Week 1 Topic

Richard Nixon was not just another "cold warrior" president, following the same path as his predecessors. His policy of Vietnamization did reduce combat casualties in Vietnam. In declaring that the United States would no longer commit troops to stop Communist revolutions abroad, Nixon effectively revoked Eisenhower’s, Kennedy’s, and Johnson’s policies of using the U.S. military to prevent Communism from spreading. Ironically, Nixon, who had risen to national prominence as a hard-line anti-Communist in the 1950s, was the president responsible for U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, the most visible theater of the Cold War against Communism.

Richard M. Nixon campaigned in 1968 with a claim to have a "secret plan" to end the war. The war wound down after 1969 while unproductive peace talks went on in Paris. Domestic support for the war in Vietnam continued to diminish during Nixon's administration, with Vietnamization the main strategy to facilitate U.S. withdrawal. But American foreign policy and that process of withdrawal did not go smoothly or quickly. Read his speech to the American people, given on television, during his first year in office.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401804843.html
Using your knowledge from the videos and clips you've seen to this point, as well as the information from both textbooks, address the following. (see post below)

What problems surfaced to hamper efforts to conclude the war? Was President Nixon right in de-coupling Vietnamization and American troop withdrawals from negotiations or were the two strategies essential complements to each other? Finally, similar to the accounts you've read in the Appy book, what effect do the statements made by former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (from the 2003 documentary film Fog of War) have on your understanding of the war? What if LBJ or Nixon were still alive and had been filmed in a documentary? Do we learn anything?

IMPORTANT - SUBJECT LINES

When addressing the questions, put something like "Problems", "Nixons Strategy", or "Robert McNamara" in the subject line of your post so other students wanting to talk about the same topics can reply to your post, thus helping organize this discussion.



Week 2 Topic

AFTER watching the web-based videoclip Vietnam Legacies , your final DVD Episode 11, and reading the final chapter (8) in the Herring book, what would you say (according to you, the historically well-informed student) is the single, most significant legacy of the War in Vietnam for the USA? By USA, you could mean "the people", "the soldiers", or "the government". Be careful to be specific and provide evidence as you make your claim. 

Finally, what problems/issues/discrepancies did you witness or can you infer between your various historical sources?
Vietnam Television History - 1983
Vietnam Legacies News Hour Clip - 2000
Herring's Book - first edition written in 1979, our 4th edition in 2001
You, history student - 2010

Using your knowledge from the DVD, web-based videoclip and your Herring textbook, address the following. (see post below)

Read the Week 2 Topic directions at the Forum 2 "homepage".

What would you say is the single, most significant legacy of the War in Vietnam for the USA?

What problems/issues/discrepancies did you witness or can you infer between your various historical sources?

IMPORTANT - SUBJECT LINES

When addressing the questions, put something like "Legacy - something_here" or "Issue - particular_issue" in the subject line of your post so other students wanting to talk about similar ideas and issues will click the reply link on your post, thus helping organize this discussion.