QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (WEEK 10)

Selections by Truong Nhu Tang and Tim O’Brien [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 101-105]: According to Truong Nhu Tang, what were everyday conditions like for members of the National Liberation Front? According to Tim O’Brien, what sorts of things did American combat forces have to carry while in Vietnam? What does this suggest about the way the war was waged by, and the strategies of, the different sides?

Miscellaneous documents [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 109-113]: How did the war affect Vietnamese peasants? What might the documents concerning Michael Casey, the Japanese war correspondent, and David Bressem suggest about how peasants responded to the American presence? How did the actions described in the documents affect the Americans’ desire to win the peasantry’s “hearts and minds”? Based on the account of Christine McGinley Schneider, why do you think the Americans may have often acted as callously as they did?

B. Drummond Ayers, Jr. in the New York Times [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 113-115]: What was the crisis in the United States Army? What were its manifestations? How would this have affected the American prosecution of the war?