The Vietnam War, 1954–1975
Results of the quiz.
1. Conscientious objectors opposed the Vietnam War because of

CORRECT: religious or moral beliefs.
2. In what became known as the My Lai massacre,

CORRECT: American troops opened fire on unarmed Vietnamese villagers.
3. What role did student activists play in the antiwar effort?

CORRECT: They helped lead the protest movement.
4. Why was the Ho Chi Minh Trail important?

CORRECT: It was a critical supply route for the North Vietnamese.
5. The domino theory stated that

CORRECT: if one country fell to communism, neighboring countries would soon follow.
6. College students in the early 1960s could receive a deferment, which was

CORRECT: an official postponement of military duty.
7. At both Kent State University in Ohio and Jackson State College in Mississippi,

CORRECT: students were killed in anti-war demonstrations.
8. At the 1968 Democratic national convention in Chicago,

CORRECT: police used violent tactics to disperse a mob of protestors.
9. The Vietnam War ended when

CORRECT: North Vietnam defeated South Vietnam.
10. After World War II, President Truman pledged American aid to any nation threatened by

CORRECT: Communists.
11. In fighting the North Vietnamese, the American military used

CORRECT: bombs and chemical weapons.
12. Who were "the silent majority?"

CORRECT: a group of more conservative Americans to whom Nixon appealed
13. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave President Johnson the power to

CORRECT: deepen American involvement in Vietnam.
14. President Kennedy's goal in Vietnam was to

CORRECT: prevent the Communists from defeating South Vietnam.
15. American soldiers in Vietnam had to deal with

CORRECT: diseases and surprise attacks.
16. In 1954, Ho Chi Minh became the

CORRECT: pro-Communist leader of North Vietnam.
17. As Nixon began to withdraw American troops from Vietnam, he also

CORRECT: expanded the war into Cambodia.
18. What happened to the citizens of Cambodia after the Vietnam war ended?

CORRECT: One quarter of them were killed by the fanatically Communist Khmer Rouge.
19. As a result of the Tet Offensive, a majority of the American public began to

