the war in vietnam assignment quizlet

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Vietnam War

By: History.com Editors

Updated: May 16, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. 

Opposition to the war in the United States bitterly divided Americans, even after President Richard Nixon signed the Paris Peace Accords and ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. Communist forces ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.

Roots of the Vietnam War

Vietnam, a nation in Southeast Asia on the eastern edge of the Indochinese peninsula, had been under French colonial rule since the 19th century.

During World War II , Japanese forces invaded Vietnam. To fight off both Japanese occupiers and the French colonial administration, political leader Ho Chi Minh —inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism —formed the Viet Minh, or the League for the Independence of Vietnam.

Following its 1945 defeat in World War II , Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control. Seeing an opportunity to seize control, Ho’s Viet Minh forces immediately rose up, taking over the northern city of Hanoi and declaring a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) with Ho as president.

Seeking to regain control of the region, France backed Emperor Bao and set up the state of Vietnam in July 1949, with the city of Saigon as its capital.

Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified Vietnam. But while Ho and his supporters wanted a nation modeled after other communist countries, Bao and many others wanted a Vietnam with close economic and cultural ties to the West.

Did you know? According to a survey by the Veterans Administration, some 500,000 of the 3 million troops who served in Vietnam suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and rates of divorce, suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction were markedly higher among veterans.

When Did the Vietnam War Start?

The Vietnam War and active U.S. involvement in the war began in 1954, though ongoing conflict in the region had stretched back several decades.

After Ho’s communist forces took power in the north, armed conflict between northern and southern armies continued until the northern Viet Minh’s decisive victory in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. The French loss at the battle ended almost a century of French colonial rule in Indochina.

The subsequent treaty signed in July 1954 at a Geneva conference split Vietnam along the latitude known as the 17th Parallel (17 degrees north latitude), with Ho in control in the North and Bao in the South. The treaty also called for nationwide elections for reunification to be held in 1956.

In 1955, however, the strongly anti-communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem pushed Emperor Bao aside to become president of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN), often referred to during that era as South Vietnam.

The Viet Cong

With the Cold War intensifying worldwide, the United States hardened its policies against any allies of the Soviet Union , and by 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged his firm support to Diem and South Vietnam.

With training and equipment from American military and the CIA , Diem’s security forces cracked down on Viet Minh sympathizers in the south, whom he derisively called Viet Cong (or Vietnamese Communist), arresting some 100,000 people, many of whom were brutally tortured and executed.

By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents of Diem’s repressive regime began fighting back with attacks on government officials and other targets, and by 1959 they had begun engaging the South Vietnamese army in firefights.

In December 1960, Diem’s many opponents within South Vietnam—both communist and non-communist—formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize resistance to the regime. Though the NLF claimed to be autonomous and that most of its members were not communists, many in Washington assumed it was a puppet of Hanoi.

Domino Theory

A team sent by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to report on conditions in South Vietnam advised a build-up of American military, economic and technical aid in order to help Diem confront the Viet Cong threat.

Working under the “ domino theory ,” which held that if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, many other countries would follow, Kennedy increased U.S. aid, though he stopped short of committing to a large-scale military intervention.

By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops, compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s.

Gulf of Tonkin

A coup by some of his own generals succeeded in toppling and killing Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, in November 1963, three weeks before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

The ensuing political instability in South Vietnam persuaded Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson , and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to further increase U.S. military and economic support.

In August of 1964, after DRV torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution , which gave Johnson broad war-making powers, and U.S. planes began regular bombing raids, codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder , the following year.

The bombing was not limited to Vietnam; from 1964-1973, the United States covertly dropped two million tons of bombs on neighboring, neutral Laos during the CIA-led “Secret War” in Laos . The bombing campaign was meant to disrupt the flow of supplies across the Ho Chi Minh trail into Vietnam and to prevent the rise of the Pathet Lao, or Lao communist forces. The U.S. bombings made Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world.

In March 1965, Johnson made the decision—with solid support from the American public—to send U.S. combat forces into battle in Vietnam. By June, 82,000 combat troops were stationed in Vietnam, and military leaders were calling for 175,000 more by the end of 1965 to shore up the struggling South Vietnamese army.

Despite the concerns of some of his advisers about this escalation, and about the entire war effort amid a growing anti-war movement , Johnson authorized the immediate dispatch of 100,000 troops at the end of July 1965 and another 100,000 in 1966. In addition to the United States, South Korea , Thailand, Australia and New Zealand also committed troops to fight in South Vietnam (albeit on a much smaller scale).

