QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (WEEK 13)

Discussion between Richard Nixon and H. R. Haldeman [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 131]: What did Nixon mean by the “madman theory”? What did he hope it would achieve?

Accounts of the My Lai Massacre [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 131-136]: What did Hugh Thompson witness on March 16, 1968? How did he respond? What did Ha Thi Quy witness or discover? According to Dennis Conti, what did Lieutenant Calley mean by “take care of them”? What explanations for the killing were offered in the report by Seymour Hersh? Why, according to the Newsweek poll, did only nine percent of respondents approve of the verdict against Calley? Why was the National Review incensed that Time believed the atrocities at My Lai “called [into] question the U.S. mission in Vietnam”? How, historically speaking, did the National Review defend its criticism of Time?

Richard Nixon on the speech of November 3, 1969 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 136-138]: What did Nixon mean by the “silent majority”? What was the “Nixon Doctrine”? How, according to Nixon, could the antiwar movement affect a negotiated end to the war? What did Nixon mean by “[o]nly Americans” can “defeat or humiliate the United States”?

Diary of H. R. Haldeman [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 137]: How did President Nixon suggest responding to the antiwar marchers in November 1969?

Richard Nixon in his April 30, 1970, television address [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 138- 139]: Why, according to Nixon, did the United States invade Cambodia? What did he say would happen if the United States acted like a “pitiful, helpless giant”? Why? What did the president say about the possibility of an American defeat?

Commission report on “campus unrest” [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 139-141]: How were students’ views of the war evolving? How did the president and students differ on the meaning of certain words? What assumptions did Nixon hold that many students did not?

Speech of Senator Gaylord Nelson [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 141-143]: What sort of destruction, according to Nelson, had been visited upon southern Vietnam? Why would Nelson claim that “South Vietnam would have been better off losing to Hanoi than winning with us”?

Letter from Richard Nixon to Nguyen Van Thieu [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 143-145]: What is the tone of Nixon’s letter? What did Nixon offer Thieu? What did he threaten if Thieu refused to accept the settlement?

Pentagon Papers [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 145]: Why was the leaking of the Pentagon Papers so important? In other words, what distinguished the disclosures by Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo from the “[t]elling [of] the truth” by members of the antiwar movement at the time?