Vietnam

→ Burmese: ဗီယက်နမ် (biyaknam)

→ Japanese: ベトナム (Betonamu)

/ˌvjɛʔˈnɑːm/

US, rare, perhaps modeled on piece etc, or the South Vietnamese pronunciation

Borrowed from Vietnamese Việt Nam. Extended senses come from the Vietnam War.

David Rabe's anti-Viet Nam play Streamers

1983 December 31, Michael Bronski, “A Sharply Focused Film”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 16:

(chiefly US, colloquial) The Vietnam War.


hooch

en-noun

hooch (countable and uncountable, plural hooches)

Abbreviation of hoochinoo, name of a specific liquor, from Tlingit Xutsnoowú Ḵwáan, the group that produced it, from Hutsnuwu (“grizzly bear fort”), the name of the village on Admiralty Island in which they lived.

he was so grief-stricken that he literally drowned his sorrow in “hootch-i-noo,” the native equivalent of whiskey. […] Had he not been so sad he would not have drunk the “hootch,” and if he had not drunk the hootch he would not have died: a perfectly reasonable and logical argument.

c. 1910, O.M. Salisbury, chapter 3, in Quoth the raven: A little journey into the primitive, Seattle: Superior Publishing Company, published 1962, page 17:

Bring on the free hooch!

1997, Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy, spoken by Banky Edwards (Jason Lee):

(Canada, US, informal) An alcoholic beverage, especially an inferior or illicit one and especially liquor such as whisky.


hooch

Borrowed from Japanese 家(うち) (uchi, “house”).

Burn the hooches.

2022 December 6, Avatar: The Way of Water, spoken by Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang):

(Vietnam War-era military slang) A thatched hut, CHU, or any simple dwelling.


hooch

Alternative form of hoosh (“type of stew”)


napalm

napalm (usually uncountable, plural napalms)

Formed from na(phthenic) palm(itic) acid, the two original components of the substance.

A trio of needle-nosed silver Phantom jets descended from the clouds and dropped a colossal load of napalm on the jungle. Flames turned the screen red and orange. Silence followed.
“You smell that?” Kilgore said, almost to himself. Then, louder, “You smell that?” Lance, the champion surfer, asked “What?” Kilgore, lit by the glow of burning trees, retorted, “Napalm, son—nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed for 12 hours, and when it was all over I walked up; we didn’t find one of ’em … not one stinking dink body. But the smell—you know, that gasoline smell—the whole hill—it smelled like … victory.”

2013 April 1, Robert M. Neer, “PARIAH”, in Napalm: An American Biography, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 140:

A highly flammable, viscous substance, designed to stick to the body while burning, used in warfare as an incendiary especially in wooded areas.


domino effect

An allusion to a row of dominoes in which the fall of one leads to a cascade of falling pieces.

(politics, historical) The theory that, if South Vietnam became communist, it would be followed by Cambodia, Laos, additional Southeast Asian countries, other Asian countries, and likely even elsewhere.


tunnel rat

He had been serving as a tunnel rat with the 1st Engineer Battalion's team of “Diehard Tunnel Rats.” This group was based in Lai Khe and flew by helicopter to tunnel sites within the division's area of operations.

2006, Douglas Bey, Wizard 6: A Combat Psychiatrist in Vietnam, Texas A & M University Press:

(informal) A soldier trained to enter enclosed enemy spaces like tunnel systems to search them and eliminate and/or capture any occupants.


chickenhawk

/ˈt͡ʃɪkɪnˌhɔk/

From chicken + hawk. The political sense is derived from figurative meanings of "chicken" (coward) and "hawk" (militarist).

(US politics, derogatory) A draft dodger, especially in the Vietnam War, who nonetheless currently supports United States overseas military engagements.

knapenschenner

adult man who seeks out boys as his sexual partners


credibility gap

credibility gap (plural credibility gaps)

The League of Nations, meanwhile, suffered a credibility gap as the United States never joined the organisation that its President argued was essential for preserving the hard-won peace.

2021 September 22, Stephen Roberts, “The writings on the wall...”, in RAIL, number 940, page 72:

A discrepancy between the statements made by a person in authority (especially by a politician) and the perceived truth.


boat people

boat people pl (normally plural, singular boat person)

Indochinese refugees, known throughout the world as the “boat people,” were subject to horrific suffering and dangers when the Vietnamese government began expelling them after the fall of Saigon.

2010, Walter Mondale, David Hage, The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics, Scribner, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 184e:

(historical) Refugees fleeing by sea, particularly those fleeing from South Vietnam during the 1970s and '80s.


Vietnam War

The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.