William Westmoreland

In contrast to the air attacks on North Vietnam, the U.S.-South Vietnamese war effort in the south was fought primarily on the ground, largely under the command of General William Westmoreland , in coordination with the government of General Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon.

Westmoreland pursued a policy of attrition, aiming to kill as many enemy troops as possible rather than trying to secure territory. By 1966, large areas of South Vietnam had been designated as “free-fire zones,” from which all innocent civilians were supposed to have evacuated and only enemy remained. Heavy bombing by B-52 aircraft or shelling made these zones uninhabitable, as refugees poured into camps in designated safe areas near Saigon and other cities.

Even as the enemy body count (at times exaggerated by U.S. and South Vietnamese authorities) mounted steadily, DRV and Viet Cong troops refused to stop fighting, encouraged by the fact that they could easily reoccupy lost territory with manpower and supplies delivered via the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Cambodia and Laos. Additionally, supported by aid from China and the Soviet Union, North Vietnam strengthened its air defenses.

Vietnam War Protests

By November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was approaching 500,000, and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. As the war stretched on, some soldiers came to mistrust the government’s reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washington’s repeated claims that the war was being won.

The later years of the war saw increased physical and psychological deterioration among American soldiers—both volunteers and draftees—including drug use , post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ), mutinies and attacks by soldiers against officers and noncommissioned officers.

Between July 1966 and December 1973, more than 503,000 U.S. military personnel deserted, and a robust anti-war movement among American forces spawned violent protests, killings and mass incarcerations of personnel stationed in Vietnam as well as within the United States.

Bombarded by horrific images of the war on their televisions, Americans on the home front turned against the war as well: In October 1967, some 35,000 demonstrators staged a massive Vietnam War protest outside the Pentagon . Opponents of the war argued that civilians, not enemy combatants, were the primary victims and that the United States was supporting a corrupt dictatorship in Saigon.

Tet Offensive

By the end of 1967, Hanoi’s communist leadership was growing impatient as well, and sought to strike a decisive blow aimed at forcing the better-supplied United States to give up hopes of success.

On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 DRV forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap launched the Tet Offensive (named for the lunar new year), a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam.

Taken by surprise, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces nonetheless managed to strike back quickly, and the communists were unable to hold any of the targets for more than a day or two.

Reports of the Tet Offensive stunned the U.S. public, however, especially after news broke that Westmoreland had requested an additional 200,000 troops, despite repeated assurances that victory in the Vietnam War was imminent. With his approval ratings dropping in an election year, Johnson called a halt to bombing in much of North Vietnam (though bombings continued in the south) and promised to dedicate the rest of his term to seeking peace rather than reelection.

Johnson’s new tack, laid out in a March 1968 speech, met with a positive response from Hanoi, and peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam opened in Paris that May. Despite the later inclusion of the South Vietnamese and the NLF, the dialogue soon reached an impasse, and after a bitter 1968 election season marred by violence, Republican Richard M. Nixon won the presidency.

Vietnamization

Nixon sought to deflate the anti-war movement by appealing to a “silent majority” of Americans who he believed supported the war effort. In an attempt to limit the volume of American casualties, he announced a program called Vietnamization : withdrawing U.S. troops, increasing aerial and artillery bombardment and giving the South Vietnamese the training and weapons needed to effectively control the ground war.

In addition to this Vietnamization policy, Nixon continued public peace talks in Paris, adding higher-level secret talks conducted by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger beginning in the spring of 1968.

The North Vietnamese continued to insist on complete and unconditional U.S. withdrawal—plus the ouster of U.S.-backed General Nguyen Van Thieu—as conditions of peace, however, and as a result the peace talks stalled.

My Lai Massacre

The next few years would bring even more carnage, including the horrifying revelation that U.S. soldiers had mercilessly slaughtered more than 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai in March 1968.

After the My Lai Massacre , anti-war protests continued to build as the conflict wore on. In 1968 and 1969, there were hundreds of protest marches and gatherings throughout the country.

On November 15, 1969, the largest anti-war demonstration in American history took place in Washington, D.C. , as over 250,000 Americans gathered peacefully, calling for withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.

The anti-war movement, which was particularly strong on college campuses, divided Americans bitterly. For some young people, the war symbolized a form of unchecked authority they had come to resent. For other Americans, opposing the government was considered unpatriotic and treasonous.

