Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Snow day!
Hey everybody, it's truly atrocious out there, so I am not driving today, and you shouldn't either if you don't have to. Unfortunately, we have a frozen sleet mess, so there's no good sledding/skiing...maybe curl up with one of the Vietnam or Holocaust readings, or just pulp fiction, whatever, stay off the roads!!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
HUM 455, Representations of the Holocaust
Hum 455
Representations of the Holocaust
Spring ‘12
B. Farley/brigitf2001@yahoo.com/bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu 541-276-6962 OFFICE HOURS 3:30-4:15 m-w, 24/7 in cyberspace. I MUCH PREFER email, in fact i HATE the phone and will always try to answer email as soon as possible. PLEASE send email to both addresses, so that I will receive it at ONE of them.
“What you do matters.” Unofficial motto of the United States Holocaust Museum, Washington DC
Welcome to Humanities 455, Representations of the Holocaust. This will not be the most light-hearted course you will ever take, but you will emerge from it wiser, in the sense that you will witness the best and worst that your fellow humans are capable of. At least, that’s the way I have learned to think about it. “Representations” is a Humanities course, taught primarily in past years from the standpoint of literature by Dr. Len Orr. Because I work in history, I will be teaching the course as primarily a history offering, all the while broadening its emphasis to include a variety of media and sources. In other words, we will examine the Holocaust historically, using and analyzing different media and sources in our journey, to include fiction, music, film and art in addition to the usual secondary readings, testimonies and documents/documentaries. The exams and exercises will offer options for those of you who have had the temerity to major in something else than history(cue the laugh track here, haha—there wont be many laughs when the course is underway).
This is my first time teaching the Holocaust, and I am sure it will show from time to time…I ask your patience and forbearance as we move through this dark wood together.
Goals: It is always desirable to have goals, whether you’re a triathlete, writer, student or professor. I have these as a foundation for us this term:
--to deepen our understanding of the events and experiences known as the Holocaust;
--per the course title, to examine and analyze representations of the Holocaust in diverse media, then and now
--
--to attempt some conclusions about what the Holocaust means to the world, 70 years on. How has the physical, moral, social and political landscape changed because of it?
--time permitting, to consider how and why people commemorate the Holocaust around the world, also why some individuals want the world to believe that it is a giant hoax, that it never really happened.
Invaluable resource: Whatever you are looking for in terms of course content, you will find it and so much more at ushmm.org, the official website for the United States Holocaust Museum. If I win the lottery, I will take us all there for spring break, but in case I don’t, the website is just outstanding. We’ll be leaning on it heavily all term long.
Readings: There are four required works for the course, all available in a number of venues: Art Spiegelman’s Maus, a unique comic book/graphic novel meditation on his own family’s history in the Holocaust; Yaffa Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, a collection of short stories based on survivor tales recorded by the author in the nursing homes of Brooklyn, NY; Gerda Weissman-Klein, All But My Life, a classic memoir by a survivor of the Holocaust, and Gita Sereny’s Into that Darkness, which will give you some good insight into the people who populated the Nazi killing machine and their motives. Unfortunately, they’re not very different from people you know here and now. You would like to think they are monsters.
Evaluation: You will have ample opportunity to showcase your strengths this semester. There will be a map quiz(20%), 2 response papers on “Maus,” Art Spiegelman’s unique take(a COMIC BOOK?!) on the Holocaust(20% each), and Peter Cohen’s “ documentary, “Architecture of Doom,” and a final exam, which will have take-home and in-class components(60%). There may be an additional option for those who want to pursue an aspect of the Holocaust in depth…details to follow.
Invaluable resource: Whatever you are looking for in terms of course content and/or personal interest, you will find it and so much more at ushmm.org, the official website for the United States Holocaust Museum. If I win the lottery, I will take us all there for spring break, but in case I don’t, the website is just outstanding. We’ll be leaning on it heavily all term long.
Caveats: Just a couple I am not in the habit of banning anything, but I want to discourage strongly the use of the words “inevitable” and “tragedy” in this course. This is because there was nothing “inevitable” about the Holocaust, and “tragedy” is probably the most overused term on the planet when it comes to describing this series of events. Maybe we can find some new, more appropriate vocabulary in our attempts to characterize it.
