HIS CW-11 VIETNAM

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HIS CW-11 VIETNAM

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Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

It was a conflict that devastated one nation and divided another. Vietnam brought a new dimension to the Cold War -- and forced the United States to rethink its goals in the superpower rivalry.
DIVIDED
For eight years, Vietnam was a colonial battleground -- as France fought a nationalist movement led by Ho Chi Minh. Despite financial backing from the United States, the French lost control of Vietnam in 1954 -- after a Vietnamese force captured the French outpost at Dien Bien Phu.
An international peace conference in Geneva temporarily divided Vietnam into a communist-led North and non-communist South and agreed that countrywide elections would be held in 1956. America opposed the elections, fearing the communists would gain control. The elections were never held.

The names of the two countries to the West of Vietnam, through which parts of the Ho Chi Minh trail went were named _____ and _____

a.	Burma - Vietnam	c.	Thailand - Laos
b.	China - Laos	d.	Laos - Cambodia

Saigon was the capital of

a.	North Vietnam	c.	The DMZ
b.	South Vietnam	d.	Laos

Hanoi was the capital of

a.	North Vietnam	c.	Cambodia
b.	South Vietnam	d.	Laos

What was the final battle that drove the French out of Vietnam?

a.	Ho Chi Minh	c.	the battle of la Drang
b.	the battle of Hue	d.	Dien Bien Phu

DIVIDED
For eight years, Vietnam was a colonial battleground -- as France fought a nationalist movement led by Ho Chi Minh. Despite financial backing from the United States, the French lost control of Vietnam in 1954 -- after a Vietnamese force captured the French outpost at Dien Bien Phu.
DMZ
Vietnam's Demilitarized Zone was established in 1954 at the Geneva conference -- which created Vietnam from the former French colony of Indochina. It was meant to be a temporary divide between the rival governments in the north and south of the country -- a six-mile-wide buffer zone. But the DMZ soon became the de facto border between the communist North and the Catholic South Vietnam.

What was the name of the divide between North and South Vietnam

a.	38th parallel	c.	Communist divide
b.	Ho Chi Minh Trail	d.	Demilitarized Zone DMZ

Communism preaches atheism and they have been persecuting Catholics for a long time. At one time a large percentage of the Vietnamese people were Catholics and Vietnam’s Catholics were afraid of the communists. After 1955, where did most of the Vietnamese Catholics reside?

a.	Laos	c.	South Vietnam
b.	Cambodia	d.	North Vietnam

IRON FISTS
The North Vietnamese embarked on radical land reforms, persecuting and imprisoning landowners and aggravating a refugee crisis. By 1955, close to a million people had fled south.
In South Vietnam, the United States supported the regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem, a catholic anti-communist determined to resist Hanoi. To fight Diem and unite Vietnam under the Hanoi government, the communists in 1960 created the National Liberation Front -- the guerrilla organization also known as the Viet Cong.
Groups such as the Viet Cong were encouraged by Moscow. U.S. President John F. Kennedy, after suffering a setback against the communists in Cuba and trying to control the crisis in Berlin, wanted to show U.S. resolve in Asia. He sent American military advisers to South Vietnam. His advisors, including Robert McNamara, began early to organize and plan U.S. operations in Vietnam.

What U.S. president began America’s involvement in Vietnam?

a.	Kennedy	c.	Nixon
b.	Johnson	d.	Roosevelt

Who was the leader of South Vietnam in the early 60’s?

a.	Ho Chi Minh	c.	Ngo Dinh Diem
b.	Cho En Lai	d.	Dien Biem Phu

What fact made Vietnam part of the Cold War and more than just a civil war between Vietnam factions?

a.	The Soviet Union backed North Vietnam and the Vietcong	c.	The side that eventually took control of Vietnam would put the communists or the West in a position to take control of the rest of Southeast Asia (domino theory)
b.	The U.S. backed the government of South Vietnam	d.	All of these facts are true

10.

Why did millions of people flee from the North to South Vietnam

a.	escape from capitalist reforms	c.	better farming in the South
b.	escape from communism	d.	escape the North Vietnam draft

OVERTHROW
Diem's attempts to control the Viet Cong grew more extreme and created growing discontent in South Vietnam. Several monks burned themselves to death as part of public protests against the Diem regime.
A group of Diem's generals turned against him. On November 1, 1963, they attacked the Presidential Palace, believing they had or would have American support. By the next day, the government was overthrown and Diem was dead, murdered by his own soldiers.
While the people of Saigon initially responded with enthusiasm to Diem's overthrow, the coup left the country with no clear leader

Diem - First President of South Vietnam

11.

Which of the following statements is true

a.	Diem was a communist and would have turned the country over to the North	c.	The death of Diem and his family made the leadership of North Vietnam weak
b.	The death of Diem and his family left a power vacuum in South Vietnam with no clear leader.	d.	The generals who took over after Diem unified the country in strong opposition to the North

12.