As the first U.S. troops were withdrawn, those who remained became increasingly angry and frustrated, exacerbating problems with morale and leadership. Tens of thousands of soldiers received dishonorable discharges for desertion, and about 500,000 American men from 1965-73 became “draft dodgers,” with many fleeing to Canada to evade conscription . Nixon ended draft calls in 1972, and instituted an all-volunteer army the following year.

Kent State Shooting

In 1970, a joint U.S-South Vietnamese operation invaded Cambodia, hoping to wipe out DRV supply bases there. The South Vietnamese then led their own invasion of Laos, which was pushed back by North Vietnam.

The invasion of these countries, in violation of international law, sparked a new wave of protests on college campuses across America. During one, on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio , National Guardsmen shot and killed four students. At another protest 10 days later, two students at Jackson State University in Mississippi were killed by police.

By the end of June 1972, however, after a failed offensive into South Vietnam, Hanoi was finally willing to compromise. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representatives drafted a peace agreement by early fall, but leaders in Saigon rejected it, and in December Nixon authorized a number of bombing raids against targets in Hanoi and Haiphong. Known as the Christmas Bombings, the raids drew international condemnation.

The Pentagon Papers

A top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967 was published in the New York Times in 1971—shedding light on how the Nixon administration ramped up conflict in Vietnam. The report, leaked to the Times by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, further eroded support for keeping U.S. forces in Vietnam. 

When Did the Vietnam War End?

In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations. War between North and South Vietnam continued, however, until April 30, 1975, when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City (Ho himself died in 1969).

More than two decades of violent conflict had inflicted a devastating toll on Vietnam’s population: After years of warfare, an estimated 2 million Vietnamese were killed, while 3 million were wounded and another 12 million became refugees. Warfare had demolished the country’s infrastructure and economy, and reconstruction proceeded slowly.

In 1976, Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, though sporadic violence continued over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. Under a broad free market policy put in place in 1986, the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and an influx of foreign capital. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U.S. resumed in the 1990s.

In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in 1973. The nation spent more than $120 billion on the conflict in Vietnam from 1965-73; this massive spending led to widespread inflation, exacerbated by a worldwide oil crisis in 1973 and skyrocketing fuel prices.

Psychologically, the effects ran even deeper. The war had pierced the myth of American invincibility and had bitterly divided the nation. Many returning veterans faced negative reactions from both opponents of the war (who viewed them as having killed innocent civilians) and its supporters (who saw them as having lost the war), along with physical damage including the effects of exposure to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange , millions of gallons of which had been dumped by U.S. planes on the dense forests of Vietnam.

In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington, D.C. On it were inscribed the names of 57,939 American men and women killed or missing in the war; later additions brought that total to 58,200.

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History Resources

The End of the Vietnam War: Conscience, Resistance, and Reconciliation

By ron nash, unit objective.

This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based units. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical significance. Through this step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze any primary or secondary source material.

Historical Context

Vietnam was "America’s longest war." While US operations tended to be very limited between 1945 and 1964, escalation in the early months of 1965 eventually led to the deployment of more than 2.5 million military personnel to South Vietnam through 1973.

While the literature on the Vietnam War is voluminous, the issue of draft resistance has either been overlooked or misunderstood by historians. Most people in fact do make a distinction between draft evasion and draft resistance. The virtual omission of draft resistance from the historical accounts of the Vietnam War is a manifestation of the period’s nagging effect on American culture and memory.

In January 1973, the Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam War, although the majority of US troops would not leave until August of that year and the fighting between North and South Vietnam would continue until the fall of Saigon in 1975. Americans faced the daunting task of reuniting their own country torn apart by participation in a politically divisive and brutal conflict halfway around the world. The American public had become polarized in a way that it had not been since the Civil War.

In April 1973, Senator Edward Kennedy wrote a letter discussing the need to care for those who served in Southeast Asia and to forgive those who "refused induction" for moral reasons so "that the nation can turn its attention to reconciliation and healing the wounds and bitterness created by this long and costly conflict."

Although the question of amnesty occupies more than half of the letter, Kennedy made it clear that caring for America’s servicemen was his top priority. The debate over both amnesty and how that issue related to the morality of the war in Vietnam is the focus of the following lesson.

Amnesty was ultimately tackled by Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter. On September 16, 1974, President Ford issued a conditional amnesty proclamation for those who had evaded the draft, provided that they reaffirmed their allegiance to the United States and agreed to serve two years in a public service job. In 1977, just one day after his election, President Carter unconditionally pardoned anyone who had avoided the draft.