Second, this course is infused with upsetting subject matter, to put it mildly. I strongly advise you to avoid reading or thinking about it at night, as I have found in preparing it that it can and will invade your sleep. Three times recently, I have worked on the course in the evening, and twice I have had disturbing dreams, one about being discovered hiding Jews and the other about being arrested as a partisan and sent to Auschwitz. This material WILL affect you, so try to work on it only in the daylight and in small increments of time and attention.
Important announcement: The Nazis had no use for differently-abled people—in fact, they murdered, “mercy-killed,” a lot of them. If you weren’t a perfect physical specimen, too bad for you. At WSUTC, and in the United States generally by contrast, we welcome them and want them to succeed. And thus this Note from Disability Resources: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Classroom accommodation forms are available through the Disability Services Office. If you have a documented disability (even temporary) make an appointment as soon as possible with the Disability Services Coordinator Cherish Tijerina room 269 West Building. You will need to provide your instructor with the appropriate classroom accommodation form from Disability Services during the first week of class. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations for disabilities must be approved through the Disability Services Coordinator.
Schedule of topics…it’s impossible to know now how long each will take, so we will drive on through and see where we are at the end of April. Some of the films are tentative, too…in fact, most of the course will be TBA in this first incarnation. One thing for sure, it will not be boring or predictable.
Part I: Preconditions
Background to an outrage: antisemitism, racism, imperialism , war
Readings: Start Spiegelman, chapter 1; assorted documents TBA
Map quiz after this section…
Part II: Spark
Antisemitism in power: Nazi Germany, from theory to practice, l933-38
Readings: Sereny, part I, Spiegelman, chapter 2
Documentary film: Architecture of Doom
Other media TBA, e.g. possibly “Paragraph l74, “ about the persecution of homosexuals under the Nazis and/or Stand Firm, a film about the sufferings of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany.
First response paper due, on “Architecture of Doom.”
Radicalization and war, l938-39
Readings: Sereny, part II; Weissman-Klein, part I, chapters 1-8; Spiegelman, chapter 3
Film: Stand Firm
Other media TBA, including Nazi anti-handicapped films.
Part III: Inferno
Life and death under Nazi occupation: Poland and Russia
Readings: Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, all; continue with Weissman-Klein, part II, chapters 1-5; Sereny, part III; Spiegelman, chapter 4
Documentary film: Weapons of the Spirit
Film: “Come and See(excerpts)”
Music: Dmitrii Shostakovich, Symphony # 13, “Babi Yar,” with accompanying poem by Evgenii Evtushenko.
Other media TBA
From experimentation to systematic annihilation
Readings: Sereny, part IV, Weissman –Klein, part II, chapters 6-11; Spiegelman, chapters 4-5; others TBA
Film: Sarah’s Key(about the fate of French Jews, a horrifying story)
The concentration camp universe
Readings: finish Sereny and Weissman-Klein; finish Spiegelman.
Visual Arts: the drawings of Miriam Greenstein, survivor of Auschwitz
Second response paper due after this section, on Maus.
Rescue and resistance
Readings: TBA
Film: Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg
Part IV: Embers
Gotterdammerrung and aftermath
Readings: TBA
Music: various selections from Richard Wagner; should musicians be banned for their views?
70 years after the debut of the “Final Solution:” how and where to remember?
Readings: TBA.
Representations of the Holocaust
Spring ‘12
B. Farley/brigitf2001@yahoo.com/bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu 541-276-6962 OFFICE HOURS 3:30-4:15 m-w, 24/7 in cyberspace. I MUCH PREFER email, in fact i HATE the phone and will always try to answer email as soon as possible. PLEASE send email to both addresses, so that I will receive it at ONE of them.
“What you do matters.” Unofficial motto of the United States Holocaust Museum, Washington DC
Welcome to Humanities 455, Representations of the Holocaust. This will not be the most light-hearted course you will ever take, but you will emerge from it wiser, in the sense that you will witness the best and worst that your fellow humans are capable of. At least, that’s the way I have learned to think about it. “Representations” is a Humanities course, taught primarily in past years from the standpoint of literature by Dr. Len Orr. Because I work in history, I will be teaching the course as primarily a history offering, all the while broadening its emphasis to include a variety of media and sources. In other words, we will examine the Holocaust historically, using and analyzing different media and sources in our journey, to include fiction, music, film and art in addition to the usual secondary readings, testimonies and documents/documentaries. The exams and exercises will offer options for those of you who have had the temerity to major in something else than history(cue the laugh track here, haha—there wont be many laughs when the course is underway).