The generals who overthrew and murdered Diem had the support of

a.	the Johnson Administration	c.	the Nixon Administration
b.	the Kennedy Administration	d.	no American government officials

GULF OF TONKIN
Within weeks of Diem's murder, President Kennedy was assassinated.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson assumed office determined not to lose Vietnam to the communists. He kept former President Kennedy’s foreign policy advisors. He sent Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to South Vietnam to re-pledge U.S. support.
In August 1964, the USS Maddox, an American destroyer on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin, exchanged fire with North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Two days later, the ship's captain reported he was under attack again. Despite conflicting evidence, the Pentagon insisted there had been a second unprovoked attack.
The incident prompted Johnson to push the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution through Congress. The measure allowed LBJ to wage war in Vietnam

13.

Why did President Johnson push for the Gulf of Tonkin resolution?

a.	He wanted to unify support in Vietnam for the U.S.	c.	He wanted the support of Congress so he could take further military action in Vietnam
b.	He wanted North Vietnam to give us a naval base	d.	He wanted the support of the former Kennedy administration and the people of South Vietnam

14.

Robert McNamara was a key player in the Vietnam war. Who was he?

a.	U.S. Secretary of State	c.	Democratic Council Chairman
b.	U.S. National Security Advisor Chairman	d.	U.S. Secretary of Defense

15.

Where is the Gulf of Tonkin?

a.	South Vietnam	c.	International Waters
b.	Southern China	d.	North Vietnam

16.

Who was president when the Gulf of Tonkin incident took place?

a.	Kennedy	c.	Nixon
b.	Johnson	d.	McNamara

ESCALATION
In March 1965, four months after Johnson was elected president by a landslide, the first U.S. ground troops landed at Da Nang.
Johnson was convinced that, without the support of a massive U.S. force, South Vietnam was doomed. In response to the U.S. troop buildup, North Vietnam began to send thousands of soldiers to fight in South Vietnam. In the Ia Drang valley in Vietnam's central highlands, the North Vietnamese and U.S. armies met in the first major battle of the war. It was an American victory -- but U.S. casualties were heavy.
American GIs, meanwhile, found themselves in a baffling war. They were unable to distinguish friend from foe. American bombing and shelling drove tens of thousands of Vietnamese from their villages. American television networks kept a running tally of the U.S. "body count."
Johnson attempted to force the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table by bombing North Vietnam -- including the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the primitive but highly effective supply line that linked North Vietnam with its fighters and supporters in the South. But the tactic failed

17.

Why didn’t President Johnson give military aide to the South and let them fight the war on their own?

a.	Congress was angry and wanted war	c.	Johnson was a “war monger”
b.	He did not think the South could win on their own	d.	Johnson was a catholic and hated North Vietnam

18.

Which statement is true

a.	Because the Vietcong hid among the civilian population, the U.S. was forced to bomb many Vietnam villages and farms	c.	The U.S. lost its first encounter with the communists at the battle of Phu
b.	The U.S. won its first encounter with the Communists at Dien Bien Phu	d.	all of these statements are true

19.

What is “Escalation”

a.	Every time one side builds up its forces, the other side builds up its forces too	c.	The Ho Chi Minh trail
b.	The body count goes higher and higher	d.	Verbalization

20.

In 1965, President Johnson

a.	had only weak support in the U.S.	c.	decided to resign from office
b.	was very unpopular because of the war	d.	was very popular in the United States

21.

Who was president with the war ended in Vietnam

a.	Johnson	c.	Nixon
b.	Kissinger	d.	McNamara

QUAGMIRE
The growing scale and savagery of the war in Vietnam created growing dissent back in the United States. Johnson was politically weakened by the anti-war movement.
In 1968, communist forces launched wide-scale attacks throughout South Vietnam to coincide with Tet, the Vietnamese new year. The communists hoped to spark a general uprising across the country, a mission that ultimately failed. But the strength of the offensive came as a shock to the American public and Johnson.
He offered to begin peace talks with the North Vietnamese -- and announced he would not run for another term in office.
In May 1968, peace talks began in Paris but soon deadlocked. Richard Nixon, who had begun his campaign for the presidency, called for an "honorable" end to U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. The North wanted full control of the South and the U.S. believed it could not abandon South Vietnam. The war was to last another four years, costing thousands more lives. President Nixon sent Henry Kissinger to negotiate with the North and a peace treaty was eventually signed.

22.

What was the “quagmire” in Vietnam?

a.	The use of body count to measure the success of the war	c.	Getting bogged down in a long “never ending” war
b.	The request for peace talks in Quagmire France	d.	The use of guerilla tactics by the North

23.

If the U.S. was supplying and helping South Vietnam, who was helping and supplying North Vietnam?

a.	France and Soviet Union	c.	China and Laos
b.	Soviet Union and Cambodia	d.	Soviet Union and China

24.

Why did the peace talks drag on for so long?

a.	The U.S. did not want to sacrifice the people of South Vietnam to the North	c.	The North did not want to return U.S. prisoners
b.	North Vietnam wanted large sums of money from the U.S.	d.	The South wanted more territory in the North.

25.

The Tet Offensive was

a.	a psychological loss but a military success for the North	c.	a military defeat but a psychological victory for the North
b.	a psychological success and a military success for the South	d.	a military success and a psychological success for the North

Matching

a.	Henry Kissinger	e.	Robert McNamara
b.	Ngo Dinh Diem	f.	Ho Chi Minh
c.	Lyndon Johnson	g.	Richard Nixon
d.	General William Westmorland	h.	John F Kennedy