1. The Roots of War 1945-1953 read Karnow, chapters 2 & 3 read Cohen, chapter 1 2. America*s Mandarin, 1954-1963 read Karnow, chapters 6, 7, & 8 read Cohen, chapter 3 3. LBJ Goes to War, 1964-1965 read Karnow, chapters 9, 10, 11 read Cohen, chapter 4 4. America Takes Charge, 1965-1967 read Karnow, chapters 12 & 13 read Cohen, chapter 5 5. America's Enemy, 1954-1967 read Cohen, chapter 6 6. TET, 1968 read Karnow, chapter 14 read Cohen, chapter 7 7. Vietnamizing the War, 1968-1973 read Karnow, chapter 15 read Cohen, chapter 8 8. Cambodia and Laos read Cohen, chapter 9 9. Peace Is at Hand 1968-1973 read Karnow, chapter 16 read Cohen, chapter 10 10. Homefront U.S.A. view TV episode 12 read Cohen, chapter 11 11. The End of the Tunnel, 1973-1975 review-reread Karnow, chapter 1 read Cohen, chapter 12 August 25: Background to Vietnam. Vietnamese civilization began in the Red River Delta of what is today northern Vietnam, slightly more than 2,000 years ago. It spread southward gradually. The French conquered Vietnam, in chunks, in the late 19th century. Vietnamese could not effectively defy French power. >>> Read Moise, The Vietnam Wars all the way through, to give you an idea of the overall pattern of events we will be seeing in this course, and to allow you to get started thinking of what topic you might want to choose for your term paper. August 28, 30: Ho Chi Minh founded the Vietnamese Communist movement, and the Second World War gave the Communists their chance to try to make Vietnam an independent country. In 1945 the Communists established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. >>> Sheehan, pp. 144-166. >>> Herring, pp. 3-11. >>> Truong Chinh, The August Revolution. Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1958. 76 pp. The story of the Viet Minh siezure of power in 1945. Truong Chinh was General Secretary of the Indochinese Communist Party at that time; he published the Vietnamese original of this work in Su That in 1946. By the time this translation was published in Hanoi as a book, Truong Chinh had been demoted as punishment for his errors in the Land Reform campaign of 1953-1956. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in two parts: pp. 1-40 and pp. 41-76. September 1: All-out war between Vietnam and France broke out in 1946. On September 1, hand in short paper (two pages double spaced, or more) on Truong Chinh's The August Revolution. This is, obviously, a piece of Communist propaganda. What parts of it do you find convincing, what parts to you find suspicious and why, and what parts of it do you flatly not believe, and why? Be extremely clear about what it is Truong Chinh wrote that you find convincing, or suspicious, or flatly unbelievable. If you had been a Vietnamese reading it when it was first published in 1946, how different do you think your reactions to it would have been? When mentioning a particular statement made by Truong Chinh, please give the page number in parentheses right after the statement, like this (p. 21). If you cite any sources other than Truong Chinh (if you cite statements from Sheehan or Herring as evidence for your judgments about Truong Chinh), then for all source citations, please give both author and page number, like this (Truong Chinh, p. 21) (Herring, p. 10). September 4, 6, 8, 11: It was a classic guerrilla war. By 1954 the Viet Minh were winning. >>> Sheehan, pp. 166-172 >>> Herring, pp. 11-33. >>> The Pentagon Papers, Senator Gravel Edition, Chapter 1. "Background to the Conflict, 1940-1950." pp. 42-52. U.S. views of the Viet Minh and Ho Chi Minh. >>> The Pentagon Papers, Senator Gravel Edition, Chapter 2. "U.S. Involvement in the Franco-Viet Minh War, 1950-1954." pp. 53-75. September 13: In 1954, The United States didn't quite jump openly into the war when France got in bad trouble in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. >>> Herring pp. 33-45 >>> Bernard Fall, "Indochina--The Last Year of the War", Military Review, XXXVI:7 (October 1956), pp. 3-11. >>> John Prados, "Mechanics at the Edge of War: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam in 1954", in The VVA Veteran, 22:8 (August 2002), pp. 19-21. September 15, 18: Vietnam was split in half in 1954, and for a couple of years there was comparative peace. Ngo Dinh Diem