Across

1 Hamburger Hill- Starring Michael Dolan, Daniel O’Shea, Tommy Swerdlow, Anthony Barille and Steven Weber, the 1987 film tells the story of Hill 937 in Vietnam that suffered 70 percent casualties over 10 days in Vietnam. The film shows how brave young Americans dodged the gunfire, got caught behind enemy lines, went into battle and felt desperation and futility.

6 Kent State- In 1970, National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd of student antiwar protesters at Ohio's Kent State University, resulting in the death of four students and the wounding of eight others. President Nixon publicly deplored the actions of the Guardsmen, but cautioned: "...when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy." Several of the protesters had been hurling rocks and empty tear gas canisters at the Guardsmen.

15- Cambodia- A country lying in the southwestern Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia. Covering a land area of 70,238 square miles (181,916 square kilometres), it is bordered on the west and northwest by Thailand, on the northeast by Laos, on the east and southeast by Vietnam, and on the southwest by the Gulf of Thailand. The capital is Phnom Penh.


16 Frequent Wind- Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Vietnam in April 1975, moved over 50,000 people. The initial decision to depart Saigon was made to evacuate the Defense Attaché's office by fixed-wing aircraft. This fixed-wing evacuation was determined impossible when hostile artillery and rocket fire closed the air base at Tan Son Nhut. The decision to evacuate the entire US presence by helicopter under Operation Frequent Wind was made late morning, 29 April 1975, Saigon time. Due to the delayed timing of the order, the capability for rapid response to such an order was imperative. The deteriorating situation at the Defense Attaché location required the Embassy to become a major site.

The evacuation of the Defense Attaché people proceeded smoothly. Total casualties were relatively light: two USMC Embassy Security Guards killed in an attack by ground fire, and two USMC CH-46 search and rescue helicopter aircrews presumed dead following a crash at sea. Total evacuation helicopter sorties from the US Defense Attaché compound numbered 122. The sorties from the US Embassy numbered 72. The evacuation of 7,806 US citizens and foreign nationals from these two places by the US Air Force and Marine Corps helicopters was supported by a major air effort by the Air Force and Navy. This effort consisted of: 444 USAF/USMC helicopter sorties; 204 TACAIR sorties; 24 AH-1J (Cobra) combat escort sorties; 8 AC-130 gunship sorties; 5 EC-130 (ABCCC) sorties; 44 KC-135 tanker sorties; and 2 HC-130 search and rescue support sorties.

The 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade, a task force of the III MEF successfully extracted by helicopter more than 7,000 Americans and Vietnamese from Saigon, Vietnam, in Operation Frequent Wind. In conjunction with this operation, Marine detachments from III MEF provided security of U.S. ships engaged in carrying Vietnamese refugees to Guam

24 Gulf of Tonkin- The incident and resulting resolution put before the U.S. Congress by President Lyndon Johnson on Aug. 5, 1964, assertedly in reaction to two allegedly unprovoked attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2 and August 4, respectively. Its stated purpose was to approve and support the determination of the president, as commander in chief, in taking all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression. It also declared that the maintenance of international peace and security in Southeast Asia was vital to American interests and to world peace.

Both houses of Congress passed the resolution on August 7, the House of Representatives by 414 votes to nil, and the Senate by a vote of 88 to 2. The resolution served as the principal constitutional authorization for the subsequent vast escalation of the United States' military involvement in the Vietnam War. Several years later, as the American public became increasingly disillusioned with the Vietnam War, many congressmen came to see the resolution as giving the president a blanket power to wage war, and the resolution was repealed in 1970.

In 1995 Vo Nguyen Giap , who had been North Vietnam's military commander during the Vietnam War, acknowledged the August 2 attack on the Maddox but denied that the Vietnamese had launched another attack on August 4, as the Johnson administration had claimed at the time.

29 Khe Sanh- Khe Sanh was one of the most remote outposts in Vietnam, but by January 1968, even President Lyndon Johnson had taken a personal interest in the base. With Khe Sanh facing a full-scale siege by the North Vietnamese Army, the question was being asked: Should the base be held, or should it be quietly abandoned?

Along with the President, American military officials decided to try and hold the base. On the morning of January 21, 1968, NVA forces launched the awaited attack, and the siege of Khe Sanh had begun.

43 Casualties of War- The 1989 movie starring Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn, Don Harvey, John Leguizamo, and Thuy Thy Le tells the true story of a group of American soldiers, and their battle-scarred sergeant who takes his problems out on a new squad member during the war in Vietnam.