This is my first time teaching the Holocaust, and I am sure it will show from time to time…I ask your patience and forbearance as we move through this dark wood together.
Goals: It is always desirable to have goals, whether you’re a triathlete, writer, student or professor. I have these as a foundation for us this term:
--to deepen our understanding of the events and experiences known as the Holocaust;
--per the course title, to examine and analyze representations of the Holocaust in diverse media, then and now
--
--to attempt some conclusions about what the Holocaust means to the world, 70 years on. How has the physical, moral, social and political landscape changed because of it?
--time permitting, to consider how and why people commemorate the Holocaust around the world, also why some individuals want the world to believe that it is a giant hoax, that it never really happened.
Invaluable resource: Whatever you are looking for in terms of course content, you will find it and so much more at ushmm.org, the official website for the United States Holocaust Museum. If I win the lottery, I will take us all there for spring break, but in case I don’t, the website is just outstanding. We’ll be leaning on it heavily all term long.
Readings: There are four required works for the course, all available in a number of venues: Art Spiegelman’s Maus, a unique comic book/graphic novel meditation on his own family’s history in the Holocaust; Yaffa Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, a collection of short stories based on survivor tales recorded by the author in the nursing homes of Brooklyn, NY; Gerda Weissman-Klein, All But My Life, a classic memoir by a survivor of the Holocaust, and Gita Sereny’s Into that Darkness, which will give you some good insight into the people who populated the Nazi killing machine and their motives. Unfortunately, they’re not very different from people you know here and now. You would like to think they are monsters.
Evaluation: You will have ample opportunity to showcase your strengths this semester. There will be a map quiz(20%), 2 response papers on “Maus,” Art Spiegelman’s unique take(a COMIC BOOK?!) on the Holocaust(20% each), and Peter Cohen’s “ documentary, “Architecture of Doom,” and a final exam, which will have take-home and in-class components(60%). There may be an additional option for those who want to pursue an aspect of the Holocaust in depth…details to follow.
Invaluable resource: Whatever you are looking for in terms of course content and/or personal interest, you will find it and so much more at ushmm.org, the official website for the United States Holocaust Museum. If I win the lottery, I will take us all there for spring break, but in case I don’t, the website is just outstanding. We’ll be leaning on it heavily all term long.
Caveats: Just a couple I am not in the habit of banning anything, but I want to discourage strongly the use of the words “inevitable” and “tragedy” in this course. This is because there was nothing “inevitable” about the Holocaust, and “tragedy” is probably the most overused term on the planet when it comes to describing this series of events. Maybe we can find some new, more appropriate vocabulary in our attempts to characterize it.
Second, this course is infused with upsetting subject matter, to put it mildly. I strongly advise you to avoid reading or thinking about it at night, as I have found in preparing it that it can and will invade your sleep. Three times recently, I have worked on the course in the evening, and twice I have had disturbing dreams, one about being discovered hiding Jews and the other about being arrested as a partisan and sent to Auschwitz. This material WILL affect you, so try to work on it only in the daylight and in small increments of time and attention.
Important announcement: The Nazis had no use for differently-abled people—in fact, they murdered, “mercy-killed,” a lot of them. If you weren’t a perfect physical specimen, too bad for you. At WSUTC, and in the United States generally by contrast, we welcome them and want them to succeed. And thus this Note from Disability Resources: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Classroom accommodation forms are available through the Disability Services Office. If you have a documented disability (even temporary) make an appointment as soon as possible with the Disability Services Coordinator Cherish Tijerina room 269 West Building. You will need to provide your instructor with the appropriate classroom accommodation form from Disability Services during the first week of class. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations for disabilities must be approved through the Disability Services Coordinator.
Schedule of topics…it’s impossible to know now how long each will take, so we will drive on through and see where we are at the end of April. Some of the films are tentative, too…in fact, most of the course will be TBA in this first incarnation. One thing for sure, it will not be boring or predictable.