Unfortunately, Kennedy’s hopes for supporting servicemen returning from Southeast Asia were not realized. Many returned home to hostile receptions, limited mental health care, and a public that did not understand or want to understand the horrors servicemen had faced in combat.

The students will analyze a chart and a letter written by Senator Edward Kennedy. They will also use graphic organizers to facilitate a close reading of the text as well as to track their understanding on both a literal and an inferential level. Student understanding of the text will be determined during classroom discussion and by examining the graphic organizers completed by the students.

Richard Nixon was reelected as president in November 1972. By December US troop strength in Vietnam had declined to 24,200. In order to motivate the North Vietnamese to return to the peace talks in Paris, Nixon initiated an intense "Christmas bombing" campaign, an operation called Linebacker II. During an eleven-day period, US bombers dropped over 20,000 tons of ordnance on North Vietnam. On January 2, 1973, the Paris Peace talks resumed and by late January a final agreement was reached. The terms of the final agreement were only slightly different from those offered earlier in 1972. With the stipulation that US combat troops would withdraw, Hanoi had achieved victory. Fighting between the North and South Vietnamese forces would continue until April 30, 1975.

Many issues continued to be debated even though the military operations were winding down. One was the matter of amnesty for those who had either resisted or evaded service. Other men had deserted after they had begun military service. The domestic debate focused on the morality of the Vietnam War.

It is against this backdrop that students and teachers can approach the following documents. At the discretion of the teacher the lesson can flow over one to three days. The simplest format is to engage with only the Kennedy letter and the two charts that illustrate the Vietnam generation and draft categories. If the teacher wants to drill deeper into the issues raised by the Kennedy letter, the class can proceed to the abridged congressional testimonies of John Kerry and John H. Geiger.

• Letter from Senator Edward Kennedy to Mr. Thursby, April 1973 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC09526)
• Document Analysis Worksheet for the Kennedy Letter
• Chart of Military Service of the Vietnam Generation
• Draft Board Classifications
• Document Analysis Worksheet for Military Service Chart

At the teacher’s discretion the students may do the lesson individually, in pairs, or in small groups of no more than 3 or 4 students.

• Discuss the information in the introduction but don’t give too much away. Remember, we want the students to discover the meaning of text as they read.
• Hand out the Chart of Military Service in the Vietnam Generation and the Draft Board Classifications table. Analyze the chart and lead the class through an understanding of military service and draft evasion in the Vietnam era.
• Hand out the letter from Senator Edward Kennedy to Mr. Thursby. Decide if the text is at a level that is manageable for your students to read independently. If it is, let them do a close reading of the text and fill out the graphic organizer for the Kennedy letter. If the text level is too challenging, then "share read" the speech with the students by having the students follow along silently while the teacher begins reading aloud. The teacher models prosody, inflection, and punctuation. The teacher then asks the class to join in with the reading after a few sentences while the teacher continues to read aloud. This technique will support struggling readers and English language learners (ELL).
• The students should now fill in the worksheet for the Kennedy letter. If you are having students work with partners or in groups, let them negotiate what they think would be best to include on the document analysis section. Students can brainstorm in groups but must complete their own organizer in order to complete the assignment.
• Students now answer the critical thinking questions on the worksheet. Emphasize that they are to use the author’s own words as evidence for their answers. You may want to consider the first question together as a class.
• Class discussion: Have groups or individual students share both their important phrase choices and the answers to the critical thinking questions.

The students will read the congressional testimonies of John Kerry and John H. Geiger. Kerry represented Vietnam Veterans against the War, who opposed continuation of the war in 1971, and Geiger represented the interests of the American Legion, who defended the war and opposed a policy of amnesty. The students will also use the graphic organizers to facilitate a close reading of the text as well as to track their understanding on both a literal and an inferential level. Student understanding of the text will be determined during classroom discussion and by examining the graphic organizers completed by the students. This lesson will also assess student understanding through a writing exercise.

The movement of American people against the US government’s actions in Vietnam forms one of the most complex and controversial elements of the war. There is room to raise many questions, but the following two documents focus on two essential ones: Was the Vietnam War an immoral war? Should the men who resisted or evaded the draft have been granted amnesty?

