The document provides information about key events and factors related to the Vietnam War, including: 1. Increased US involvement was driven by the Domino Theory and desire to contain communism after the French loss at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. 2. Escalating US troop levels and bombing campaigns throughout the 1960s failed to defeat the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces, who effectively used guerilla tactics and received support from villagers. 3. Protests against the war mounted in the US as the costs of the war rose without clear progress, hurting public support for continuing the war.

1. Vietnam Revision

2. 1. Which theory encouraged the USA to get involved in Vietnam?
2. Which key battle did the French lose to cause increased American involvement in 1954?
3. What was meant to happen within 2 years of the 1954 Geneva Peace Treaty? Why didn’t it?
4. Who was the leader of North Vietnam?
5. Who was the leader of South Vietnam?
6. Why was the leader of South Vietnam unpopular?
7. What did the USA put into Vietnam before ground troops (can you give specific numbers)?
8. What was (and when) the Gulf of Tonkin incident? Why was it important?
9. Who was the president of America in 1964>
10. What was Operation Rolling Thunder?
11. What’s the difference between Napalm and Agent Orange?
12. What proportion of US bombs were dropped on South Vietnam?
13. What was the Vietnamn tactic that helped them to avoid the superior US air power?
14. What was the other key American tactic?
15. What percentage of US casualities were caused by Viet Cong ambushes?
16. Give an example of a Viet Cong Booby trap?
17. What percentage of US casualities were caused by booby traps?

3. 1. What was the most feared position in a US patrol? Why?
2. How long was the average tour of duty for a US soldier in Vietnam? Why was this a problem?
3. How much did it cost the USA to kill one Viet Cong Soldier?
4. How much did the US spend on the Vietnam War (could go for cost per second)?
5. How old was the average combat veteran during the Vietnam War (think Paul Hardcastle) – there’s another fact you
could use if you don’t know this!
6. What was the worst example of a US ‘Search and Destroy’ mission (additional details needed)?
7. What was the name of the big NVA and Viet Cong offensive in 1969?
8. Which building did this assult briefly reach in Saigon that shook the US public to the core?
9. Who won the military victory of the Tet Offensive?
10. Why did the Viet Cong win the publicity battle?
11. What did Walter Cronkite say that worried President Johnson so much (why did it worry him)?
12. How many protesters turned up to the Washington protest?
13. When was this protest?
14. What happened at Kent State (and when)?
15. Why should we not overestimate the importance of the media in causing the US withdrawal from Vietnam?
16. What was Nixon’s policy to withdraw US troops called?
17. When did US troops leave Vietnam?
18. Who blocked further US funding for South Vietnam?
19. When did Saigon fall?
20. What were the final images of the US withdrawl?

4. Causes of the Vietnam War
• Domino Theory and Containment
• France and Dien Bein Phu (1954):
Geneva Accords – divided Indochina
into North and South Vietnam,
elections were due in 2 years time.
USA supported Diem, no elections
happened. Diem needed military
support to prop up his unpopular
regime.
• Gulf of Tonkin – USS Maddox was
‘fired’ upon by North Vietnamese
patrol boats. Leads to the ‘Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution’ “Like a grandma’s
nightshirt, it covered everything”
according to LBJ.

5. Escalating US involvement
• The Viet Cong had been set up in 1960.
• 1962 saw President Kennedy send ‘advisors’ to support the
ARVN (South Vietnamese army)
• By 1964 there were 24,000 of them.
• 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• Feb 1965 – Operation Rolling Thunder
• March 1965 saw 3,500 marines arrive.
• 1967 – introduction of the draft
• Jan 1968 – Tet Offensive
• 1968 (public knowledge 1969) My Lai Massacre
• Jan 1969 – Nixon becomes president.
• 1969 US policy of Vietnamisation begins
• 29th March 1973 – All US troops removed from Vietnam
• 1975 – Saigon falls to North Vietnam

6. US tactics
• Bombing (Operation Rolling
Thunder) – 14,000 US and ARVN
planes shot down, $400,000 to kill
each VC soldier
• Chemical weapons – Napalm and
Agent Orange, 2/3 of all bombs
dropped were dropped on South
Vietnam.
• Search and Destroy – impact on
morale of South Vietnamese
people, zippo raids, eg My Lai.
• $110 billion was spent at a rate of
$2000 per second

7. VC tactics
• Booby traps eg. Bouncing Betty (impact
on morale eg. Fear of ‘point’), 11% of US
causalities.
• Ambush ‘hanging onto American belts’,
51% of US causalities.
• Tunnel system eg under Saigon, US base
was actually built on one, smuggled
weapons etc for Tet offensive
• Ho Chi Minh Trail (went through
neighbouring counties) – supply line from
the North.
• Support of the villagers combination of
ruthlessness and positive impact, used US
tactics as propaganda.

8. Problems for the US
• Low morale and inexperience, average
age 19, 3% of US officers fragged, 500,000
instances of desertion.
• My Lai, 300-400 civilians killed, 3
weapons found
• Cost – Johnson could not fund his ‘great
society’, yet black Americans were
disproportionately represented in
Vietnam ‘Ain’t no VC ever called my
nigger’.
• Protest – ‘Hey hey LBJ, how many kids did
you kill today’, 700,000 at Washington
protest in Nov 1969, Kent State
• Tet Offensive

9. End of the War
• Nixon campaign – ‘peace with
honour’
• Vietnamisation
• 1972 – Final effort from the North
to conquer the South, they failed,
this drove them to the negotiating
table.
• Jan 1973 – peace signed
• Promised US funds to the South
were rejected by Congress
• 1975 – Saigon falls to North
Vietnamese