Part I: Preconditions
Background to an outrage: antisemitism, racism, imperialism , war
Readings: Start Spiegelman, chapter 1; assorted documents TBA
Map quiz after this section…
Part II: Spark
Antisemitism in power: Nazi Germany, from theory to practice, l933-38
Readings: Sereny, part I, Spiegelman, chapter 2
Documentary film: Architecture of Doom
Other media TBA, e.g. possibly “Paragraph l74, “ about the persecution of homosexuals under the Nazis and/or Stand Firm, a film about the sufferings of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany.
First response paper due, on “Architecture of Doom.”
Radicalization and war, l938-39
Readings: Sereny, part II; Weissman-Klein, part I, chapters 1-8; Spiegelman, chapter 3
Film: Stand Firm
Other media TBA, including Nazi anti-handicapped films.
Part III: Inferno
Life and death under Nazi occupation: Poland and Russia
Readings: Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, all; continue with Weissman-Klein, part II, chapters 1-5; Sereny, part III; Spiegelman, chapter 4
Documentary film: Weapons of the Spirit
Film: “Come and See(excerpts)”
Music: Dmitrii Shostakovich, Symphony # 13, “Babi Yar,” with accompanying poem by Evgenii Evtushenko.
Other media TBA
From experimentation to systematic annihilation
Readings: Sereny, part IV, Weissman –Klein, part II, chapters 6-11; Spiegelman, chapters 4-5; others TBA
Film: Sarah’s Key(about the fate of French Jews, a horrifying story)
The concentration camp universe
Readings: finish Sereny and Weissman-Klein; finish Spiegelman.
Visual Arts: the drawings of Miriam Greenstein, survivor of Auschwitz
Second response paper due after this section, on Maus.
Rescue and resistance
Readings: TBA
Film: Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg
Part IV: Embers
Gotterdammerrung and aftermath
Readings: TBA
Music: various selections from Richard Wagner; should musicians be banned for their views?
70 years after the debut of the “Final Solution:” how and where to remember?
Readings: TBA.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
History 388, US and Vietnam...
History 388
U.S. and Vietnam
Spring 2012
B. Farley
Basic info: Office 207j West Building/Office phone: 372-7357/Home phone 541-276-6962. EMAIL: brigitf2001@yahoo.com OR bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu. Call me at home or the office if you must, but I prefer email and will always try to answer anything by the next day.
OFFICE HOURS (on campus): Monday and Wednesday, 330-4:15, just before 5:45 class, just after 5:45 class. OFFICE HOURS in cyberspace: 24/7.
Course intro
Welcome to US and Vietnam. I offer the same caveats to you as I did the previous times I taught this course: I am not an expert in Vietnamese or Chinese history, far from it, but I know this conflict well from the perspective of the Cold War, and from personal experience. One of my babysitters was the first and only man from Pendleton, Oregon (my home town) killed in action there. As a grade schooler, I witnessed some fearsome arguments about the nature of that war, and watched my father write conscientious objector letters for students as a close family friend opted out of the draft for residence in Canada. Afterwards, both his family and ours got regular “visits” from the FBI, a real pleasure. I am certain they even tapped our home phone. I loved the college student protesters because I believed that kids ought to be able to storm the teachers’ rooms and “tear down the walls.” I’ve had a change of heart on that one since I went to the other side of the pedestal, but I remember that time fondly even so.
So you could say this course is unusually personal for me.
It would be impossible to overstate the importance of this war, how it started. It had tragic beginnings, in that the north Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, looked for an alliance rather than a war with the United States. Its escalation came as a result of the USA/USSR world rivalry, in spite of numerous warnings about interfering with what was essentially a civil war, Vietnamese vs. Vietnamese. Once it was escalated, no one could figure out how to win it, short of “making it a wilderness and calling it peace.” In the meantime, 58,000 young Americans were losing their lives. Many more were being wounded or maimed.
