Deck 28: The Vietnam ERA, 1961-1975

Question 1

Why did the Communist Vietnamese government publicize the suffering of Kim Phuc?

A)to teach the nation about the horrors of war
B)to reckon with its own responsibility for wartime atrocities
C)to demonstrate the barbarity of the defeated South Vietnamese
D)to boast about the medical care of communist Vietnam

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Why did the United States back France in its efforts to reestablish control of Indochina?

A)Americans doubted the ability of people in Indochina to govern themselves.
B)Americans owed the French gratitude because of World War II.
C)The U.S. wanted to win France as a strong ally against communism.
D)Officials feared that without the French, Indochina would remain Japanese.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Why did the United States government trust Ngo Dinh Diem?

A)Diem had proven himself as a guerrilla fighter against the Japanese in World War II.
B)Diem had earned his reputation as a skilled diplomat during his appointment with the United Nations.
C)As the descendent of the Vietnamese royal family, Diem had the support of the Vietnamese Buddhists.
D)His Roman Catholic faith and his American experience, officials thought, would make him a reliable ally.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The proper name of the Vietcong was

A)the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam.
B)the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
C)the Green Berets.
D)the Red Army of North Vietnam.

Question 5

What was US ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge's first mission in Saigon in 1963?

A)patch up relations with the Diem family
B)restore the alliance with Buddhists
C)investigate the incident at the Gulf of Tonkin
D)encourage senior ARVN officers to oust Diem

Question 6

The Vietnam War led to all of the following, EXCEPT

A)the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
B)the defeat of communist in Vietnam.
C)strained US relations with traditional allies.
D)halted progress in dampening Cold War tensions.

Question 7

In March 1965, General William Westmoreland, the US commander in Vietnam, wrote President Lyndon Johnson that the United States had to

A)"stem the tide of communism."
B)"pay any price, bear any burden to save Vietnam."
C)"put our own finger in the dike."
D)"never surrender."

Question 8

How did the United States measure progress in its war against the NLF and North Vietnamese?

A)the size of secure the territory
B)the prosperity of the South Vietnamese
C)the body count of dead opponents
D)the number of communists converted

Question 9

Why did the U.S. Army drop over 1,000,000 pounds of defoliants on the forests of Vietnam?

A)to deprive local villagers of their subsistence
B)to simplify the job for the strategic bombing missions
C)to ease the burden of jungle warfare for US soldiers
D)to rob Vietcong and North Vietnamese fighters of their cover

Question 10

What was Henry Kissinger's official position during his first communication with North Vietnam on behalf of the Johnson administration?

A)He was Secretary of State.
B)He was a General with the United States Army.
C)He was a private citizen and Harvard professor.
D)He was the minority leader of House Republicans.

Question 11

When did the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin its hearings on Vietnam?

A)November 1963
B)February 1966
C)January 1968
D)November 1972

Question 12

What helped galvanize the opposition to the war during the Johnson administration?

A)the My Lai massacre
B)the draft
C)the release of the Pentagon papers
D)the invasion of Laos

Question 13

What impact did the Chinese Cultural Revolution have on the Johnson administration?

A)It prompted Johnson to send out diplomatic feelers to Beijing.
B)It caused him to waver on the significance of the Vietnam War.
C)It fortified his resolve to prevail in Vietnam.
D)It ultimately drove him to not seek reelection.

Question 14

How did US and South Vietnamese intelligence services interpret the massive increase of North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam in December 1967

A)as preparation for the Tet Offensive
B)preparation for retaliation for the My Lai massacre
C)preparation for an assault on the Marine base of Khe Sanh
D)the beginning of an organized withdrawal from South Vietnam

Question 15

How many troops did the NLF and North Vietnamese troops lose in the Tet Offensive?

A)less than 200
B)about 3000
C)approximately 40,000
D)well over 100,000

Question 16

Which position was the basis Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy's challenge to Johnson for the Democratic nomination in 1968?

