Name: ____________________________ The Vietnam War Webquest and Video Analysis Directions: Complete the following questions using resources from the links listed below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IcmLkuhG0 (Crash Course Video) http://www.ushistory.org/us/55d.asp (U.S. History.org) To begin this assignment, start watching the Crash Course video: The Cold War in Asia at the 4:18 mark and then answer the following questions. 1. Who was the leader of North Vietnam? What colonial power was he tired of running his country? 2. Because of the Cold War, how did the United States view Ho Chi Minh? 3. What was the domino theory? 4. Why did Americans fear the expansion of the Soviet Union and communism? 5. How did the United States first get involved in Vietnam? 6. How did President Eisenhower keep America’s involvement in Vietnam minimal at first? 7. When had Vietnam been divided into North and South? What was supposed to reunite the two sides? 8. Whose oppressive regime in South Vietnam did the United States begin supporting? Why? 9. Why was Diem not very popular amongst his people? 10. When did the first major involvement of American troops in Vietnam begin? What were these troops called? 11. What was the role of these American advisors? 12. When were the first advisors killed in Vietnam? Who was the president at this time? 13. Which American president is most associated with the Vietnam War? Why? 14. What was the Gulf of Tonkin Incident? What did it result in? 15. Why is the Gulf of Tonkin such an infamous moment in American history? 16. Why was going to war in Vietnam popular at first? 17. What was Operation Rolling Thunder? 18. What were newly arrived American Marines authorized to do in Vietnam in 1965? 19. What started a widening credibility gap between the U.S. government and American citizens? 20. What was the situation like in Vietnam by 1968? 21. What was the Tet Offensive? What were the results of this battle? 22. Why is the Vietnam War considered a “brutal” conflict? 23. What were Agent Orange and napalm used for? 24. How did television help the Vietnam War have a greater impact on the home front? 25. Who were the draftees that were sent to fight in Vietnam? Who was the burden put on? 26. What happened as Americans became more aware of what was happening in Vietnam? 27. How did Richard Nixon convince Americans to vote for him in the 1968 presidential election? 28. What was “Vietnamization?” 29. What else was part of Nixon’s secret plan? 30. Did the invasion of Cambodia result in the intended outcome? 31. What were American attitudes regarding the war by 1970? 32. What were the Pentagon Papers? 33. How did Congress respond to the Pentagon Papers? 34. How long did it take Nixon, and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, to end America’s involvement in Vietnam? What made it possible for the U.S. to withdraw its troops? 35. How long did the war continue between North and South Vietnam? What was the result? 36. What were the costs of the Vietnam War- human and monetary? 37. What was the Vietnam War a first for America? Why? 38. How did the Vietnam War change the way Americans viewed their leaders? For the next section of this assignment proceed to the U.S. History.org website listed on the front page, read the article, and then answer the following questions. 39. What lesson from the Vietnam War stands out amongst the rest? 40. Why did the peace movement leaders in the United States oppose the war?
