the ______turned to violence. They converged on ______and rampaged through the streets. This turned many against the ______. (p 813)
President Nixon recognized that ______, ______, and the ______in general had never appealed to many Americans. Many held the protesters responsible for ______, ______, and permissive attitudes toward ______. Nixon referred to this large group of Americans as the ______. (p 814)
Tensions reached a peak in ______. At ______University in Ohio, students broke ______in the business district and burned down the campus ______building. In response, the governor mobilized the ______. When students ______at them, they ______and ______. As they retreated to the top of a hill, they turned and ______on the students. ______died and ______were wounded. Similar violence between students and police at ______in Mississippi left ______dead and ______wounded. (p 814)
In a sign of deep divisions in the nation, ______construction workers marched in ______in support of the ______. (p 814)
In January 1973, the ______, ______, ______, and the ______, signed a formal peace agreement in Paris. The agreement stipulated that: (p 815)
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______
Mr. McCormackBig Idea Worksheet
US History IIStudy Guide
Chapter Twenty-Four – The Vietnam War (1954-1975)
Section Four: The End of the War (p 812-817)CONTINUED
After the withdrawal of American forces, ______steadily lost ground to ______. In the spring of ______, the ______launched a campaign against ______with the final objective as ______. The defenders crumpled. (p 815)
On April 29, 1975, the ______carried out a last-minute ______. Helicopters airlifted more than ______Americans and ______Vietnamese from the city. On April 30, the Saigon government officially ______. (p 815)
Americans had believed they could defend the world from ______anywhere, at any time. American ______and ______, they assumed, would always bring victory. Vietnam proved that assumption to be false. (p 815)
With the ______victory, two other countries - ______and ______- did fall to ______, just as the ______predicted. The rest of the region, however, did not fall. (p 816)
The suffering of the ______people was one of the most tragic effects of the war. In April 1975, it fell to the ______, a force of ______led by the fanatical ______. They effectively declared war on anyone tainted by ______and killed as many as ______- a ______of the population. (p 816)
Although not so extreme, Vietnam’s new leaders also forced ______into “______camps.” More than ______fled their country by ______. In addition to these ______, hundreds of thousands from ______and ______also fled their homelands. (p 816)
The Vietnam War resulted in more than ______American dead and ______wounded. In addition, more than ______Americans were listed as ______and ______at the end of the war. After Vietnam, many soldiers came home to a hostile reception. (p 816)
The Vietnam War was the ______and ______war in American history. The government spent at least ______on this war. This expense contributed to growing ______and economic ______. (p 816)
More bombs rained down on Vietnam than had fallen on all the ______during ______. The number of dead or wounded Vietnamese soldiers ran into the ______, with ______civilian casualties. (p 816)
In 1994, the United States ended its long-standing ______against Vietnam. The next year they restored full ______. (p 816)
Aside from the ______, the Vietnam War divided the nation more than any other conflict. Yet in 1979, a group of ______began making plans for a ______. The organizing committee chose the design of ______for the project. The memorial bears the names of every ______who ______. It was completed in ______and still sits near the ______in ______. (p 817)