A)opposition to the Vietnam War
B)opposition to the great Society program
C)concern about corruption in the Johnson administration
D)opposition to the Civil Rights and the Voting Right Act

Question 17

Why did Mexican authorities crush student protests in the summer of 1968 with such brute force?

A)They feared the students' call for democracy.
B)They did not want protests near the site of the Olympic games.
C)They resented the students' celebration of Castro.
D)They believed that students were led by US agitators.

Question 18

How did the American public respond to the footage of protesters getting beaten by Chicago police during the national Democratic convention in August 1968?

A)There were appalled and called for Mayor Richard Daley's resignation.
B)They sided with the police by a margin of 2 to 1.
C)They found the footage confusing since the police were in civilian clothes.
D)They were appalled since the students were all black and the police white.

Question 19

What percentage of the votes did Alabama's Democratic Governor George C Wallace receive on his own ticket in the presidential election of 1968?

A)2 percent
B)5.7 percent
C)13.5 percent
D)24.1 percent

Question 20

How did President Richard Nixon and his national security advisor Henry Kissinger conduct their foreign affairs?

A)in secret
B)in consultation with Congress
C)on a strictly bipartisan platform
D)with the maximum use of mass media

Question 21

Why did antiwar demonstrations decline after the killings at Kent State University in 1970?

A)President Nixon promised not to invade Laos.
B)Pres. Nixon apologized for invading Cambodia.
C)Fewer Americans were dying in the war.
D)State militias promised to shoot down future protests.

Question 22

When did Henry Kissinger declared the breakthrough in negotiations with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho, declaring that "peace is at hand?"

A)in March 1968
B)in March 1970
C)in October 1972
D)in October 1974

Question 23

When was the city of Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City?

A)in January 1968
B)in March 1969
C)in April 1973
D)in April 1975

Question 24

How did Americans initially react to President Richard Nixon's and Henry Kissinger's policy of détente towards the Soviet Union?

A)They lauded them as masters of foreign policy.
B)They decried the move as a cowardly sellout.
C)They criticized the policy as too little too late.
D)Nixon's move to warm up the Cold War was not surprising.

Question 25

What did President Richard Nixon's visits to China and his 1972 summit in Moscow indicate about American foreign policy?

A)The Vietnam War shaped each and every aspect of foreign policy.
B)The more Cold War policy changed, the more it stayed the same.
C)Nixon's foreign policy was entirely directed by public opinion polls.
D)The Vietnam War no longer paralyzed US foreign policy.

Question 26

How did Egyptian president Anwar Sadat respond to US military support for Israel in 1973?

A)He appealed to the European Union to negotiate disarmament.
B)He called on the Soviet Union to provide military aid to Egypt.
C)He called on the UN Security Council to condemn the military alliance.
D)He offered Israel immediate cease-fire to avoid further escalation.

Question 27

How did President Richard Nixon want to change the anti-property programs of the great society?

A)He wanted to beef them up significantly.
B)He wanted to slash their budgets significantly.
C)He wanted to transfer control of the programs to states.
D)He wanted to further concentrate the federal control of programs.

Question 28

How did president Richard Nixon respond to European threats that they were going to redeem their US dollars for gold?

A)He stocked up American gold reserves to prepare for a cash-out.
B)He promised to open American markets for European imports.
C)He announced that the U.S. would no longer redeem dollars in gold.
D)He threatened that the US would redeem European currency for gold.

Question 29

On what grounds did the United States Supreme Court declare abortion legal in 1973?

A)Unborn babies were not alive.
B)Whether to carry out a pregnancy was a woman's private decision.
C)Couples that wanted abortions were unfit parents anyway.
D)Family planning decisions where a government responsibility.

Question 30

How did the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1972, George McGovern, characterize the Nixon administration?

A)"unhip, uncool, uncouth"
B)"the most corrupt administration in history"
C)"a national embarrassment"
D)"a gross miscarriage of justice"

Question 31

How did Kim Phuc respond to the fact that the Vietnamese government had turned her into a propaganda symbol against the anti-Communist regime?