In April 1971 members of the Vietnam Veterans against the War (VVAW) descended on Washington and engaged in what they called Operation Dewey Canyon III, "a limited incursion into the country of Congress" (Dewey Canyon was the code name for an actual military operation in Laos in 1969 and 1971). On April 22 John Kerry, representing VVAW, made a statement before Congress regarding the war experiences of VVAW members.

One year later, Congress heard the arguments of John Geiger, the commander of the American Legion. Geiger’s views on both amnesty and the morality of the war were in stark contrast to those held by Kerry.

• Transcript of John Kerry’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 22, 1971 (abridged). Source: Legislative Proposals Relating to the War in Southeast Asia, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 92nd Congress, First Session (April–May 1971) (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1971), 179–210.
• Document Analysis Worksheet for John Kerry’s testimony
• Transcript of John H. Geiger’s testimony presented to a Congressional Subcommittee, March 1, 1972 (abridged). Source: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate, 92nd Congress, 2nd Session on Selective Service System Procedures and Administrative Possibilities for Amnesty, February 28, 29, March 1, 1972 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1972), 237–242. Available at Internet Archive: http://archive.org/stream/selectiveservice00unit/selectiveservice00unit_djvu.txt
• Document Analysis Worksheet for John Geiger’s testimony
• Discuss the information in the introduction but don’t give too much away.
• Hand out the testimonies of John Kerry and John Geiger.
• Decide whether the text is at a level your students can read independently. If it is, then let them do a close reading of the text and fill out the graphic organizers. If the text level is too challenging, then share read the testimony with the students.
• The students should now fill in the important phrases and critical thinking questions sections of the worksheets. Students can brainstorm in small groups but must complete their own organizer in order to complete the assignment. Emphasize that they are to use the author’s own words as evidence for their answers to the critical thinking questions.
• Class discussion: Have groups or individual students share both their important phrase choices and answers to the critical thinking questions. Compare those with the responses from other groups.
• The assessment for this lesson is the assignment of one of the following essays. Remind the students that their arguments must be supported by evidence in the text.
• Given the two testimonies of John Kerry and John H. Geiger, which speaker is the more persuasive on the issues of the morality of the war and a policy for amnesty?
• Why has the Vietnam War remained so divisive for Americans? Use the testimony by John Kerry and John Geiger as well as the letter by Senator Edward Kennedy.

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The Vietnam War

8th - 12th grade.

14 questions

Introducing new   Paper mode

No student devices needed.   Know more

Which of the following options best describes the central idea of the text "Introduction to the Vietnam War"?

Although the U.S. was victorious in the Vietnam War, the American experience was long and painful.

The war was catastrophic for the Vietnamese, and the U.S. failed in its mission to halt the spread of communism.

The American public did not know what was happening during the Vietnam War, so people widely supported it.

The Vietnam War had serious implications for the Vietnamese people, though it remained popular with the American public.

From the text "Introduction to the Vietnam War":

Which of the following best describes the relationship between public support of the war and the war’s outcome?

As public support for the war increased early on, the U.S. made mistakes that would cost them a final victory.

After public support for the war ended amid protests, the U.S. was forced to surrender.

As public support for the war decreased, the U.S. was forced to end the war without a decisive victory.

As public support for the war increased later on, the U.S. acted more aggressively, leading to a victory.

According to the text, which of the following factors was a risk posed by “the threat of the communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh” (Paragraph 2)?

the “Domino theory” of communism

French colonization of Vietnam

separating North and South Vietnam

the rise of support for capitalism

From the text "Eyewitness to History: Grandma Was a Protester":

Justin mentions that Ellen’s mother put a flower in the circle of protesters in order to show that

he considers the symbolic action inappropriate.

the protest was just a way of rebelling against authority.

songs and flowers were not common ways of protesting war.

Ellen’s mother approved of the protest.

Justin shows his sympathy with the protesters by describing

how well the protesters planned ahead by bringing railroad ties.

how little compassion the armed authorities showed.

how peacefully the demonstrators sat and sang.

Options A, B, and C.

The protesters chained themselves to heavy railroad ties in order to

fight the police, who had helmets and weapons.

make it hard for the police to remove them from the road.

hide behind the large, heavy ties.

Options A, B and C.

Justin mentions other wars that his grandmother has protested. Based on this passage we can assume that Justin

is proud that his grandmother continues to protest.

believes that everyone should agree with his grandmother.

wishes he were alive during the Vietnam War.

is embarrassed that his grandmother continues to protest.