In addition, Americans discovered some truths that resonate today. Presidents in the Vietnam years lied about the rationale for and progress of the war, so that now everyone tends to look skeptically at what the President says. Presidents in the Vietnam years could not gracefully extricate themselves from disaster and left thousands of troops for years in a conflict they could not win. Now there is great anxiety and angst about using American power; every intervention is reflexively labeled a “quagmire.” As an unpopular war, Vietnam got its manpower from a draft riddled with exemptions for those in college and/or with good lawyers or connections. That caused a terrible division in the country, embittering those who served or saw relatives die against those who escaped service. Just ask President Clinton and every other candidate for President in recent elections. “What did you do in Vietnam” has now become a standard question in presidential campaigns, most recently in the January 7 Republican debate in New Hampshire(Ron Paul attacking Newt Gingrich). Finally, the groundswell of opposition to the war that hit the streets shocked many Americans, who felt that the protesters were aiding and abetting the enemy. The protesters maintained that patriotic Americans opposed bad policies rather than going along silently. Thus began the “America, love it or leave it” debate. We are currently reliving this and other issues, at least to some extent, as a result of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
A lot of people have begun drawing comparisons between the war in Afghanistan and the Vietnam war, e.g. that Afghanistan is “another Vietnam.” We will collectively try to determine whether this comparison has any validity. What exactly IS another Vietnam?!
Oh, and did I remember to say that Vietnam produced some great, great music? Well, it produced some great, great music. We will hear a good sampling of it.
The famous war correspondent, Michael Herr, famously said, “Vietnam, Vietnam. We’ve all been there.” Truer words were never spoken.
Readings
There are a lot of great books about Vietnam, and these are just a small sample. They were chosen to represent a diversity of views and issues. Stanley Karnow’s text is the standard work and treats all aspects of the war factually and well. Rick Atkinson’s moving study of the West Point class of l966, The Long Gray Line, takes you through the l960s and Vietnam through the eyes of young men who had to go lead troops there. They entered West Point just as the war began to heat up, when everything seemed clear and stark, went to fight in that most unclear conflict and emerged very much changed by the experience—if they survived. Their class lost more men in the war than any class before or after them. Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War is somewhat similar, though it is a work of fiction and confined to the main character’s experience in the Marines in Vietnam. It’s a very compelling story, another journey from Mom and Apple Pie and “good” wars to the shadowy, deadly ambiguousness of Vietnam. Finally, David Maraniss’s They Marched into Sunlight. Maraniss shows you like no one else how corrosive and divisive this war became on the home front, as it destroyed hundreds of fine young Americans in southeast Asia each week. They Marched into Sunlight shows you the tragic events of one weekend in October l967 as they played out in Vietnam and the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. There are few more moving books on this war.
GOALS…I will be happy if you can identify some of the reasons that led the United States to intervene in the Vietnamese civil war, trace the slippery slope leading to its escalation, and talk coherently about the difficulties of getting out after l968. Everyone should also be able to cite two or three ways in which the Vietnam war has affected American history and culture. And you should decide about the “lessons of Vietnam. “ Never to intervene in overseas civil conflicts? Not to fear victory? Always to use overwhelming force? To protest foreign wars at home? Never to protest foreign wars at home? That “real” patriots criticize their country? That “real” patriots do NOT criticize their country? That one should love America or leave it? That Afghanistan 2012 is just like Vietnam 1968?
You tell me.
Class Procedures
We will have two exams, one in February and one at the end of the course. I will talk about the third assignment a few days after we begin the course.
Miscellaneous but Important
Any sort of cheating—copying, lifting material off the internet or any printed source without attributing it, using notes when notes are forbidden—will be dealt with to the full extent of university law. Just don’t do it.
On a more positive note: if you have a disability that makes the usual class routine difficult, no problem, we can work out any special requirements you have. A Note from Disability Resources: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Classroom accommodation forms are available through the Disability Services Office. If you have a documented disability (even temporary) make an appointment as soon as possible with the Disability Services Coordinator Cherish Tijerina room 269 West Building. You will need to provide your instructor with the appropriate classroom accommodation form from Disability Services during the first week of class. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations for disabilities must be approved through the Disability Services Coordinator.
Schedule
Part I: Prelude to a catastrophe
History matters: scenes from Vietnamese life, 5th century-l850
The Vietnamese and the “civilizing” French.
Young man on a mission: Ho Chi Minh
The struggle for Vietnam, l920-l940
World War II and double foreign occupation, l940-l945
Communists and resistance
Enter the Cold War…
The French Indochina War
Dienbienphu
Readings: Karnow, Vietnam: A History, pp. 1-221; Atkinson, the Long Gray Line, pt 1.
Recommended readings: Bernard Fall, Hell in a Very Small Place, about the French disaster at Dienbienphu. A classic. Also, Graham Greene, The Quiet American. This is a work of fiction, but it is a great insight into the American mindset prior to America’s involvement in Vietnam.
