QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (WEEK 7)

Who in southern Vietnam actively opposed the Diem government? Why did the United States grow disenchanted with Ngo Dinh Diem? What did they do about it? What happened as a result? [See Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 60-65]

Memorandum from Robert McNamara to Lyndon Johnson, December 21, 1963 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 67-69]: How did McNamara feel the war was going for the United States? Why? What were his concerns about the Saigon government and military, as well as the American leadership in Vietnam?

In what ways did the U.S. intervention escalate in the early 1960s? What happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in June 1964? What was the American public led to believe happened in the Tonkin Gulf? What was the result of the Tonkin Gulf incident? [See Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 73-77]

Conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell, June 11, 1964 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 70-72]: Why does Johnson feel that he cannot withdraw American forces from Vietnam? How did he feel that American public opinion would respond to a withdrawal?

Comments by Barry Goldwater [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 77]: On what grounds did Goldwater criticize Lyndon Johnson? What did Goldwater feel that the United States should do in Vietnam?

Paper prepared by John McNaughton, March 10, 1965 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 81]: Why, according to McNaughton, was the United States engaged in Vietnam? What does he mean by America’s “reputation as a guarantor” in the context of the Cold War? How should we understand his reference to “territory from Chinese hands”?