Big Picture

Questions

1. What was the name of the young Vietnamese patriot who wanted to lobby Western leaders for greater rights (in the wake of World War I)?
2. What were the Geneva Accords?
3. What leader's rule was supported by the U.S., leading to a partnership that set the stage for the Vietnam War? What was the U.S.'s intention?
4. Why did the U.S. think aerial bombardment in the North was a good idea?
5. Why was Vietnam called the Unwinnable War?

Answers

1. Nguyen That Thanh (Ho Chi Minh)
2. A set of treaties signed in 1954, in which the French accepted the Viet Minh's demands to evacuate all troops from Vietnam.
3. In an effort to strengthen a democratic, anti-Communist state in South Vietnam in opposition to Minh's Communist regime in the North, the United States inadvertently produced a tyrannical, autocratic government. Premier Diem, much to the dismay of leaders in Washington, was an extremely unpopular leader who refused to allow his people to participate in the democratic process and instead punished his opposition. Still, for eight years, the U.S. government poured military and economic aid into South Vietnam to bolster Diem's regime, a partnership that would set the stage for the most disastrous war in American history.
4. Several presidents, and their political and military advisors, presumed that aerial bombardment in the North would ease the ground war in the South by cutting off supply lines to the Viet Cong and ultimately forcing Communist leaders to surrender.
5. The aim of the American war campaign—to grind down the enemy until the Communists in the North agreed to abandon their bid for control of the South—was impossible.