AIR AMERICA: This was the “private” airline used by the Central Intelligence Agency. It was an open secrete that Air America was synonymous with CIA. The Airline was used for a variety of courier and clandestine services.

AK 47: This was the automatic assault rifle of the PAVN. Compare to the American supplied M – 16.

ARC LIGHT: Originally this was a code name for a specific series of B-52 strikes early in the war. Later it took on a generic meaning, i.e. any B-52 strike. Any witnesses standing on a hill even several kilometers away would: feel the ground roll; hear a thunderous roar, and observe a tremendous arc of light - the fire of several dozen bombs exploding on their presumed target; usually 30 tons of bombs per B-52 and commonly 15-18 B-52's per strike.

APC: Armored Personnel Carrier

ARVN: Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (South Vietnam)

AUGUST REVOLUTION: On August 19, 1945 the Viet Minh seized power in Hanoi and proclaimed a sovereign Vietnamese government.

CHARLIE: This was one of several terms for the NLF soldier who was often referred to as the Viet Cong. In the U.S. military phonetic alphabet “V” is “Victor” and “C” is “Charlie”. Depending on the situation at hand the NLF were often called “Viet Cong”, or “VC”. At other times they were referred to as “Victor Charlie”, “Charlie” or “Mr. Charles”.

CIA: Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. Intelligence gathering and secret (covert) operations arm of the United States Executive branch. Spies, assassins and saboteurs. CINCPAC: Commander in Chief, Pacific. Overall commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, including Vietnam. This is a U.S. Navy controlled command based in Hawaii. Admiral Ulysses S. Grant Sharp was the commander in 1964. This command controlled DeSoto patrols.

CORDS: Civil Operations Revolutionary Development Program (U.S. sponsored program for the Vietnamese. One critic called it the rear echelon bureaucrats' way of getting “part of the action”). It was devised by Paul Komer, former CIA analyst The purpose was to eliminate NLF infrastructure and establish the Saigon government’s controlling rural areas.

COSVN: Central Office for South Vietnam. The military headquarters of the communist forces operating in South Viet Nam.

CTZ: Corps Tactical Zone. South Vietnamwas divided into four sectors (I Corps, II Corps, etc.) for the purposes of military organizational administration. I Corps was under the immediate jurisdiction of the Marine Corps, although the Army had overall administrative control of all areas. I Corps was in the north of South Vietnam and IV was in the south.

DESOTO PATROL: United States Navy intelligence gathering operations to locate and activate DRV electronic radar and air defense installations. This information could be used to launch air strikes against DRV or simply harass them and keep them off balance. Also used against People's Republic of China. The U.S. destroyer Maddox was conducting this operation on 2 August 1964.

DIEN BIEN PHU: A major French Garrison in western Vietnam where the French hoped to draw Viet Minh forces into an all-out battle that would crush them. Instead, it was the French who were crushed and who were forced to enter into peace agreements with the Viet Minh and ultimately to withdraw from Indochina.

DMZ: Demilitarized Zone. (17th parallel.) A so-called neutral zone of approximately 5 miles on each side of the border between North and South Vietnam. Despite the name, this was an area where intense fighting occurred throughout the war.

DOMINO THEORY: The notion, held by all American Presidents and their administrations from Truman through Ford, that if one nation in Southeast Asia was to fall to communism, then all Asian nations from the east to the west would topple like tiles in the game of dominoes and fall into the communist orbit. In fact, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia did go communist, but the Domino Theory failed to predict the events in Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

DRV: Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)

FIVE O’CLOCK FOLLIES: A derisive term employed by various journalists in South Vietnam to refer to the official U.S. government daily briefings and pronouncements about the progress of the war, almost all of which turned out to be false.

FRAGGING: A slang term employed by G.I.s to refer to attempts to warn, even to kill, officers and NCOs thought to be irresponsible, incompetent or otherwise a threat to the survival of men under their command. The term derived from the standard issue “fragmentation” hand grenade, though in practice any weapon served.

FREE FIRE ZONES: Areas said to be under communist control in which any person could be presumed to be “enemy” and killed. The term and the practice violated the Geneva Convention and the rules of war. Although non-combatants were supposed to be told to leave the area, often they were not; and even when they were, they refused to leave their land, the only source of their livelihood.

GVN: Government of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Located in Saigon.

