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