From the text "In the Enemy's Grip":

Who was an ally of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War?

the Soviet Union

North Vietnam

the United States

Which of the following was an effect of Peter Hoang being sent to a concentration camp?

He became a doctor and helped injured and sick prisoners.

He was given a house and a plot to grow his own vegetables.

He had to do hard labor and was not given enough to eat.

He was paid for his hard work and had plenty of food to eat.

Which of the following conclusions about Peter Hoang is supported by the passage?

He is planning to move back to Saigon.

He is glad to be living in the United States.

He does not like living in the United States.

He wishes he could move back to Vietnam.

Read this sentence from the passage:

“My uncle lived through the painful ordeal.”

In this sentence, the word ordeal means

an annoying relative

a difficult experience

a predictable moment

an unlikely achievement

The primary purpose of this passage is to describe

the decades of conflict between North and South Vietnam

how the North Vietnamese took over the capital of South Vietnam

why Jacquelynn Nguyen decided to write about her uncle

Peter Hoang’s experience as a POW in Vietnam

From the text "In Danang, Where U.S. Troops First Landed, Memories of War Have Faded":

Which of the following statements best identifies the central idea of this text

Soldiers have forgotten most of their war memories in their old age.

Today, Vietnamese-American relations are relatively positive despite a history of conflict.

Although U.S.-Vietnamese relations are positive today, many Vietnamese people are still bitter and unable to move on.

Vietnam and the United States have been at war for so long that the reason is long forgotten.

What does the word “trigger” most closely mean as it is used in paragraph 20?

To shoot or take offensive action

To emotionally disturb or upset

To plan or come up with

To inspire or cause

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The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and Escalation of the Vietnam War

A North Vietnamese  Shantou -class gunboat burns near Hon Ne Island, after an attack by aircraft from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS  Constellation , off North Vietnam's Lach Chao Estuary, August 5, 1964.

Wikimedia Commons

"On the first attack, the evidence would be pretty good. On the second one the amount of evidence we have today is less than we had yesterday. This resulted primarily from correlating bits and pieces of information eliminating double counting and mistaken signals. This much seemed certain: There was an attack. How many PT boats were involved, how many torpedoes were fired, etc. - all this was still somewhat uncertain. This matter may be of some importance since Hanoi has denied making the second attack." – National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, at the White House staff meeting at 8 a.m. on August 5, 1964, discussing the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

"I believe that within the next century, future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon a Congress which is now about to make such a historic mistake." – Senator Wayne Morse, during the Senate debate of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, August 6-7, 1964

In August 1964, a small military engagement off the coast of North Vietnam helped escalate the involvement of the United States in Vietnam; the Vietnam War would become the longest military engagement in American history prior to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Many historians now agree that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which many believed North Vietnamese ships had attacked American naval forces, may not have occurred in the way it was described at the time. The decisions made by President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top advisors, and the Congressional debate that ensued, resulted in a resolution giving LBJ authority to pursue a military policy in Vietnam that many people have come to believe was flawed and misguided. 

Guiding Questions

What were the factors that led to Congressional action authorizing military force in the Gulf of Tonkin incident?

By studying this incident and the debate it has generated, what can we learn about twentieth century American democracy and military affairs?

Learning Objectives

Explain the chronology of events in the Tonkin Gulf incident in 1964.

Evaluate the decisions made by the Johnson Administration that led to their request for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

Explain the major thrust of the Senate debate on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and why this measure passed with overwhelming support.

Analyze documents from the time to help students reach their own interpretation about these events and their significance.

Understand the process by which historians use declassified materials to understand how interpretations of events need to be modified.

Use the Tonkin Gulf incident to explore connections between the military, intelligence, Executive and Congressional branches in modern foreign affairs.

Lesson Plan Details

On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced that the North Vietnamese had attacked U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson sent airplanes against the North Vietnamese and asked Congress for a resolution that supported his actions. Congress authorized the President to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” in the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. The vote in the Senate on August 7 was 88-2 with only Senators Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening opposing the joint resolution “to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia.”

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution gave the President authority “to take all necessary measures” to oppose any armed attack upon the United States; President Johnson and President Nixon relied upon the resolution as the legal basis for their Vietnam military policies. Yet 40 years after the incident, evidence now available reveals that the Johnson administration may have misled the public and Congress about the nature of the Tonkin incident.

