| Term | Definition |
| Henry Kissenger | National Security Advisor that worked with Nixon and secretly met with one of North Vietnam's negotiators to end the war |
| My Lai Massacre | Innocent S.Vietnamese women, children and elderly were brutally killed by U.S. soldiers |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | Corrupt leader of South Vietnam that the U.S. supported |
| Vietcong | Communist group in South Vietnam |
| Deferment | Getting out of or putting off war service |
| Geneva Accords | This document divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel |
| Vietnamization | Nixon's policy to gradually take troops out of Vietnam and have the S. Vietnamese begin to take over fighting fr themselves |
| War Powers Act | Limited the Presidents ability to send troops |
| Conscientious Objector | Someone who opposes war based on their moral and religious beliefs- a way to get out of the actual fighting in Vietnam |
| Martin Luther King Jr. | Was against the Vietnam War when he saw how disproportionate the number of black men serving and being killed in comparison to the number of white men |
| Guerilla Warfare | Military strategy used by Vietcong that used hit and run tactics |
| Kent State University | College students were protesting the war and National Guardsmen were brought in that fired into the crowd and killed 4 people |
| Containment | To keep and idea or thing isolated, the reason we got involved in the Vietnam war |
| Search and Destroy | U.S> soldiers would take over South Vietnamese villages and destroy their homes, land, and livestock because they thought they were helping the Vietcong. |
| Napalm | Gasoline based bomb that set fire to the jungle |
| Body Count | Westmoreland's idea that showed the American people how many Vietcong were being killed. |
| Bombing of Cambodia | Nixon ordered this to destroy supply bases used by the N. Vietnamese |
| William Westmoreland | General that was in South Vietnam that asked for more troops because he was not impressed with South Vietnam's fighting ability |
| Dwight Eisenhower | President that used the term Domino Theory |
| John F. Kennedy | President before Johnson that 1st sent military advisors to South Vietnam |
| Ho Chi Minh Trail | Underground tunnels used to supply the Vietcong |
| Working Class War | Nickname for Vietnam war due to the fact that it took money to get a deferment out of the war |
| TET Offensive | Vietcong launched a surprise attack on S.Vietnamese cities after they had agreed to a truce over the New Year holiday- Vietcong lost, win for U.S. |
| ARVN | South Vietnamese army that we were fighting with in Vietnam |
| Hawks | Nickname for American people that were for the war |
| Geneva Conference | Leaders met to discuss the division of Vietnam |
| USS Maddux | U.S. ship that was reported to have been shot at by the North Vietnamese |
| Domino Theory | Said that if one country falls to communism then the rest would fall |
| Richard Nixon | President elected after LBJ decided not to run for re-election- he wanted the S.Vietnamese to do more of their own fighting and get U.S. soldiers home |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | President of the U.S. that ordered Operation Rolling Thunder |
| Booby traps | One of the hazards U.S. soldiers faced while fighting in Vietnam |
| Vietminh | Ho Chi Minh's followers in North Vietnam that formed to fight against the French |
| Selective Service System | Said males had to register for the draft when they turned 18 |
| Khmer Rouge | Communist group in Cambodia |
| James Earl Ray | Assassinated Martin Luther King Jr |
| Agent Orange | Chemical sprayed on vegetation to kill plants to make it easier to see the area better |
| Ho Chi Minh | Communist leader of North Vietnam |
| Robert Kennedy | Candidate that was running for the democratic party for president that was assassinated by a Palestinian immigrant |
| Pentagon Papers | Written document that showed that the U.S. was planning to enter the Vietnam War even when LBJ was telling the American people that the U.S. would not get involded |
| Doves | Nickname for American people that were against the war |
| Gulf of Tonkin Resolution | Gave LBJ military powers to do whatever he wanted in Vietnam |
| Credibility Gap | The U.S. people were seeing LBJ report one thing to them on their television sets while reporters were giving them a different picture of what was happening- people were no longer trusting him |
| Draft | Required military service for males 18 years-26 years during a time of need, if your number is picked you have to go |