Part II: The US and Vietnam, part I: from advisers to groundpounders
After Geneva: (Now) what to do about Vietnam?
Options for Ike
“Helping:” covert intervention and regime change
“Our Man” in Vietnam: Diem and his bizarre entourage
Ho Chi Minh and north Vietnam after Geneva: outlines of a civil war
JFK and Vietnam: before the Bay of Pigs
JFK and Vietnam: post Bay of Pigs
Two assassinations
Readings: Karnow, pp. 229-327; Atkinson, The Long Gray Line, part II; start Caputo, A Rumor of War.
Recommended readings: Arthur Schlesinger, A Thousand Days. Schlesinger was the “court historian” for JFK and had an insider’s view of Vietnam and other policies.
Midterm exam (covers all material to this point).
“Mr. Johnson’s War,” l964-l968
Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedy legacy, “outKennedying Kennedy.”
The Tonkin Gulf and troops in the field
Carrot, Stick, Bomb
“Government by turnstile:” America’s allies in turmoil
“We have to do more.” American troops head to Vietnam
You Are There in Vietnam: what US troops faced in the jungle, and in prison
The “light at the end of the tunnel” and the shock of the Tet Offensive, l968
Readings (offline): Karnow, pp. 335-580, Atkinson, part III; continue with Caputo; Maraniss, They Marched into Sunlight, all.
Recommended readings: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. Doris Kearns was a White House Fellow in the LBJ “second term” and witnessed the impact on him of deepening involvement in Vietnam. Also, if you have ever wondered how college students could rouse themselves to hit the streets and take over campus buildings in protest of the war, read James Simon Kunen, The Strawberry Statement. Finally, on a more modern note, Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn. This was named one of the best books of 2010…it is a fictionalized account of Marlantes’ service as a Marine captain, like Caputo’s, but is especially good at conveying the sense of futility that many US servicemen felt in the Vietnam conflict.
“Mr. Nixon’s War,” l968-l974
“Bring us together.” Richard Nixon’s campaign of l968
The student movement gathers momentum
America love it or leave it!? Nixon supporters vs. the war protesters
Shrinking and expanding the war: Vietnamization and the Cambodian incursions
The war invades campuses: from protests to shootings
Winding down in Vietnam, winding up at home: how Vietnam helped bring on Watergate
The aftermath: Watergate, Saigon, Cambodia
Readings (offline): finish Karnow; finish Atkinson and Caputo.
Recommended readings: C.D.B. Bryan, Friendly Fire. Probably the best of the Vietnam books, this work is about Michael Mullen, a Ph.D candidate in agricultural chemistry and the hope of the future for his farm family. He was drafted into the Army, then killed in Vietnam in February l970 by an errant US artillery shell, “friendly” fire. It took his family three years to get the Army to tell them the whole truth, during which time they lost their once-unquestioning faith in, and in fact turned against, America and its government.
Second exam (covers “Mr. Johnson’s war” and “Mr. Nixon’s war.”)
Long Time Passing: The Vietnam war l975-present
The saga of the Vietnam wall
U.S. and Vietnam
Spring 2012
B. Farley
Basic info: Office 207j West Building/Office phone: 372-7357/Home phone 541-276-6962. EMAIL: brigitf2001@yahoo.com OR bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu. Call me at home or the office if you must, but I prefer email and will always try to answer anything by the next day.
OFFICE HOURS (on campus): Monday and Wednesday, 330-4:15, just before 5:45 class, just after 5:45 class. OFFICE HOURS in cyberspace: 24/7.
Course intro
Welcome to US and Vietnam. I offer the same caveats to you as I did the previous times I taught this course: I am not an expert in Vietnamese or Chinese history, far from it, but I know this conflict well from the perspective of the Cold War, and from personal experience. One of my babysitters was the first and only man from Pendleton, Oregon (my home town) killed in action there. As a grade schooler, I witnessed some fearsome arguments about the nature of that war, and watched my father write conscientious objector letters for students as a close family friend opted out of the draft for residence in Canada. Afterwards, both his family and ours got regular “visits” from the FBI, a real pleasure. I am certain they even tapped our home phone. I loved the college student protesters because I believed that kids ought to be able to storm the teachers’ rooms and “tear down the walls.” I’ve had a change of heart on that one since I went to the other side of the pedestal, but I remember that time fondly even so.
