WEEK THREE

Muhammad Ali on Draft Resistance [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 118-119]: What did Ali mean by “just want[ing] to be free”? How was his decision a reflection of this belief? How did his views correspond to broader sentiments in the African-American community?

Merle Haggard in “The Fightin’ Side of Me” [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 119]: Who was Haggard referring to when singing about those people “running down our country”? What did he mean by this? What does he suggest such people should do?

Martin Luther King, Jr. at Riverside Church [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 119-123]: Why was King initially hesitant to speak out against the war? How did the war affect programs to eliminate poverty, according to King? What does he say about guaranteeing liberties in Southeast Asia and the United States? What hypocrisy does he highlight concerning the use of violence? How does he characterize the United States government? Why? What initiatives does he propose?

Malcolm X at the Militant Labor Forum [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 123-124]: Who does he have in mind when referring to “they”? What does Malcolm X say was considered “anti- American” or “subversive”? What is the symbolic significance of his image in the “Third World People Unite Against the War” poster? Why would Malcolm X, who was an American, appear on a “Third World People” poster?

John Kerry before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 124-127]: Why did the antiwar veterans refer to their Detroit investigation the Winter Soldier Investigation? What was disclosed in Detroit? What did Kerry mean by the “biggest nothing in history”? What does Kerry have to say about those whom Spiro Agnew called the “criminal misfits of society”? Why, according to Kerry, were many Vietnamese fighting the United States? Whom does Kerry say has dishonored the veterans? Why?

Interview of Colonel David H. Hackworth [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 125]: Why did Hackworth become disenchanted with the Vietnam war?

Speech of Joseph A. Scerra [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 126]: Why, according to Scerra, should the United States “honor [its] commitment”? Why does he believe “those who dissented” were owed a “debt of gratitude”?

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?

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?