The details of the debate around the Tonkin Gulf Resolution reveal that some of the senators accepted Cold War theories of the domino effect and containment, which may have limited their ability to consider a range of responses to the incident. A great deal of information about the Tonkin incident has become readily available to scholars and the public in the past few years. This makes it possible for Americans and others to gain access and attempt to formulate their own opinions.

• For a chronological summary and detailed account of the incident, see the essay " 40th Anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident " by National Security Archive research fellow John Prados. Especially useful are the “Background Information” and “New Evidence” sections. Some of this information is highly technical, but readers without a military background should be able to grasp the main points. Likewise, teachers may decide to embrace Prados’ political arguments or reject them.  This document is on the EDSITEment-reviewed National Security Archive site.
• Historians’ and journalists’ evaluations of the incident, the intelligence and the administration’s response are available in the short article by John Prados " Tonkin Gulf Intelligence ‘Skewed’ According to Official History and Intercepts ." Like the previous document, this is available from the National Security Archive . This site also includes links to many other sources related to the Gulf of Tonkin.
• President Johnson’s Message to Congress and an excerpt of the Joint Resolution of Congress are available at the EDSITEment-reviewed Avalon Project at Yale University . The complete Tonkin Gulf Resolution is available at the National Archive’s Our Documents site. For the most readable version, click on “Document Transcript” to the right of the original document. The National Archives is an EDSITEment-reviewed website.
• A short excerpt " The Senate Debates the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, August 6-7, 1964 ," includes both the Senate resolution, opposition from Senators Nelson and Gruening, and support for the amendment from Senator Fulbright. This site is from The Wars for Viet Nam: 1945 to 1975 linked to History Matters , an EDSITEment-reviewed website.

Finally, former military intelligence official R. A. Mackinnon, an advisor on Southeast Asia in 1965, wrote a comprehensive review of the intelligence on the Gulf of Tonkin . This document totals 111 pages, but reading the first few pages of the Introduction gives the reader a sense for the officials’ own criticism and scrutiny of the Tonkin incident and its use by the Johnson administration. The document is available on the National Security Agency’s website .

This lesson raises a number of questions relating to the Gulf of Tonkin incident and subsequent decisions.  How important was flawed, manipulated, or disregarded intelligence in the American decision to escalate our military involvement in Vietnam following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964? Did American officials, including President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, intentionally manipulate the information they were receiving to reach the conclusion they wanted? What does historical hindsight teach us about this one specific event and, more broadly, about presidential decision-making in times of crisis? What lessons can be learned that have bearing on current and future policies?

NCSS.D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.

NCSS.D2.His.2.9-12. Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.

NCSS.D2.His.3.9-12. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.

NCSS.D2.His.12.9-12. Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.

NCSS.D2.His.14.9-12. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.

NCSS.D2.His.15.9-12. Distinguish between long-term causes and triggering events in developing a historical argument.

NCSS.D2.His.16.9-12. Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.

To prepare to teach this lesson, download or bookmark the following EDSITEment websites:

• For the homework reading the night before the lessons start, bookmark the essay "" 40th Anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident " by scholar John Prados. 
• Download this .pdf file with the official record of the August 5, 1964 White House Staff Meeting. This is available from the National Security Archive .   
• Bookmark this site providing phone conversations between LBJ and McNamara , available as audio clips in Windows Media Audio format or as transcripts. It’s provided by the National Security Archive .
• For LBJ’s speech and an excerpt of the Congressional Joint Resolution , bookmark this webpage.

Bookmark a segment of the Senate debate .

Activity 1. Domestic vs. Military Considerations

Students should read or listen to LBJ’s two conversations with Robert McNamara from August 3, 1964, available as Clip 1 and Clip 2 of " LBJ Tapes on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident ." The clips are in .wma format, and so running the audio will require Windows.

These conversations reveal the convergence of military and domestic considerations for the President and his Secretary of Defense. Students should write short quotations from the text which demonstrate the connection of domestic political concerns with military actions, then follow each quote with their commentary on how it illustrates this theme

To explore this theme further, students should analyze the series of four conversations ( Clips 3 through 6 ) from August 4, 1963, in which LBJ and McNamara discussed and analyzed the second series of alleged attacks. But were these actual attacks? Many historians (as well as McNamara himself) have cast doubt on this question. Ask students to  comment on a variety of possible issues: confusion on the part of the administration; LBJ’s domestic political concerns; and specific issues or details where historians now believe the information was wrong (students would have some background on this from the introductory remarks to each section of the telephone conversations). Teachers can decide to split students into groups, and have each one focus on a specific theme from above, and then report back to the class as a whole.

