Vietnam War

  1. Who was Ho Chi Minh?
  2. Why did the U. S. initially get involved in Vietnam after World War II?
  3. What was President Eisenhower's explanation of the "Domino Theory"?
  4. How were the Geneva Accords a temporary solution to the political situation in Vietnam?
  5. Why was Ho Chi Minh so popular in North Vietnam?
  6. Why did the U. S. support the cancellation of Vietnam's unifying election
    in 1956?
  7. Why was Diem's regime so unpopular?
  8. Why did LBJ escalate our involvement in Vietnam?
  9. What was the TonkinGulf Resolution? What power did it give the president?
  10. What differing opinions did President Johnson's advisers have about Vietnam?
  11. Why did the American public overwhelmingly support the Vietnam War
    in 1965?
  12. Why did the U. S. forces have difficulty fighting the Vietcong? What tactics did the Vietcong use that made them hard to beat?
  13. What were the key U. S. military strategies in Vietnam? How affective were they?
  14. What factors led to the low morale of U. S. troops by the late 1960s?
  15. How did the Vietnam War affect the Great Society programs?
  16. What was the "credibility gap"?
  17. What were the effects of the nightly television coverage of the Vietnam War?
  18. What were some of the ways that young men could get a military deferment during the Vietnam War?
  19. Why were most of the American soldiers serving in Vietnam minorities and lower-class whites.
  20. What role did women play in the Vietnam War?
  21. What concerns did the "New Left" movement voice about American society?
  22. Why did the protestors oppose the Vietnam War? What were their main arguments?
  23. How did the positions of the "doves" and the "hawks" differ?
  24. What problems did President Johnson face with his escalation polity?
  25. Why was the Tet Offensive a turning point in America's involvement in the Vietnam War?
  26. What role did the news media play in the perceptions formed by Americans concerning the Tet Offensive?
  27. Why did President Johnson decide not to run again in 1968 for a second term as president?
  28. Why was 1968 characterized as a year of "lost control" in America?
  29. How did the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in the summer of 1968 contribute to their defeat in the fall presidential election? What were the other reasons for their loss of the presidency?
  30. On what issues did Richard Nixon campaign in 1968? Why did he win the presidency?
  31. What was the purpose of President Nixon's "Vietnamization" policy?
  32. What did President Nixon mean by "peace with honor" in Vietnam?
  33. Who made up what President Nixon called the "Silent Majority" in this country?
  34. Why did President Nixon send U. S. troops into Cambodia in 1970? What affect did this move have on American public opinion?
  35. How did the campus shootings at KentState in Ohio and JacksonState in Mississippi demonstrate the continued division within America?
  36. Why did the release of the Pentagon Papers hurt the Nixon administration's war effort in Vietnam?
  37. What role did Henry Kissinger play in the Nixon administration's attempts to end the Vietnam War?
  38. What was the ultimate fate of South Vietnam in 1975?
  39. How were Vietnam veterans treated by the American public as they returned home? Why was their experience different from that experienced by returning veterans from America's other wars?
  40. Why did Congress pass the War Powers Act in 1973?
  41. In what ways did the Vietnam War alter American attitudes?