53 Hanoi- The large city is the capital of Vietnam. Located in northern Vietnam on the western bank of the Red River, it became the capital of Vietnam's Ly dynasty in 1010. It was the main capital of Vietnam until 1802, when the Nguyen dynasty transferred the capital south to Hue. Under French rule, Hanoi again became an important administrative center, and in 1902 it was made the capital of French Indochina. It became the capital of North Vietnam after the French defeat in 1954. During the Vietnam War, many of its monuments and palaces were destroyed by U.S. bombing. As the capital of a united Vietnam since 1975, it has steadily been rebuilt and its industrial base has grown.

64 Dien Bien Phu- The city of the decisive engagement in the first Indochina War (1946–54). It consisted of a struggle between French and Viet Minh (Vietnamese Communist and nationalist) forces for control of a small mountain outpost on the Vietnamese border near Laos. The Viet Minh victory in this battle effectively ended the eight-year-old war.

The battle was joined in late 1953 when French forces, who had been rapidly losing ground to the popularly supported Viet Minh, occupied the town of Dien Bien Phu in an attempt to cut the nationalist supply lines into Laos and to maintain a base for forays against enemy forces. Although the Vietnamese quickly cut all the roads into Dien Bien Phu, making it suppliable only by air, the French were confident of their position. They were thus taken by surprise when the Viet Minh Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap surrounded the base with 40,000 men and used heavy artillery to break the French lines. Despite heavy U.S. aid, the base was overrun on May 7, 1954.

With French forces in disarray after the battle, the French government sought an end to the fighting; an official settlement was negotiated at an international conference in Geneva. The French sense of national humiliation, particularly acute within the army, had lasting repercussions on French public opinion and contributed—along with later events in Algeria—to the downfall of the Fourth Republic in 1958.

83 Viet Cong- Otherwise known as Vietnamese Communists, they were the guerrilla force that, with the support of the North Vietnamese Army, fought against South Vietnam (late 1950s–1975) and the United States (early 1960s–1973). The name was supposedly used by South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem to belittle the rebels.

Though beginning in the mid-1950s as a collection of various groups opposed to the government of President Diem, the Viet Cong became in 1960 the military arm of the National Liberation Front. In 1969 the NLF joined other groups in the areas of South Vietnam that were controlled by the Viet Cong to form the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG). The movement's principal objectives were the overthrow of the South Vietnamese government and the reunification of Vietnam.

The early insurgent activity in South Vietnam against Diem's government was initially conducted by elements of the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai religious sects. After 1954 they were joined by former elements of the southern Viet Minh, a Communist-oriented nationalist group. The overwhelming majority of the Viet Cong were subsequently recruited in the south, but they received weapons, guidance, and reinforcements from North Vietnamese Army soldiers who had infiltrated into South Vietnam. During the so-called Tet Offensive of 1968, the Viet Cong suffered devastating losses and their ranks were later filled primarily by North Vietnamese soldiers. For the most part, the Viet Cong fought essentially a guerrilla war of ambush, terrorism, and sabotage; they used small units to maintain a hold on the countryside, leaving the main population centres to government authorities.

Under terms of the agreement reached at the peace negotiations held in Paris in 1971–73, the PRG won acknowledgment of its authority in areas under its control, pending general elections to determine the future of South Vietnam. The peace agreement soon broke down, however, as both the South Vietnamese government and the PRG began trying to improve their military and territorial positions at each other's expense. Following the full-scale North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam and the subsequent rapid collapse of the government of South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu in the spring of 1975, the PRG assumed power as the government of South Vietnam; the following year, when reunification of the country was accomplished, the PRG joined other political groups in forming a National United Front. Real governmental power was subsequently exercised by the Vietnamese Communist Party and its North Vietnamese leadership.

93 Paris Peace Accord- A cease-fire agreement that, in the words of Richard Nixon, "brings peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia." It was signed in Paris by Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho. The agreement went into effect on January 28, 1973.

Down

Ho Chi Minh, 1968

24 Good Morning Vietnam- The 1987 Robin Williams movie also stars Forest Whitaker, Tung Thanh Tran, Robert Wuhl, and Bruno Kirby. Williams plays a man named Cronauer, a nonconformist with a wicked sense of humor who begins a controversial radio show for troops during the Vietnam War.