HO CHI MINH TRAIL: This was the principal route for most supplies coming from North Vietnam to the south; a vast network of parallel trails and switches through the rain forest along the spiny mountain range that ran from north to south between Vietnam on the East and Laos and Cambodia in the West.

KHMER ROUGE: The “Red Khmer” or communist Cambodians who were allies of the North Vietnamese during the Indochina Wars and who, when they came to power in 1975, slaughtered at least a million of their fellow Cambodians and initiated one of the worst human rights regimes of the 20th century.

KIA: Killed in action. Designation for the known dead resulting from a combat situation involving hostile fire. (Not an accidental death nor a disease related death.)

KIA/BNR: Killed in action, body not recovered. Pilots of exploded aircraft fit this category. Aircraft pilots lost over sea or over deep jungle. Some infantry personnel with total destruction of corpse. (MIA and MIA/POW figures are converted to this status at the end of the war.)

MAAG: Military Assistance Advisory Group

MACV: Military Assistance Command Vietnam

MADMAN STRATEGY: President Nixon’s plan to bluff the communist government of North Vietnam into suing for peace by making them believe that he was capable of anything - including the use of nuclear weapons.

MEDEVAC: Medical Evacuation. The movement of casualties from the battlefield to secure base areas for medical treatment. In Vietnam, this was done most often via helicopter, which provided the most rapid response. As a result deaths from combat wounds in Vietnam were greatly reduced, as compared with similar wounds in World War II and Korea.

MIA: Missing in action. Designation for a person who cannot be accounted for in any other way after a combat situation.

MIA/POW: Missing in action, but assumed to be a prisoner of war. This is a dubious category, since one side does not know if the other side captured the missing person and/or recovered remains. Used by Nixon administration to confuse American public. Source of the great U.S. POW/MIA myth after the war. The North Vietnamese did not list their missing as POW’s.

MONTAGNARDS: A French term to describe the indigenous peoples of Vietnam’s Central Highlands who were ethnically, linguistically and culturally distinct from the Vietnamese. Often discriminated against by the Vietnamese, they were recruited by all sides during the Vietnam War and provided loyalty to those who promised them the greatest independence

NLF: National Liberation Front (called “Viet Cong” by ARVN). South Vietnamese who were aligned with communist and/or in some cases nationalistic armed forces (or political groups) desiring the ouster of the U.S.

NSC: The National Security Council. Perhaps the highest level advisory committee available to the President of the United States. It was established in 1947 for the purpose of providing coordination of all major factors impacting foreign policy decisions - to bridge the gap between foreign policy design (the State Department) and military policy execution (Defense Department) efforts.

OPERATION PLAN 34A: ARVN and mercenary units trained by U.S. Special Forces to conduct military attacks and/or raids against DRV. These were clandestine and controlled by the CIA and MACV. They began in 1963. The U.S.S. Maddox was in the vicinity of one of these attacks, on a Desoto patrol, when it came under attack from the DRV torpedo boats on 2 August 1964. Sometimes written OPLAN 34A.

PAVN: Peoples Army of Viet Nam

PF: Popular Forces (South Vietnamese local village militia)

PLAF: Peoples Liberation Armed Forces. Communist forces operating in South Vietnam,,including both North Vietnamese main force units and local guerrillas.

PRG: Provisional Revolutionary Government. The provisional government set up in the communist controlled areas of South Vietnam.

PRP: Peoples Revolutionary Party (Viet Cong)

ROLLING THUNDER: Originally referred to President Johnson's military air strike response to the NLF/NVA attack at Pleiku in 1965. Later it became a generic term for the entire process of continued air strikes against North Vietnam.

USAID: U.S. Agency for International Development

USIA: U.S. Information Agency. Later, USIS: U.S. Information Service. USA propaganda administration.

VC: Viet Cong – A Vietnamese language epithet for the NLF soldier or cadre member. It was used as an epithet and was also used to denounce any and all critics of the Saigon government. Cf. Senator Joe McCarthy’s use of the word “communist” in the 1950’s in America.

WIA: Wounded in action. Wounded by enemy fire as a member of one of the fighting arms of the US Armed Forces. For the Army or Marines, this essentially meant Infantry, Armor and Artillery. For the Air Force and Navy this meant pilots and crews of aircraft. Large numbers of people served in Vietnam during the war years in rear echelon positions. See: medical, dental, financial, public relations, signal, transportation, administration, recreation and weather services, to name a few. They saw little combat, and their awards were for service, but not valor.