A)She relished the attention actively supported the propaganda.
B)She was angry that officials took her from her studies.
C)She enjoyed the international travel that her role involved.
D)She considered a career in politics.

Question 32

Which of the following best describes Americans' relationship to Vietnam before 1960?

A)It had long been a central source of immigration to the US.
B)Americans appreciated Vietnam as a cheap tourist destination.
C)Vietnam was the most important rice importer to the US.
D)Most Americans knew nothing about Vietnam's history or politics.

Question 33

Which of the following best assesses the rule of South Vietnam's leader Ngo Dinh Diem?

A)strictly constitutional
B)a virtual dictatorship
C)an absentee government
D)weak and inconsistent

Question 34

How did President John F. Kennedy react to the picture of 73-year-old monk Thich Quang Duc's self-immolation in June 1963?

A)He was shocked.
B)He was unmoved.
C)He made fun of it.
D)It made him angry.

Question 35

What happened with Ngo Dinh Diem after the coup of 1963?

A)He fled into exile in Taiwan.
B)He became an honorary professor at Columbia.
C)He was murdered in the coup.
D)He joined Ho Chi Minh's cabinet.

Question 36

Why did the CIA help General Nguyen Kanh oust General Duong Van Minh in January 1964?

A)Minh did not want to negotiate with North Vietnam.
B)Minh wanted to negotiate with North Vietnam.
C)Minh was not the popularly elected leader of the country.
D)Minh had personally offended President Johnson.

Question 37

What triggered Operation Rolling Thunder in February 1965?

A)NLF fighters had attacked the American air base at Pleiku.
B)The ARVN had intercepted the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.
C)U.S. Marines had been shot at in the Gulf of Tunkin.
D)U.S. Armed Forces were retaliating for the Tet Offensive.

Question 38

How could NLF fighters and the North Vietnamese withstand the technological superiority of U.S. forces?

A)The communist forces chose their battles carefully.
B)North Vietnamese and Vietcong pushed for a quick victory.
C)They mastered ancient warrior techniques unknown in the West.
D)Vietnamese people did not care about pain like Americans did.

Question 39

How did NLF and North Vietnamese forces kill 1,000 US troops in 1966 alone?

A)with improvised booby-traps
B)with napalm
C)with Agent Orange
D)with poison arrows

Question 40

How did European allies respond to the US decision to enter the Vietnamese war?

A)They joined the effort readily.
B)They joined very reluctantly.
C)They refused to commit troops.
D)They bore an equal brunt of the fighting.

Question 41

How did Sen. J William Fulbright of Arkansas assess the Vietnam War during the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearings on Vietnam in 1966?

A)He described it as a "noble cause for world peace and prosperity."
B)He called "Vietnam the first domino - and California the last."
C)He declared Vietnam "a clear case of international communist aggression."
D)He found it to be "a civil war in which outside parties have become involved."

Question 42

The heightened popular distrust for the government and intensified opposition to the war during the Johnson administration was largely the result of

A)the inequities of the draft.
B)the number of Vietnamese killed.
C)the lack of media coverage.
D)the steady bad news from the front.

Question 43

Who did millions of young Chinese Red Guards assault during the Great Cultural Revolution in 1966?

A)Korean guest-workers
B)Soviets businessmen
C)teachers and village leaders
D)the homeless and disabled

Question 44

Which of the following did NOT happen in 1968?

A)the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
B)public outrage over the atrocities at My Lai
C)the bloodiest urban uprisings of the 1960s
D)a tumultuous presidential election campaign

Question 45

How did news of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam affect the antiwar movement in the United States?

A)Opposition to the war intensified.
B)With the draft over, the antiwar movement had died out.
C)Suspicious of the charges, protesters supported the troops instead.
D)The antiwar movement only developed a decent size with news of My Lai.

Question 46

Why was Martin Luther King Junior in Memphis in April 1968?

A)to lead a march of voter registrars
B)to support the black garbage workers strike
C)to participate in a ist-in at a public library
D)to organize a bus boycott in the city

Question 47

Which country witnessed the most brutal suppression of student protests in 1968?

