WEEK TWO

 

Geneva Accords [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 44-48]: What did the final declaration say about the military demarcation line at the 17th parallel? What did the declaration say about Vietnamese nationhood? How did the United States, the State of Vietnam, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam respond to the declaration? Why were the 1956 elections not held?

Ngo Dinh Diem [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 48-50]: Why did Ngo Dinh Diem seem appealing to American policymakers? How did Dwight Eisenhower, in his September 1954 letter to Diem, refer to the Viet Minh and their international allies? What was the purpose of Eisenhower’s offer of support to Diem? What did it entail? How did this conflict with the final declaration of the Geneva conference?

Saigon Military Mission [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 50-53]: What was the Saigon Military Mission? Who was its leader? In what other capacity has this leader’s name arisen in this class? What actions did the Saigon Military Mission undertake to achieve its objectives?

Truong Nhu Tang’s Memoirs [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 53-56]: In what ways does Tang say Ho Chi Minh was different from Ngo Dinh Diem? How were these differences reflected in the lives of people in southern Vietnam?

National Liberation Front [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 56-58]: Why did the National Liberation Front emerge in 1960? What were its stated political goals for southern Vietnam? What were its economic goals? What were its cultural goals? How might this have been a response to the American presence in the south? What did the NLF founding program say about the coalition’s foreign policy objectives? What did this mean in the context of the Cold War? What was the NLF’s “dearest desire”? How did this conflict with American objectives in Vietnam?

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 58-60]: How did Kennedy’s commitment to the “survival and the success of liberty” mesh with U.S. policy in Vietnam? Why did the president pledge America’s “best efforts” in aiding Third World peoples?

Who in southern Vietnam actively opposed the Diem government? Why did the United States grow disenchanted with Ngo Dinh Diem? What did they do about it? What happened as a result? [See Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 60-65]

Memorandum from Robert McNamara to Lyndon Johnson, December 21, 1963 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 67-69]: How did McNamara feel the war was going for the United States? Why? What were his concerns about the Saigon government and military, as well as the American leadership in Vietnam?

Memo from McGeorge Bundy to Lyndon B. Johnson [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 69-70]: What was meant by neutralization? Why, according to McGeorge Bundy, was this a perilous choice?

Conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell, June 11, 1964 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 70-72]: Why does Johnson feel that he cannot withdraw American forces from Vietnam? How did he feel that American public opinion would respond to a withdrawal?

In what ways did the U.S. intervention escalate in the early 1960s? What happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in June 1964? What was the American public led to believe happened in the Tonkin Gulf? What was the result of the Tonkin Gulf incident? [See Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 73-77]

Comments by Barry Goldwater [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 77]: On what grounds did Goldwater criticize Lyndon Johnson? What did Goldwater feel that the United States should do in Vietnam?

What concerned Gaylord Nelson about the Tonkin Gulf resolution? On what grounds did Congress justify the resolution? How should we interpret its assurances about its lack of ambitions in Southeast Asia? [See Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 77-78]

What was implied by the American decision to pursue a policy of “sustained reprisal” against the north for revolutionary actions in the south? Why was this an attractive option to the United States? What were the risks associated with it? [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 78-80]

Memo from George Ball of June 29, 1965 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 80-82]: What was the predicament faced by the United States? How did Ball interpret the nature of the southern insurgency? Why did Ball refer to “white, foreign (U.S.) troops”? What were the short-term and long-term alternatives facing the United States, according to Ball?

Paper prepared by John McNaughton, March 10, 1965 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 81]: Why, according to McNaughton, was the United States engaged in Vietnam? What does he mean by America’s “reputation as a guarantor” in the context of the Cold War? How should we understand his reference to “territory from Chinese hands”?

Memo from Robert McNamara to Lyndon B. Johnson [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 82-84]: Why were McNamara and other policymakers so concerned with the potential for U.S. “humiliat[ion]”? What course of action did he suggest that Washington pursue?

Lyndon Johnson’s Speech of July 28, 1965 [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 84-85]: Why, according to Johnson, was the United States in Vietnam? Does his explanation conflict with John McNaughton’s March 10, 1965, paper? How?

Walter Cronkite on the Tet Offensive [Young, et al., The Vietnam War, 85-87]: What was Cronkite’s assessment of the U.S. position in Vietnam? Why did his opinion matter? What does this suggest about the effect of the Tet offensive on the United States?

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?