So you could say this course is unusually personal for me.
It would be impossible to overstate the importance of this war, how it started. It had tragic beginnings, in that the north Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, looked for an alliance rather than a war with the United States. Its escalation came as a result of the USA/USSR world rivalry, in spite of numerous warnings about interfering with what was essentially a civil war, Vietnamese vs. Vietnamese. Once it was escalated, no one could figure out how to win it, short of “making it a wilderness and calling it peace.” In the meantime, 58,000 young Americans were losing their lives. Many more were being wounded or maimed.
In addition, Americans discovered some truths that resonate today. Presidents in the Vietnam years lied about the rationale for and progress of the war, so that now everyone tends to look skeptically at what the President says. Presidents in the Vietnam years could not gracefully extricate themselves from disaster and left thousands of troops for years in a conflict they could not win. Now there is great anxiety and angst about using American power; every intervention is reflexively labeled a “quagmire.” As an unpopular war, Vietnam got its manpower from a draft riddled with exemptions for those in college and/or with good lawyers or connections. That caused a terrible division in the country, embittering those who served or saw relatives die against those who escaped service. Just ask President Clinton and every other candidate for President in recent elections. “What did you do in Vietnam” has now become a standard question in presidential campaigns, most recently in the January 7 Republican debate in New Hampshire(Ron Paul attacking Newt Gingrich). Finally, the groundswell of opposition to the war that hit the streets shocked many Americans, who felt that the protesters were aiding and abetting the enemy. The protesters maintained that patriotic Americans opposed bad policies rather than going along silently. Thus began the “America, love it or leave it” debate. We are currently reliving this and other issues, at least to some extent, as a result of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
A lot of people have begun drawing comparisons between the war in Afghanistan and the Vietnam war, e.g. that Afghanistan is “another Vietnam.” We will collectively try to determine whether this comparison has any validity. What exactly IS another Vietnam?!
Oh, and did I remember to say that Vietnam produced some great, great music? Well, it produced some great, great music. We will hear a good sampling of it.
The famous war correspondent, Michael Herr, famously said, “Vietnam, Vietnam. We’ve all been there.” Truer words were never spoken.
Readings
There are a lot of great books about Vietnam, and these are just a small sample. They were chosen to represent a diversity of views and issues. Stanley Karnow’s text is the standard work and treats all aspects of the war factually and well. Rick Atkinson’s moving study of the West Point class of l966, The Long Gray Line, takes you through the l960s and Vietnam through the eyes of young men who had to go lead troops there. They entered West Point just as the war began to heat up, when everything seemed clear and stark, went to fight in that most unclear conflict and emerged very much changed by the experience—if they survived. Their class lost more men in the war than any class before or after them. Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War is somewhat similar, though it is a work of fiction and confined to the main character’s experience in the Marines in Vietnam. It’s a very compelling story, another journey from Mom and Apple Pie and “good” wars to the shadowy, deadly ambiguousness of Vietnam. Finally, David Maraniss’s They Marched into Sunlight. Maraniss shows you like no one else how corrosive and divisive this war became on the home front, as it destroyed hundreds of fine young Americans in southeast Asia each week. They Marched into Sunlight shows you the tragic events of one weekend in October l967 as they played out in Vietnam and the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. There are few more moving books on this war.
GOALS…I will be happy if you can identify some of the reasons that led the United States to intervene in the Vietnamese civil war, trace the slippery slope leading to its escalation, and talk coherently about the difficulties of getting out after l968. Everyone should also be able to cite two or three ways in which the Vietnam war has affected American history and culture. And you should decide about the “lessons of Vietnam. “ Never to intervene in overseas civil conflicts? Not to fear victory? Always to use overwhelming force? To protest foreign wars at home? Never to protest foreign wars at home? That “real” patriots criticize their country? That “real” patriots do NOT criticize their country? That one should love America or leave it? That Afghanistan 2012 is just like Vietnam 1968?
You tell me.
Class Procedures
We will have two exams, one in February and one at the end of the course. I will talk about the third assignment a few days after we begin the course.
Miscellaneous but Important
Any sort of cheating—copying, lifting material off the internet or any printed source without attributing it, using notes when notes are forbidden—will be dealt with to the full extent of university law. Just don’t do it.