2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times:

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

(historical) The war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1955 and 1975 between South Vietnam (backed by the United States and SEATO) and North Vietnam aiding the South Vietnamese communist guerrilla army known as the Vietcong (supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union) for the struggle for total Communist control of Vietnam as one state.


Vietcong

Unadapted borrowing from Vietnamese Việt Cộng, short for Việt Nam cộng sản (“Vietnam(ese) communist(s)”).

ubor

A communist organization and guerrilla army in South Vietnam and Cambodia that fought the United States, South Korea, Australia, and the South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War and was supported by communist North Vietnam.

فيت كونغ

a communist organization and guerrilla army in South Vietnam and Cambodia

Nationale Front für die Befreiung Südvietnams

Mặt trận Dân tộc Giải phóng miền Nam Việt Nam


Tonkin

From French Tonkin, from Vietnamese Đông Kinh (“Hanoi; its former kingdom”), from đông (“east, eastern”) + kinh (“capital”), from Middle Chinese 東京 (tuŋ kˠiæŋ), q.v.

der

(archaic) Synonym of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

(historical) A former kingdom in northern Vietnam.

(historical) A former protectorate in northern Vietnam, a colony of France.

Short for Gulf of Tonkin, a gulf in northern Vietnam.

Gulf of Tonkin incident
w:Gulf of Tonkin incident

Short for Gulf of Tonkin incident, a 1964 event used to increase US involvement in the Vietnamese Civil War.


dust-off

(military, Vietnam War) A medical helicopter.


South Vietnam

China is so large, looms so high just beyond the frontiers, that if South Vietnam went, it would not only give them an improved geographic position for the guerrilla assault on Malaya but would also give the impression that the wave of the future in Southeast Asia was China and the Communists. So I believe it.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, quoting John F. Kennedy, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 61:

(historical) A state, officially the Republic of Vietnam, that governed southern Vietnam from 1955–1975.


North Vietnam

When we visited Laos, I had lunch with Souvanna Phouma. During the course of the lunch, he said we ought to bomb Red China, that it was the effective way to stop their aid to North Vietnam.

1976, Hubert H. Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 333:

Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Democratic Republic of Vietnam

(historical) A state (officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) that governed northern Vietnam in 1945–1975.

Vietnam i Veriut

(historical) a state (officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) that governed northern Vietnam in 1945–1975


Vietnamization

en-noun

Vietnamization (countable and uncountable, plural Vietnamizations)

Plans for the Vietnamization of the war effort call for the turnover of only a small fraction of the equipment now being used by United States forces here.

1969 August 17, James P. Sterba, “Most Materiel in Vietnam To Go With U.S. Forces”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Actually, the President went along with Laird's idea of "Vietnamization." By this was meant the gradual building up and training of South Vietnamese forces until they would be able to carry the combat responsibility without our troop involvement. That made a lot of sense, but it also required us to carry on a strong war effort until the South Vietnamese could take over. Vietnamization should have begun the moment President Kennedy put our first American soldier into Vietnam.

1980, Spiro Agnew, Go Quietly . . . Or Else, New York: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 28:

(historical) Especially, the U.S. government policy of reducing American involvement in the Vietnam War by replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops.

The post-Second World War movies said that villainy would be punished and goodness would triumph; the decencies would be respected. But movies don't say that anymore; the Vietnamization of American movies is nearly complete. Today, movies say that the system is corrupt, that the whole thing stinks, and they've been saying this steadily since the mid-sixties.

(figurative) A growth of cynicism, disenchantment or belief in corruption such as the American citizenry experienced over the course of the Vietnam War.


Vietnam syndrome

In reference to the domestic controversy over the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.

(US politics) Public aversion to overseas military actions by the United States.


drop acid, not bombs

Originally coined in the late 1960s by those who opposed the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War.

A hippie anti-war slogan encouraging LSD use.


Hanoi Jane

Named for her opposition to US involvement in the Vietnam War, resulting in accusations of her being supportive of North Vietnam, whose capital was Hanoi during the war.

Ironically, Jane Fonda, who in her Hanoi Jane days had ridiculed American fighting men, helped restore popular respectability to Vietnam veterans with her 1978 movie Coming Home.

2000, Robert Brent Toplin, Oliver Stone's USA: Film, History, and Controversy, page 138:

Nevertheless, the figure of Hanoi Jane began to fade by the 1980s. The 1981 film On Golden Pond, which Jane Fonda made with her father, Henry Fonda, had a warm, familial feel that gave her image a "good daughter" varnish.

2010, Jerry Lembcke, Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, & Fantasies of Betrayal, Univ of Massachusetts Press, →ISBN, page 3:

(derogatory) A nickname of the American actress Jane Fonda.