Modern History
Home > Modern History > International Studies in Peace and Conflict > Conflict in Indochina 1954-1979 > Glossary:Vietnam
- Agent Orange
- the most common defoliant/herbicide used in Vietnam to
clear away jungle cover in which the Vietcong moved and
fought. So called because its drums were marked with orange
bands. It is widely believed to have been responsible for
birth defects among Vietnamese and children of US veterans.
- Bomblet
- also known as a "bombi"; this was a large
piece of ordinance that exploded into hundreds of smaller
bombs which caused devastation and injury over an area of
approximately one square kilometre.
- Containment
- the foreign policy of the US stated by President Truman
after the Second World War which aimed to stop the spread
of communism throughout the world and became one of the
foundations of the Cold War.
- Coup d'état
- often abbreviated to "coup"; usually an armed
rebellion against a government.
- Defoliation
- see Agent Orange above.
- Domino Theory
- US foreign policy in Asia, proclaimed by President
Eisenhower and an offshoot of the Containment Policy. It
aimed to stop the spread of communism from the Peoples
Republic of China. The division of Vietnam at the 17th
Parallel was the line drawn in the sand.
- Doves
- opponents of the war in the government and
administration of the US.
- First Indochina War
- the war fought between the French and Vietminh after
the Second World War and which ended at the Geneva
Conference in 1954.
- Forward Defence
- the Australian defence policy in the Asia-Pacific area
which stated that it was necessary to fight an enemy
[communists] overseas before Australia was threatened.
- Fragging
- the deliberate killing or wounding of US officers by
their men. The expression comes from the means that was
often used: a fragmentation grenade.
- Free Fire Zones
- designated areas when American soldiers were free to
fire at anything that moved.
- Geneva Accords
- the agreements signed in Geneva which gave Cambodia and
Laos their independence and divided Vietnam at the 17th
Parallel; never ratified by the US.
- Grunt
- American infantry soldier.
- Hawks
- the opposite to "Doves", i.e. US supporters
of the war.
- Ho Chi Minh Trail
- more correctly a transport system used by the North
Vietnamese to supply the Vietcong and later regular troops
of the North as they infiltrated and attacked the South. It
ran through Laos and Cambodia and was the target of
frequent US bombing.
- Huey
- American UH-1 helicopter.
- Khe Sanh
- a US base in South Vietnam attacked a few days before
the Tet Offensive as a diversionary attack.
- Khmer Rouge
- the name given by Sihanouk to the Cambodian Communists.
- My Lai
- the village in South Vietnam which became famous for
the massacre of the people by US troops under the command
of Lt William S. Calley.
- Napalm
- jellied petrol, a mixture of gasoline and other
chemicals which burst into flame upon exposure to air. It
was especially nasty for people as it stuck to the skin
while it burned.
- National Service
- conscription into the armed services; called "the
draft" in America.
- Pacification
- the policy which attempted to eliminate Vietcong
influence in villages in South Vietnam to try and win the
peasants over to the side of the Republic. It failed.
- Peace with Honour
- the policy proclaimed by President Nixon as the context
in which the US and North Vietnamese sought to end the war.
- Re-education Camps
- after the communist victories in Vietnam and Laos,
thousands of people who were thought to have supported the
former government were sent to these camps in remote areas
to be instructed in Marxist theory and recant their former
ways.
- Search and Destroy
- the main tactic used by American and Australian forces
in Vietnam which sought to find Vietcong in villages and
then set the village on fire.
- Second Indochina War
- the main war studied in the HSC course, also known as
the Vietnam War or the War of American Aggression,
depending on what side you are on.
- Strategic Hamlet Program
- the policy of the Americans and supported by the RVN by
which Vietnamese peasants were removed from their
traditional villages and farms and forced to live in
"protected" villages that were supposed to be
safe from Vietcong infiltration; most commonly used in the
Mekong delta. Needless to say, it was a dismal failure.
- Tet
- the Vietnamese Lunar New Year between late January and
mid-February. The Tet festivities in 1968 were marked by a
massive communist offensive against the RVN and Americans,
which was a turning point in the war as a military defeat
but a propaganda victory for the communists.
- Tonkin Resolution
- (1964) also known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by
which the Congress gave President Johnson extraordinarily
wide powers to increase US involvement in the war. It was
declared following an alleged attack on the US battleship
Maddox by North Vietnamese gunboats in the gulf of
the same name. Some historians have seen this as a de facto
declaration of war against North Vietnam.
- Vietcong<</strong>
- the common name given to the National
Liberation Front (NLF), the guerrilla army that
waged much of the war in South Vietnam. Most of its members
were from the South, but its strings were pulled from
Hanoi. Also known as "Charlie" from "Victor
Charlie".
- Vietminh
- the umbrella nationalist movement founded by Ho Chi
Minh in 1940 with the aim of founding a united and
independent Vietnam.
- Vietnamisation
- the policy followed by the US towards the end of the
war by which the US would withdraw its troops and hand over
more of the fighting to the ARVN.
- Watergate
- the political scandal which forced President Nixon to
resign in 1974 before he was likely to be impeached.
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