Activity 2. What’s Important Here?

Next, students should read the text of the August 5, 1964, White House staff meeting (available as a .pdf file) to begin to analyze the military and political intelligence overlap that is so important in the Tonkin Gulf incident. Noting answers on paper, students will comment on three key aspects of this document:

• Do the participants in the meeting think the evidence is clear and convincing that the North Vietnamese have attacked the American ships?
• What reservations are advanced by Cater? How does Bundy respond to them?
• What is Bundy’s attitude about Congress’ involvement in this issue?
• What does this indicate about the relationship between the Executive branch and Legislative branch on foreign policy issues at that time?
• What does the Constitution say about the Executive and Legislative branch in foreign affairs? What, in your (student’s) opinion, is the most important piece of information from these minutes? Explain your choice.

Teachers may find the following definitions helpful in preparing for this lesson; they can determine how to share with their students:

• DRV – Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)
• ChiComs – The People’s Republic of China (Communist China)
• USIA – United States Information Agency

W.Y.S. – William Y. Smith (initials at end), staff member of the National Security Council, working for McGeorge Bundy

Activity 3. LBJ’s Rationale and the Dissenters

Finally, students should analyze President Johnson’s Message to Congress of August 5, 1964 , presenting the case for a Congressional commitment to military action in Southeast Asia; a small part of the Senate debate on it (focusing on Senators Morse and Gruening’s dissents); and the resolution itself . On LBJ’s speech, students should examine two topics: LBJ’s use of recently received intelligence  (using the knowledge they gained in the earlier activity using the phone calls) AND the President’s overall foreign-policy concerns in this matter. In analyzing the debate, students should discuss the two dissenters’ main concerns. Finally, they should discuss the Congressional resolution to highlight the sections that indicate Congress’ acceptance of LBJ’s rationale, as well as those that reflect Cold War politics and ideals.

• Students engage in a simulation of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution debate, using the information that is now available – which was not disclosed then – that they have been examining. The goal would be to help them see how differently the debate might have unfolded, if the intelligence had been fully disclosed.
• Students write an op-ed piece for August 8, 2004, on the 40th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. They are asked to reflect on why the original measure was passed and whether they now think the measure was justified, given the information that has come to light.

1. Historical context and hindsight: Students can analyze the evolution of Walter Cronkite’s views on this issue, by listening to Cronkite’s discussion of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and its aftermath , which offers a good assessment of what was known then and now. (Note: this audio clip is nearly 13 minutes.) This clip is linked from the Internet Public Library, an EDSITEment-reviewed website.

Students could analyze part of an article by National Security Agency historian Robert J. Hanyok on military intelligence and the Tonkin Gulf, which confirms what some historians have long argued: that there was no second attack on U.S. ships in Tonkin on August 4, 1964. The document is long, but teachers could decide what portions they want to use with their students. This document is from the National Security Archive , linked to the EDSITEment-reviewed History Matters site.

2. Going to War: Students could compare and contrast LBJ’s speech to Congress on the Tonkin Gulf incident with those of other presidents seeking Congressional support for war:

• James Polk on the need for war with Mexico, May 11, 1846 . This text is available from New Perspectives on the West , an EDSITEment-reviewed website.

William McKinley's request for Congressional approval of his declaration of war against Spain, April 5, 1898 , is available from The Spanish American War Centennial Website . This site is linked to American Memory , an EDSITEment-reviewed site.

Selected EDSITEment Websites

American Memory

• President McKinley and the Declaration of War

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School

• President Johnson’s Message to Congress and an excerpt of the Joint Resolution of Congress

National Archives Education

• Tonkin Gulf Resolution

National Security Archive

• Essay: 40th Anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident
• LBJ Tapes on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident
• R.A. Mackinnon, "The Gulf of Tonkin Incident"
• Robert J. Hanyok, ‘Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August, 1964’
• The Senate Debates the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, August 6-7, 1964
• “Tonkin Gulf Intelligence ‘Skewed’ According to Official History and Intercepts”
• White House Staff Meeting, August 5, 1964

Internet Public Library

• Walter Cronkite, ‘Gulf of Tonkin’s Phantom Attack’

New Perspectives on the West

• James K. Polk, Message on War with Mexico, May 11, 1846

Related on EDSITEment

The korean war (1950–1953), doing oral history with vietnam war veterans, the things they carried : tim o’brien’s vietnam war novel endures, cold war europe.

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