27 Hanoi Hilton- Hoa Lo prison was nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" by the American prisoners of war held there. This prison, also known as “Maison Centrale” by the French held Vietnamese prisoners, often held in place to their hard, wooden beds by leg irons. There, the French used the guillotine as their chief method of execution. American Senator was held there as a Prisoner of War for 5 years.

28 The Wall- Monument in Washington, D.C., designed by Maya Lin. It consists of two low, black granite walls that meet to form a wide V shape. Engraved on the mirrorlike surface are the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. dead and missing-in-action who served in the Vietnam War, listed by date of casualty. When Lin's abstract design was announced, several veterans groups and others protested; eventually a traditional statue depicting three servicemen with a flag was commissioned, to stand at the entrance to the site. Since its dedication in 1982, the controversial wall has become one of the city's most visited and most affecting tourist attractions.

30 Saigon- Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh delivered an unconditional surrender to the Communists in the early hours of April 30. North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin acceptws the surrender and assures Minh that, "...Only the Americans have been beaten. If you are patriots, consider this a moment of joy." As the few remaining Americans evacuated Saigon, the last two US servicemen to die in Vietnam qwre killed when their helicopter crashed.

42 Dewey- 26 September, 1945: Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Vietnam, is shot and killed in Saigon. Dewey was the head of a seven-man team sent to Vietnam to search for missing American pilots and to gather information on the situation in the country after the surrender of the Japanese.

According to the provisions of the Potsdam Conference, the British were assigned the responsibility of disarming Japanese soldiers south of the 16th parallel. However, with the surrender of the Japanese, Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh declared themselves the rightful government of Vietnam. This angered the French colonial officials and the remaining French soldiers who had been disarmed and imprisoned by the Japanese. They urged British Maj. Gen. Douglas D. Gracey to help them regain control. Gracey, not fond of the Viet Minh or their cause, rearmed 1,400 French soldiers to help his troops maintain order. The next day these forces ousted the Viet Minh from the offices that they had only recently occupied. Dewey’s sympathies lay with the Viet Minh, many of whom were nationalists who did not want a return to French colonial rule. The American officer was an outspoken man who soon angered Gracey, eventually resulting in the British general ordering him to leave Indochina. On the way to the airport, accompanied by another OSS officer, Capt. Henry Bluechel, Dewey refused to stop at a roadblock manned by three Viet Minh soldiers. He yelled back at them in French and they opened fire, killing Dewey instantly. Bluechel was unhurt and escaped on foot. It was later determined that the Viet Minh had fired on Dewey thinking he was French. He would prove to be the first of nearly 59,000 Americans killed in Vietnam.

44 Tet Offensive- In a show of military might that caught the US military off guard, North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces swept down upon several key cities and provinces in South Vietnam, including its capital, Saigon. Within days, American forces turned back the onslaught and recaptured most areas. From a military point of view, Tet was a huge defeat for the Communists, but turned out to be a political and psychological victory. The US military's assessment of the war was questioned and the "end of tunnel" seemed very far off.

48 Lin- American architect and sculptor who is best known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The daughter of intellectuals who had fled China in 1948, Lin received her bachelor's degree in 1981 from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where she studied architecture and sculpture. During her senior year she entered a nationwide competition sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to create a design for a monument honoring those who had served and died in that war. Lin's award-winning design consisted of a polished black granite V-shaped wall inscribed with the names of the approximately 58,000 men and women who were killed or missing in action. This minimal plan was in sharp contrast to the traditional format for a memorial, which usually included figurative, heroic sculpture. The design aroused a great deal of controversy, reflecting the lack of resolution of the national conflicts over the war, as well as the lack of consensus over what constituted an appropriate memorial at the end of the 20th century. Eventually, a compromise was reached with the commissioning of a traditional statue depicting three servicemen with a flag to stand at the entrance to the memorial. After Lin's monument was dedicated on the Mall in Washington, D.C., on Veterans Day in 1982, however, it became a popular and moving tourist attraction.

Lin sought anonymity by returning to academia, beginning graduate studies in architecture at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In early 1983 she left Harvard to work for a Boston architect, but in 1986 she completed a master's in architecture at Yale. In 1988 Lin agreed to design a monument for the Civil Rights Movement on behalf of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Her design consisted of two elements: a curved black granite wall inscribed with a quotation from Martin Luther King, Jr., and a 12-foot- (3.7-meter) diameter disk bearing the dates of the major events of the civil rights era and the names of 40 people who were martyrs to the cause. Water flows gently over both parts of the memorial. The Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, Alabama, in November 1989.