CORRECT: oppose the Vietnam War.
20. "Hawks" and "doves" were

CORRECT: people who supported the war and people who opposed it.
Part 2:
Analyzing Sources
502 Unit 15 Assessment © Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
Unit15Assessment
In this unit, you learned about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and about
lessons to be learned from the war. Use this excerpt to complete the tasks below.
.
Excerpt from Robert S. McNamara,
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, 1995
As we learned in Vietnam, military force has only a limited capacity to facilitate the
process of nation building. Military force, by itself, cannot build a “failed state.” . . .
At times U.S. military intervention will be justified not on humanitarian or peacekeeping
grounds but on the basis of national security. Clearly, if a direct threat to this nation emerges,
we should and will act unilaterally—after appropriate consultation with Congress and the
American people. If the threat is less direct but still potentially serious . . . how should
we respond? I strongly urge that we act only in a multilateral decision-making and
burdensharing
context—another lesson of Vietnam.
The wars we fight in the post–Cold War world are likely more often than not to be “limited
wars,” like Vietnam . . . Certainly Vietnam taught us how immensely difficult it is to fight
limited wars leading to U.S. casualties over long periods of time. But circumstances will
arise where limited war is far preferable to unlimited war. Before engaging in such conflicts,
the American people must understand the difficulties we will face; the American
military must know and accept the constraints under which they will operate; and our
leaders—and our people—must be prepared to cut our losses and withdraw if it appears
our limited objectives cannot be achieved at acceptable risks or costs . . .
Finally, we must recognize that the consequences of large-scale military operations—
particularly in this age of highly sophisticated and destructive weapons—are inherently
difficult to predict and to control. Therefore, they must be avoided, excepting only when
our nation’s security is clearly and directly threatened. These are the lessons of Vietnam.
Pray God we learn them.
Mastering the Content
1. Which of these is the main reason President
Harry Truman sent military aid to French
Indochina during the early 1950s?
A. to support an independent Vietnam
B. to maintain French control of Vietnam
C. to keep the Chinese from invading Vietnam
D. to block the spread of communism into
Vietnam
2. The Geneva Accords of 1954 led to all of the
following except
A. the end of the First Indochina War.
B. the division of Vietnam into two states.
C. the holding of elections to unify Vietnam.
D. the departure of the French from Indochina.
3. Which of these empowered President Lyndon
Johnson to greatly increase U.S. military
involvement in Vietnam?
A. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
B. Operation Rolling Thunder
C. Pentagon Papers
D. War Powers Act
4. One of the main arguments used to support
U.S. military involvement in Vietnam was the
fear that if Vietnam fell to communism, other
nations in Southeast Asia could as well. This
argument was known as the
A. appeasement trap.
B. domino theory.
C. hegemony effect.
D. red scare.
5. Examine the graph below.
Based on the graph, in which year did
President Johnson’s Americanization of the
Vietnam War begin?
A. 1959
B. 1961
C. 1963
D. 1965
6. Which of these factors greatly frustrated U.S.
troops fighting in Vietnam?
A. The Viet Cong could quickly fade into the
landscape.
B. The Viet Cong were equipped with superior
weapons.
C. The Viet Cong were able to total up higher
body counts.
D. The Viet Cong excelled in conventional
large-scale battles.
U.S. Advisers and Troops in
Vietnam, 1959–1967
500 Unit 15 Assessment © Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
7. Which of these terms best describes the
kind of military campaign General William
Westmoreland proposed for the U.S. forces
early in the Vietnam conflict?
A. total war
B. defensive war
C. war of attrition
D. war of conquest
8. In Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court
ruled that the First Amendment protects the
right of students to do which of the following?
A. engage in symbolic speech at school to
protest the war
B. hold antiwar protest rallies on the grounds
of their school
C. burn their school flag as a symbolic protest
against the war
D. organize teach-ins at their school in support
of antiwar protests
9. What was the main impact of the Tet Offensive
in the United States?
A. It motivated President John Kennedy to send
U.S. military advisers to Vietnam to prop up
the Diem regime.
B. It fueled a credibility gap between what
President Lyndon Johnson said about the
Vietnam War and what Americans saw on
television.
C. It triggered President Richard Nixon’s
decision to order the secret bombing of
Viet Cong bases and supply routes in Laos
and Cambodia.
D. It convinced President Gerald Ford not to
interfere when the North Vietnamese Army
surrounded the city of Saigon.
10. What was Agent Orange used for in the
Vietnam War?
A. to poison food crops grown by Viet Cong
supporters
B. to pollute wells supplying water to Viet
Cong guerrillas
C. to blow up tunnel systems used to shelter
Viet Cong troops
D. to clear forest vegetation that could hide
Viet Cong soldiers
11. Examine the graph below.
The graph shows the impact of which of
the following?
A. Americanization
B. Paris Peace Accords
C. Vietnamization
D. War Powers Resolution
Unit15Assessment
U.S.Troops inVietnam,
1968–1973
Unit15Assessment
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute Unit 15 Assessment 501
1973 1975
January 1973
United States, South Vietnam,
North Vietnam, and Viet Cong
sign Paris Peace Accords.
March 1973
U.S. combat forces
are withdrawn
fromVietnam.
April 1973
North Vietnam
releases U.S.
POWs.
March 1975
North Vietnamese
forces invade
South Vietnam.
April 1975
?
12. The timeline lists events from the Vietnam War.
Which of these events belongs in place of the
question mark?
A. The United States sends 100,000 troops to
assist South Vietnam.
B. South Vietnam’s government falls, ending
the long years of war.
C. The United States reopens peace talks with
the North Vietnamese.
D. South Vietnam’s army regroups, repelling
the invasion from the north.
13. What happened during the Vietnam Moratorium
of 1968?
A. Millions of Americans gathered to protest
the Vietnam War.
B. The United States stopped bombing North
Vietnam and Laos.
C. North Vietnamese diplomats boycotted the
Paris peace talks.
D. The Viet Cong and ARVN observed a brief
cease-fire period.
14. Which of the following best describes the
experience of many Vietnam veterans upon
returning to the United States?
A. They were welcomed home as heroes.
B. They were shunned or ignored by the public.
C. They returned to civilian life with no problems.
D. They quickly forgot about their military
service.
15. Which of the following best defines the
Vietnam syndrome?
A. the belief that the United States should act as
the world’s global police power
B. the conviction that the United States can win
any war anywhere in the world
C. a return to the isolationism that characterized
U.S. foreign policy after World War I
D. a reluctance to involve U.S. troops in
foreign conflicts unless victory seems swift
and certain
Analyzing Sources
502 Unit 15 Assessment © Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
Unit15Assessment
In this unit, you learned about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and about
lessons to be learned from the war. Use this excerpt to complete the tasks below.
1. In this excerpt, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
describes four lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War.
Briefly summarize each of these lessons.
2. Choose one of these four lessons to discuss. Tell whether you
agree or disagree with McNamara’s view. Support your opinion
with evidence drawn from your study of the Vietnam War.
Excerpt from Robert S. McNamara,
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
1. In this excerpt, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
describes four lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War.
Briefly summarize each of these lessons.
The lesson how difficult to fight a limited war which was leading US casualties over
long periods of time .We must understand the harshness we will face during the war.
Our leaders have to prepare for the losses from the war. We also have to recognize the
consequences.
2. Choose one of these four lessons to discuss. Tell whether you
agree or disagree with McNamara’s view. Support your opinion
with evidence drawn from your study of the Vietnam War.
I totally agree with his view. First of all we must be able to acknowledge the losses we
would have before enter the war if not we would end up like Vietnam war because we
didn’t expect to have the enormous casualties loss. We also didn’t know where to stop
because Nixon kept on sending troops to Vietnam regardless of the losses we had. We
have to recognize and accept the truth before it’s too late because we didn’t want to
admit that we lost the Vietnam War.
Why did the United States increase its military involvement in
Vietnam?
The United States kept on increasing its military because it didn’t
want to accept the truth that they were going to lose the war to a poor
country without any special weapons. United States has been
winning any war had happened in the past such as WWII and the Cold
War.
What made the Vietnam War difficult to win?
There are many factors that make Vietnam War difficult to win. First of
all it’s the environment in Vietnam. It has lots of tree, mountain, river
which is hard for the soldiers to navigate the enemies. It is also
because the soldiers who got drafted weren’t well trained.
What lessons for Americans emerged from the Vietnam War?
The Americans have learned crucial lessons about war. War is
expensive, not just the costs, but also the risks that each of the
soldiers had. It also taught Americans that they have to recognize the
consequences that they would have after the war and be able to
determine the right reason to start the war. Moreover, this war also
shows Americans that don’t think that they are strong and they can
win in any war,