The Geneva Accords 1954

1. The disengagement, partition and military regroupment of each country’s armed forces.
2. Civil regroupment and administration.
3. Arms Control.
4. International supervision and control.
5. Procedural matters.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was the beginning of the United States’ formal involvement in the Vietnam War.  It authorized the President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” by the communist government of North Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Ho Chi Minh Trail, elaborate system of mountain and jungle paths and trails used by North Vietnam to infiltrate troops and supplies into South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during the Vietnam War. A map showing bases and supply routes during the Vietnam War. The trail was put into operation beginning in 1959, after the North Vietnamese leadership decided to use revolutionary warfare to reunify South with North Vietnam.

Major Dale R. Buis

Army Major Dale R. Buis was born in Pender, Thurston County, Nebraska.  His is the first name on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC.  He was a military advisor assigned to Vietnam to train South Vietnamese troops, and was killed during what is characterized as non-hostile action, by Vietcong guerrillas with small arms fire and a satchel charge at Bienhoa.

Red Cross

During the eight years of American combat activity in the war (1965-1972), the Red Cross handled more than 2,168,000 emergency communications between servicemen and their families. Red Cross field directors and chapter staff at home assisted an average of 27,800 servicemen each month with personal and family problems. An average of over 280,000 servicemen a month participated in recreation activities at Red Cross centers and in SRAO programs in Vietnam and neighboring countries.

Viet Cong

The Viet Cong was an armed communist revolutionary organization in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It fought under the direction of North Vietnam, against the South Vietnamese and United States governments during the Vietnam War, eventually emerging on the winning side. It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory the Viet Cong controlled.

During the war, communist fighters and anti-war activists claimed that the Viet Cong was an insurgency indigenous to the South, while the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments portrayed the group as a tool of North Vietnam. According to Trần Văn Trà, the Viet Cong’s top commander, and the post-war Vietnamese government’s official history, the Viet Cong followed orders from Hanoi and were part of the People’s Army of Vietnam, or North Vietnamese army.

Domino Theory

In a press conference on April 7, U.S. President D. Eisenhower described the situation in Vietnam as a “falling domino” whose loss would lead to rapid and widespread communist victories in neighboring countries. This concept was referred to as the domino effect. Eisenhower’s speech laid the foundation for U.S. steady involvement in Vietnam as part of its containment policy implemented throughout the world.

Successive U.S. Presidents would use the domino theory to justify their escalation of U.S. intervention in Vietnam. President Kennedy, in his inauguration speech, stated that U.S. security may be lost piece by piece, country by country as a result of the domino effect. As a response, he decided to increase aid and military advisers in South Vietnam. By November 1963, the number of military advisers reached approximately 16,000.

President Johnson eventually sent troops to Vietnam in 1965, and President Nixon escalated the conflict further to Laos and Cambodia.

President John Kennedy

Elected in 1960, John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) became the 35th president of the United States. He served from 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Despite the warnings of Eisenhower about Laos and Vietnam, the opinion of J.F. Kennedy about Europe and Latin America was much more important than that in Asia. The administration of Kennedy remained crucially devoted to the Cold War foreign policy which was inherited from the administrations of Truman and Eisenhower.

In 1961, Kennedy had to cope with a series of challenges, including the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the ongoing negotiation between the Pathet Lao communist movement and the pro-Western Lao government. This convergence of crises was seen as a significant challenge for Kennedy’s administration.

John F. Kennedy believed that another failure to control and prevent the expansion of communism would seriously damage the U.S.’ credibility with allies and his own reputation. Consequently, he made the decision to “draw a line in the sand” and take action to halt the spread of communism in Vietnam.