A)Germany
B)Mexico
C)the United States
D)France

Question 48

How did police respond to the protesters outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 28, 1968?

A)They merely secured the perimeters and prevented looting of neighborhood stores.
B)Mostly Republicans themselves, the police deliberately allowed protesters to enter the convention hall.
C)The police clubbed and tear-gased the demonstrators outside the Hilton Hotel in downtown Chicago.
D)Understanding the common grievances, many police officers joined the ranks of the protesters.

Question 49

For whose votes did Republican presidential candidate Richard M Nixon campaign most aggressively in 1968?

A)civil rights activists
B)antiwar protesters
C)southern whites
D)African-Americans

Question 50

As President Richard M Nixon reduced troop levels in Vietnam in 1969, he also

A)increased the pace of bombing in South Vietnam and Cambodia.
B)pressured the South Vietnamese to initiate peace talks with North Vietnam.
C)urged European powers to replace American troops with their own forces.
D)began to openly criticize South Vietnam for its corruption and lack of democracy.

Question 51

Which of the following assessments best fits the invasion of Cambodia in 1970?

A)It was a completely secret operation.
B)It was an unqualified disaster.
C)The operation destroyed the NLF headquarters.
D)South Vietnamese soldiers fought masterfully.

Question 52

Why did president Richard Nixon's chief domestic policy adviser John Ehrlichman assemble a team of "plumbers"?

A)to "bug" the Oval Office
B)to develop a strategy for the 1972 election
C)to plug leaks like the one Daniel Ellsberg had opened
D)to maintain the security of the White House complex

Question 53

Why did South Vietnamese President Thieu order the ARVN to attack North Vietnam in March 1973?

A)The Vietcong seemed weak enough to overwhelm.
B)He wanted to trigger renewed US military aid.
C)He hoped to liberate the almost 600 U.S. Prisoners in the North.
D)He thought that US forces had held South Vietnam back in the past.

Question 54

Which the following was President Richard M Nixon's most astonishing foreign policy reversal?

A)his denunciation of the Allende regime in Chile
B)his opening of relations with the People's Republic of China
C)his de-escalation of the Vietnam War
D)his lift of the embargo on South Africa

Question 55

Who overthrew the socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, in 1973?

A)Anwar Sadat
B)Augusto Pinochet
C)Che Guevara
D)Hugo Chavez

Question 56

What did Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy fail to address?

A)the threat of the resumption of the Yom Kippur war
B)the prgress towards peace between Israel and Egypt
C)the issue of Palestinian demands for an independent state
D)the engagement of the military forces of Israel, Egypt, and Syria

Question 57

What impact did president Richard Nixon's Supreme Court appointments have on constitutional law?

A)they took the court in a more business-friendly direction
B)they led the court towards principles of libertarianism
C)they turned the court into a bulwark of segregationalism
D)they did not alter the court's expansion of individual rights

Question 58

Why did business groups complain against the creation of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) in the early 1970s?

A)They did not like that they had to pay for the agency.
B)They found its inspectors hopelessly corrupt.
C)Regulation raised costs and made them un-competitive.
D)They thought the inspectors were naïve about workplace risks.

Question 59

What did the United States Supreme Court rule in the case of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)?

A)Using buses to transport students throughout the school district to achieve racial balance was constitutional.
B)While universities could consider race in admissions, strict racial quotas were unconstitutional.
C)Although women enjoyed equal constitutional rights, they were not entitled to an equal rights amendment.
D)Women had the choice to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester because of their right to privacy.

Question 60

Who was in charge of President Nixon's cover-up of the Watergate scandal?

A)Archibald Cox
B)John Sirica
C)John Dean
D)H.R. Haldeman

Question 61

Identify who, what, where, when, and/or why the following are important:
1. napalm
2. strategic hamlets
3. Ho Chi Minh Trail
4. Henry Kissinger
5. anti-Americanism
6. 1968 Democratic National Convention
7. Kent State Student Strike
8. shuttle diplomacy
9. stagflation
10. Archibald Cox

Question 62

Following her recovery from her napalm burns, what did Kim Phuc end up doing as an adult?

