Airmobile—Troops and supplies transported by helicopter.
Ambassador—The highest-ranking diplomatic representative of one country who is sent to another country.
Ammunition—Projectiles that are fired from weapons such as pistols, rifles, or cannons. These include bullets, cannon shells, and rockets.
Artillery—Weapons, such as cannons and mortars, that discharge ammunition.
Assault—A military attack upon fortified enemy forces.
Base camp—A semipermanent field headquarters and center for a military unit’s combat operations in the immediate area.
Battalion—In the military table of organization, a tactical unit commanded by a lieutenant colonel. Infantry battalions usually contain nine-hundred troops and artillery battalions contained about five-hundred personnel. During the Vietnam War, American battalions were usually much smaller than that.
Battery—In the military, a grouping of cannons or mortars.
Blockade—The isolation of a region by military forces in order to prevent anyone or anything from going in or out.
Booby trap—An explosive charge hidden in a harmless object, which explodes on contact.
Boonies—Slang term for the field; jungles or swampy areas far from the comforts of civilization.
Bunker—A defensive fortification that is a an artificial hill of dirt and stone, which hides and protects a cannon or machine gun and its crew.
Campaign—A series of major military operations designed to achieve a long-range goal.
Cavalry—Originally combat troops mounted on horses. In modern military units, cavalry units are one of two types: air cavalry, which uses helicopters, and armored cavalry, which uses tanks.
“Charlie”—Slang for Viet Cong guerillas, taken from the military phonetic alphabet V (Victor) C (Charlie).
Claymore—A portable antipersonnel mine composed a numerous steel ball bearings detonated by an electric charge.
Communism—A social system created by Karl Marx, characterized by a classless society and the absence of ownership of private property.
Company—In the military a combat unit commanded by a captain and consisting of two or more platoons. It varies widely in size according to its mission.
Corps—The largest administrative unit in the army or marine corps. It is usually composed of two or more divisions, responsible for the defense of a military region.
Corpsman—An enlisted soldier or sailor trained to provide medical assistance, usually on a battlefield.
Democracy—Government by the people exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
DMZ—Demilitarized Zone. The border between North and South Vietnam established in 1954 at the Geneva Convention in which no troop movements or military operations were to occur.
Dustoff—The nickname for a medical evacuation helicopter mission.
Election—The selection by vote for individuals who want to occupy a public office such as the presidency.
Firefight—Exchange of small arms fire between opposing combat units.
Flank—The right or left side of a military unit.
Fortification—Defenses, usually walls and trenches, constructed to add strength to a military unit’s position.
Friendly fire—The mistaken shooting of combat forces by allies or their own units.
Grunt—Slang for an infantryman in Vietnam; supposedly derived from the sound one made from lifting up his rucksack.
Guerilla—Soldiers of a resistance movement who are organized on a military or paramilitary basis.
Guerilla warfare—Military operations conducted in enemy-held or hostile territory by irregular, nonuniformed, predominantly indigenous forces.
Gunship—A helicopter armed with machine guns and rocket launchers.
Huey—Nickname for the UH-series helicopters; utility helicopter.
Hump—To march on patrol in enemy territory.
Infantry—Troops trained and equipped to fight on foot.
Insignia—A badge of office, rank, or membership in a group.
Medal of Honor—The highest military decoration awarded in all branches of the United States for gallantry and bravery above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy.
Medivac—Medical evacuation by helicopter; also called a dustoff.
MIA—Missing in Action, the official designation of military personnel whose location or fate is unknown, generally as a result of combat operations.
Mine—An explosive device usually planted beneath the ground, used to destroy enemy personnel or vehicles.
Napalm—Gasoline thickened to a gel and used as an incendiary weapon against enemy troops and positions.
Neutral—Belonging to neither side nor party.
Offensive—In military operations, a plan of attack.
Oppress—To keep down by the cruel or unjust use of power or authority.
Perimeter—In the military, the outer limits of a prepared base camp or other military position.
Platoon—In the military table of organization, a unit composed of approximately forty-five personnel, commanded by a lieutenant.
POW—Prisoner of War. The official classification of military combatants captured by the enemy and housed in special fenced and guarded detention compounds called POW camps.
Reconnaissance—In military terms, the process of obtaining information about enemy intentions, troop movements, etc.
Rout—In military terms, the disorderly and panic-stricken retreat of defeated troops.
Search and destroy—Offensive operations designed to find and eliminate enemy forces.
Sentry—An armed guard of a military camp whose duty is to give a warning of danger.
Shrapnel —Fragments of the casing around an explosive device such as a bomb, a grenade, or a mine, resulting from the detonation of the device.
Siege—The surrounding and blockading of a town or military camp by an an opposing army that wants to capture it.
Sortie—In the military, the mission of one aircraft.
Soviet Union—From 1917 to 1991, the nation known officially as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; a nation composed of fifteen Communist-governed republics and dominated by its largest republic, Russia.
Squad—The smallest unit in the army and marine corps, usually composed of nine troops and commanded by a sergeant.
Tet—Vietnamese Lunar New Year.
Treaty—A formal agreement between two or more nations that contains terms of trade, military alliance, or other points of mutual interest.
Viet Cong—Communist guerilla forces stationed and conducting combat and terrorist operations in South Vietnam. Also known by the slang term “Charlie.”
Viet Minh—Short for “Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi,” or the Vietnamese Independence League, the original political organization for Vietnamese patriots.
Vietnamization —U.S. policy initiated by President Nixon late in the war to turn over the fighting to the South Vietnamese army during the phased withdrawal of American troops.