QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (WEEK 15)

Ronald Reagan’s April 1982 news conference [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 149]: How does Reagan’s recollection of the history of the war correspond with the historical record? In other words, where or how is he wrong?

Robert McNamara’s In Retrospect and its detractors [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 151-154]: What does McNamara say happened as a result of the war? Who was “terribl[y] damage[d],” according to the former secretary of defense, and what does this suggest about American views of the war? Why were veterans upset about McNamara’s eventual mea culpa? In what ways did Dean Rusk continue to support earlier U.S. policy in Vietnam? How was it misguided? How did the media fail the United States, according to David Halberstam?

Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 154-157]: Why would Bruce Weigl conclude, “I don’t know why we came here”? Why would he characterize “a small parade at home” as “a necessary, essential lie”?

Conference with Vietnamese and American veterans and scholars [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 157-160]: What was the “original sin” of the United States in Indochina? How does Col. Herbert Schandler explain this “sin”? Why are Luu Van Loi, Luu Doan Huynh, and Chester Cooper in disagreement?

Autobiography of Duong Van Mai [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 160-161]: Why and how had Vietnamese moved beyond the war? How had the war divided Vietnamese families?