Among her other large-scale works are Topo, a topiary park in Charlotte, North Carolina; Women's Table, a sculpture commemorating the coeducation of women at Yale; and Groundswell, an installation of 43 tons of glass pebbles at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. In 1995 a feature-length film, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, won the Oscar for best documentary.

49 Vo Nguyen Giap- Vietnamese military and political leader whose perfection of guerrilla as well as conventional strategy and tactics led to the Viet Minh victory over the French (and to the end of French colonialism in Southeast Asia) and later to the North Vietnamese victory over South Vietnam and the United States.

The son of an ardent anticolonialist scholar, Giap as a youth began to work for Vietnamese autonomy. He attended the same high school as Ho Chi Minh , the Communist leader, and while still a student in 1926 he joined the Tan Viet Cach Menh Dang, the Revolutionary Party of Young Vietnam. In 1930, as a supporter of student strikes, he was arrested by the French Sûreté and sentenced to three years in prison, but he was paroled after serving only a few months. He studied at the Lycée Albert-Sarraut in Hanoi, where in 1937 he received a law degree. Giap then became a professor of history at the Lycée Thanh Long in Hanoi, where he converted many of his fellow teachers and students to his political views. In 1938 he married Minh Thai, and together they worked for the Indochinese Communist Party. When in 1939 the party was prohibited, Giap escaped to China, but his wife and sister-in-law were captured by the French police. His sister-in-law was guillotined; his wife received a life sentence and died in prison after three years.

In 1941 Giap formed an alliance with Chu Van Tan , guerrilla leader of the Tho, a minority tribal group of northeastern Vietnam. Giap hoped to build an army that would drive out the French and support the goals of the Viet Minh , Ho Chi Minh's Vietnamese independence movement. With Ho Chi Minh, Giap marched his forces into Hanoi in August 1945, and in September Ho announced the independence of Vietnam, with Giap in command of all police and internal security forces and commander in chief of the armed forces. Giap sanctioned the execution of many non-Communist nationalists, and he censored nationalist newspapers to conform with Communist Party directives. In the French Indochina War , Giap's brilliance as a military strategist and tactician led to his winning the decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954, which brought the French colonialist regime to an end.

On the division of the country in July, Giap became deputy prime minister, minister of defense, and commander in chief of the armed forces of North Vietnam. He subsequently led the military forces of the north to eventual victory in the Vietnam War , compelling the Americans to leave the country in 1973 and bringing about the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. From 1976, when the two Vietnams were reunited, to 1980 Giap served as Vietnam's minister of national defense; he also became a deputy prime minister in 1976. He was a full member of the Politburo of the Vietnamese Communist Party until 1982. Giap was the author of People's War, People's Army (1961), a manual of guerrilla warfare based on his own experience.

52 Westmoreland- William C. Westmoreland was born in 1914 in Spartanburg co., S.C. He graduated from West Point in 1936 and fought with distinction in North Africa and Europe during World War II and later (1952–53) in Korea. After serving (1960–64) as superintendent of West Point, Westmoreland attained (1964) the rank of general and commanded (1964–68) U.S. military forces in Vietnam. He then assumed the position of army chief of staff, which he held until his retirement in 1972. In 1974 he was defeated in the Republican primary election for governor of South Carolina.

63 Hue City- The Battle for Hue waged for 26 days as US and South Vietnamese forces tried to recapture the site seized by the Communists during the Tet Offensive. Previously, a religious retreat in the middle of a war zone, Hue was nearly leveled in a battle that left nearly all of its population homeless. Following the US and ARVN victory, mass graves containing the bodies of thousands of people who had been executed during the Communist occupation were discovered.

64 Da Nang- The first American combat troops, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, arrived in Vietnam March 1965 to defend the US airfield at Da Nang. Scattered Vietcong gunfire was reported, but no Marines were injured.

76 Laos- A landlocked country located on the Indochinese Peninsula. It is bounded on the north by China, on the northeast and east by Vietnam, on the south by Cambodia, on the west by Thailand, and on the northwest by Myanmar (Burma). Laos extends about 650 miles (1,050 kilometers) from northwest to southeast and has a total area of approximately 91,400 square miles (236,800 square kilometers). The capital is Vientiane.