Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam: List 2

by Elizabeth Partridge
In this acclaimed book, Elizabeth Partridge combines meticulous research, photographic records, and personal accounts into a vivid history of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.

This list covers America: President and Commander in Chief Lyndon B. Johnson (August 1964–December 1965) – America: Protestor Martin Luther King Jr. (January 1967–October 1967).

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. imposing
    impressive in appearance
    President Johnson used his imposing physical stature and outsized personality to intimidate others, 1965.
  2. cajole
    influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
    Known as the “Johnson Treatment," he would bully, flatter, and cajole to get his way.
  3. evasive
    avoiding or escaping from difficulty or danger
    It was a dark night, with heavy thunderstorms and low clouds, and the Maddox immediately began evasive action, zigzagging through the heavy rain and turbulent seas.
  4. unprovoked
    occurring without motivation or incitement
    If there had been a second, unprovoked attack, McNamara insisted a response was “absolutely necessary.”
  5. sortie
    an operational flight by a single aircraft
    American planes took off from nearby aircraft carriers and made sixty-four sorties over North Vietnam, bombing their torpedo boat fleet and a major oil depot.
  6. faze
    disturb the composure of
    He hoped the bombing would bring the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. But the North Vietnamese were not fazed.
  7. toll
    value measured by what must be done to obtain something
    Johnson couldn’t keep the mounting death toll a secret.
  8. bearing
    characteristic way of holding one's body
    His words were measured and thoughtful, his bearing presidential.
  9. draft
    engage somebody to enter the army
    The more troops he added, the more men would have to be drafted.
  10. backpedal
    reverse or retreat from one's position on an issue
    In a phone call with the president a few days later, King backpedaled on his comments, trying to soften them.
  11. speculation
    a hypothesis that has been formed by conjecturing
    In March 1965, the base buzzed with speculation about the troops being sent to Vietnam.
  12. apprehensive
    in fear or dread of possible evil or harm
    “I was pretty apprehensive, pretty scared,” said de la O, “but one of the things that finally put me to rest was that my squad leader was a Mexican guy, a Mexican American out of Texas. One of our machine gunners was from Texas also. So I felt—okay, this is cool.”
  13. thatch
    cover with roofing material made of plant stalks
    The squad might be ordered to set the thatched huts on fire, destroying them.
  14. derisive
    expressing contempt or ridicule
    “Chuckie” was a derisive term coined by infantrymen, using the army’s spelling alphabet where a word is assigned to each letter of the alphabet.
  15. foxhole
    a small dugout or pit to shelter soldiers from enemy fire
    At the end of the day, when they were told to make camp, de la O was paired up with another guy to dig a foxhole wide enough to sleep in and deep enough to protect them in case of a firefight.
  16. dank
    unpleasantly cool and humid
    “You do that for a couple weeks and you get dank,” said de la O. “It gets to you after a while.”
  17. subdue
    put down by force or intimidation
    After the attackers were subdued, he was rushed to the hospital.
  18. shrapnel
    shell containing lead pellets that explodes in flight
    De la O’s arm, hip, and scalp were filled with shrapnel.
  19. sniper
    a marksman who shoots from a concealed place
    Sniper fire turned to machine-gun and mortar fire.
  20. mortar
    a muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel
    Sniper fire turned to machine-gun and mortar fire.
  21. undergrowth
    the brush beneath taller trees in a wood or forest
    They were outnumbered by a crack Viet Cong battalion, and dead and wounded Americans were soon scattered throughout the jungle undergrowth.
  22. artillery
    large but transportable armament
    Small artillery fire whined around them, and grenades exploded, throwing plants and dirt into the air.
  23. staunch
    stop the flow of a liquid
    He fumbled for a bandage to staunch the commander’s bleeding.
  24. acclimatize
    get used to a certain environment
    He was brought back to the rear area to acclimatize and get cleaned up.
  25. maim
    injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration
    A twenty-four-page photo essay, “The Children of Vietnam,” caught his attention: page after page of Vietnamese children, their small bodies riddled with shrapnel, limbs maimed by bombs, skin and flesh deeply burned by American chemical weapons, napalm and phosphorus.
  26. grievous
    shockingly brutal or cruel
    The vulnerable, grievously wounded children were haunting.
  27. unequivocally
    in an unambiguous manner
    King was painfully aware he could—would—irrevocably destroy his partnership with the president by unequivocally speaking out against the war.
  28. unprecedented
    novel; having no earlier occurrence
    It was unprecedented on his part—he had always been eager to have the president’s ear.
  29. querulous
    habitually complaining
    “He’s canceled two meetings with me,” Johnson said querulously to an aide.
  30. mobilize
    call to arms; of military personnel
    In some cities, the National Guard was being mobilized in an attempt to bring order to the rioting.
  31. militant
    disposed to warfare or hard-line policies
    Young militant leaders were emerging in the civil rights struggle, making Johnson nervous.
  32. vehemently
    in a forceful manner
    His advisors were vehemently opposed.
  33. solidarity
    a union of interests or purposes among members of a group
    He laid out the terrible injustice of black and white men fighting “in brutal solidarity,” only to come home to a country where they could rarely live on the same block.
  34. sear
    become superficially burned (also figurative)
    The children of Vietnam, who’d forced him to grapple with his conscience, needed and deserved to be free from falling bombs and searing napalm.
  35. enumerate
    specify individually
    Nor was King content to just enumerate the tragedies for Vietnamese civilians and American servicemen.
  36. curtail
    terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end
    He had five specific, concrete actions he believed America needed to pursue immediately: stop bombing, declare a cease-fire, curtail our military buildup in nearby countries, accept that we needed to negotiate with the North Vietnamese, and set a date to remove our troops.
  37. backlash
    an adverse reaction to some political or social occurrence
    King expected a backlash, but he wasn’t prepared for the storm of criticism that came at him from all directions.
  38. scathing
    marked by harshly abusive criticism
    The New York Times and The Washington Post, two of the most widely read newspapers in the country, were scathing.
  39. rebuff
    reject outright and bluntly
    Johnson had rebuffed Hoover in the past, but now the president was willing to listen to his reports that King was controlled by powerful Communists.
  40. nonviolence
    peaceful resistance to a government
    But he refused to back down from his beliefs, saying, “If I am the last, lone voice speaking for nonviolence, that I will do.”
Created on Wed Oct 17 11:31:18 EDT 2018 (updated Wed Oct 17 16:52:14 EDT 2018)

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