QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (WEEK 2)

Memoir of Duong Van Mai Elliott: What was life like for peasants in the Vietnamese countryside? What role did mandarins play in Vietnamese society? What was the role of family in Vietnamese life?

Memoir of Duong Van Mai Elliott: How did French colonialism affect Vietnamese traditions and life? In what ways did mandarins and other Vietnamese elites see themselves as resisting French colonialism? Do you think their views were accurate or self-serving?

Memoir of Duong Van Mai Elliott: How did opposition to French colonialism change over the years? Why did Ho Chi Minh and Communists emerge and prove effective in the early- to mid- twentieth century?

Poem by Phan Boi Chau [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 18-19]: Why did the American revolution appeal to Vietnamese in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? What other evidence have you seen of the influence of the American revolution in Vietnamese nationalism? Why do you think the Vietnamese included this language in public documents?

Ho Chi Minh’s letter to Secretary of State Robert Lansing [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 19- 21]: What sort of language did Ho use in his effort to appeal to Washington? Why do you think this language might have appealed to Washington? What does this suggest about Vietnamese diplomacy at the time?

Autobiography of Tran Van Don [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 21-23]: What did he admire about France? What did he despise about France? What did Tran Van Don think about Vietnamese Communists? What does this suggest about the nature of the American war?