A)She became a firefighter and disaster relief expert.
B)She became a Colonel in the North Vietnamese Army.
C)She became the leader of the militant peace movement.
D)She became a doctor and advocate for reconciliation.

Question 63

Which of the following best describes the religious orientation of South Vietnamese in the 1960s?

A)They were largely Catholic.
B)The nation was half Muslim, half Hindu.
C)The country was mostly Protestant.
D)The nation's Buddhist majority was over 80 percent.

Question 64

Why did president Lyndon Johnson decided to "Americanize" the war in Vietnam in 1964?

A)He personally cared deeply about Vietnam.
B)He did not want to appear weak or soft.
C)He wanted to carry out his predecessor's will.
D)He feared a Chinese nuclear attack.

Question 65

Why did the sustained bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail achieve minimal results?

A)The Ho Chi Minh trail was mostly underground.
B)The Ho Chi Minh Trail did not actually exist.
C)The majority of American bombs failed to detonate on the ground.
D)North Vietnamese trucks traveled under camouflage and by night.

Question 66

What dissuaded the Japanese government from providing financial support to the American war effort in Vietnam?

A)large protests by Japanese students
B)a financial crisis in Tokyo
C)the need to maintain good relations with China
D)the fear of a Vietnamese attack on Japanese islands

Question 67

How did the Tet Offensive of January 1968 begin?

A)NLF fighters attacked the airbase at Pleiku.
B)North Vietnamese armies surrounded US forces at Dien Ben Phu.
C)19 NLF fighters attacked the US Embassy in Saigon.
D)American troops launched an assault from the Inchon peninsula.

Question 68

Which of the following was the result of President Richard Nixon's and national security advisor Henry Kissinger's secret conduct of foreign affairs?

A)It led to an escalation of the Vietnam War.
B)It was responsible for decoupling the dollar from gold.
C)It derailed the antiwar movement.
D)It cost both men widespread support from the public.

Question 69

Why did Defense Department advisor Daniel Ellsberg leak copies of the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in June 1971?

A)Ellsberg was mentally unstable.
B)He wanted to broaden opposition to the war.
C)The newspaper had paid him in advance.
D)Ellsberg hated Kissinger and Pres. Nixon.

Question 70

How did the Yom Kippur war of 1973 begin?

A)France and Britain had tried to recapture the Suez Canal.
B)The Palestinian Liberation Front bombed U.S Marines in Beirut.
C)Israel had attacked Egypt in an attempt to recapture the Sinai.
D)Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated attack on Israeli positions.

Question 71

Why did Congress fail to confirm G. Harrold Carswell to the United States Supreme Court?

A)He was too liberal.
B)He was African-American.
C)He was a friend of Richard Nixon.
D)He had supported segregation in the past.

Question 72

Explain the purpose of the "strategic hamlets" in South Vietnam, and why they failed?

Question 73

What was that the strategy of attrition, and how did this approach lead to brutality in the Vietnam War?

Question 74

What happened at the village of My Lai?

Question 75

What was the significance of the Pentagon papers?

Question 76

How did the Yom Kippur War trigger an oil crisis in the United States and Europe?

Question 77

Discuss why 1963 marked a turning point in U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Question 78

Explain the development of the Watergate scandal. What trends explain Nixon's deep suspicions, and what broader impact did the Watergate incident have on the nation?

Question 79

Identify who, what, where, when, and/or why the following are important:
1. Ngo Dinh Diem
2. strategy of attrition
3. free fire zones
4. Senator William J. Fulbright
5. Great Cultural Revolution
6. My Lai massacre
7. détente
8. Ho Chi Minh City
9. Southern Strategy
10. Roe v. Wade

Question 80

At the time John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, communist forces in South Vietnam

A)did not yet exist.
B)were fighting a losing battle.
C)were winning the war.
D)consisted mostly of Chinese.