On a more positive note: if you have a disability that makes the usual class routine difficult, no problem, we can work out any special requirements you have. A Note from Disability Resources: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Classroom accommodation forms are available through the Disability Services Office. If you have a documented disability (even temporary) make an appointment as soon as possible with the Disability Services Coordinator Cherish Tijerina room 269 West Building. You will need to provide your instructor with the appropriate classroom accommodation form from Disability Services during the first week of class. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations for disabilities must be approved through the Disability Services Coordinator.
Schedule
Part I: Prelude to a catastrophe
History matters: scenes from Vietnamese life, 5th century-l850
The Vietnamese and the “civilizing” French.
Young man on a mission: Ho Chi Minh
The struggle for Vietnam, l920-l940
World War II and double foreign occupation, l940-l945
Communists and resistance
Enter the Cold War…
The French Indochina War
Dienbienphu
Readings: Karnow, Vietnam: A History, pp. 1-221; Atkinson, the Long Gray Line, pt 1.
Recommended readings: Bernard Fall, Hell in a Very Small Place, about the French disaster at Dienbienphu. A classic. Also, Graham Greene, The Quiet American. This is a work of fiction, but it is a great insight into the American mindset prior to America’s involvement in Vietnam.
Part II: The US and Vietnam, part I: from advisers to groundpounders
After Geneva: (Now) what to do about Vietnam?
Options for Ike
“Helping:” covert intervention and regime change
“Our Man” in Vietnam: Diem and his bizarre entourage
Ho Chi Minh and north Vietnam after Geneva: outlines of a civil war
JFK and Vietnam: before the Bay of Pigs
JFK and Vietnam: post Bay of Pigs
Two assassinations
Readings: Karnow, pp. 229-327; Atkinson, The Long Gray Line, part II; start Caputo, A Rumor of War.
Recommended readings: Arthur Schlesinger, A Thousand Days. Schlesinger was the “court historian” for JFK and had an insider’s view of Vietnam and other policies.
Midterm exam (covers all material to this point).
“Mr. Johnson’s War,” l964-l968
Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedy legacy, “outKennedying Kennedy.”
The Tonkin Gulf and troops in the field
Carrot, Stick, Bomb
“Government by turnstile:” America’s allies in turmoil
“We have to do more.” American troops head to Vietnam
You Are There in Vietnam: what US troops faced in the jungle, and in prison
The “light at the end of the tunnel” and the shock of the Tet Offensive, l968
Readings (offline): Karnow, pp. 335-580, Atkinson, part III; continue with Caputo; Maraniss, They Marched into Sunlight, all.
Recommended readings: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. Doris Kearns was a White House Fellow in the LBJ “second term” and witnessed the impact on him of deepening involvement in Vietnam. Also, if you have ever wondered how college students could rouse themselves to hit the streets and take over campus buildings in protest of the war, read James Simon Kunen, The Strawberry Statement. Finally, on a more modern note, Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn. This was named one of the best books of 2010…it is a fictionalized account of Marlantes’ service as a Marine captain, like Caputo’s, but is especially good at conveying the sense of futility that many US servicemen felt in the Vietnam conflict.
“Mr. Nixon’s War,” l968-l974
“Bring us together.” Richard Nixon’s campaign of l968
The student movement gathers momentum
America love it or leave it!? Nixon supporters vs. the war protesters
Shrinking and expanding the war: Vietnamization and the Cambodian incursions
The war invades campuses: from protests to shootings
Winding down in Vietnam, winding up at home: how Vietnam helped bring on Watergate
The aftermath: Watergate, Saigon, Cambodia
Readings (offline): finish Karnow; finish Atkinson and Caputo.
Recommended readings: C.D.B. Bryan, Friendly Fire. Probably the best of the Vietnam books, this work is about Michael Mullen, a Ph.D candidate in agricultural chemistry and the hope of the future for his farm family. He was drafted into the Army, then killed in Vietnam in February l970 by an errant US artillery shell, “friendly” fire. It took his family three years to get the Army to tell them the whole truth, during which time they lost their once-unquestioning faith in, and in fact turned against, America and its government.
Second exam (covers “Mr. Johnson’s war” and “Mr. Nixon’s war.”)
Long Time Passing: The Vietnam war l975-present
The saga of the Vietnam wall
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)