became president of the Republic of Vietnam, in South Vietnam. >>> Herring pp. 45-80 >>> Sheehan pp. 127-144, 172-200 --- You also might like to look at my book Land Reform in China and North Vietnam Quiz September 18 September 20: The war began again in 1959-60, both in South Vietnam and in Laos The guerrillas did pretty well. War also started in Laos. >>> Herring, pp. 80-87 September 22, 25: The guerrillas gained strength, despite increasing U.S. aid to Diem. >>> Herring, pp. 89-111 >>> Sheehan 3-125 September 27, 29: By 1963, Diem was in bad trouble. >>> Herring, pp. 111-114 >>> Sheehan 200-277 October 2: The Aftermath of Ap Bac >>> Sheehan 277-334 TEST October 4 October 6: The U.S. encouraged a coup that overthrew Diem >>> Sheehan 334-371 >>> Herring, pp. 114-129 Due date for term paper topic sheets: October 9 October 9, 11: The war contined to escalate, and the U.S. sent in ground troops. >>> Herring, pp. 131-169 >>> Sheehan 371-86, 501-535 October 13: Air War. >>> Herring, pp. 171-179 Newspaper research exercise due October 13: Go to the library, and check to see what one or two newspapers and/or newsmagazines were saying in December 1967 and/or January 1968 about U.S. air operations in North Vietnam or South Vietnam or or Laos. Use at least four articles (six for graduate students); please have all your articles about U.S. air operations in one of the three areas. Write an essay of about two pages (typed double spaced), or more, about what you found. Say what there was in the articles that you found interesting or surprising. I want to see one essay based on several articles, not a string of essentially separate mini-essays, each based on a single article. Try to select articles that will allow you to have some unifying themes in your essay. Evaluate the attitudes of the authors. Is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to think that the facts may be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? Notice the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said, that you consider biased. What kind of bias was it (false statements, or use of emotionally loaded language, or just careful selection of facts so that only facts favorable to one side get mentioned)? Notice what you are reading: --A news article is not supposed to have too much of the reporter's own opinions in it, but there is nothing inherently wrong with the reporter quoting the opinions of other people. If a reporter is quoting some very opinionated person, try to judge whether the reporter agrees with the person's opinions. --An editorial is supposed to present the opinions of the newspaper; there is nothing inherently wrong about it being opinionated. But you can still complain about bias if the editorial is illogical or deceptive in the way it pushes that opinion. --The same applies to an opinion piece written by someone who does not represent the newspaper. Please give source notes. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have a list at the end, if I can’t tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing where. Source notes must give page numbers. I don’t care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what I need to know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the name of the author if it was given, the title of the article, the title of the publication, and the date and page, is OK. If you found the articles on the Internet, say so, and say where. October 16, 18, 20: The war was complex and messy >>> Herring, pp. 179-223 >>> Sheehan, 535-580 >>> Downs, Section 1 Optional on Tuesday, October 17: You are invited, but not required, to attend my talk "Iraq and Vietnam Compared," in the Globalization Seminars series. This is scheduled to be in Brackett Hall Room 120. October 23: One infantry unit around the end of 1967. >>> Downs, section 2. October 25, 27: One infantry unit around the end of 1967. >>> Downs, section 3. October 30, November 1, 3: As the war grew larger and bloodier, without producing any decisive results, there was increasing discontent about the course of US policy. >>> Sheehan, 580-693 No Class November 6 (Fall Break) November 8, 10: The Tet Offensive of 1968: a major Communist offensive, that attained partial surprise. Militarily it cost the Communists a lot of men, but it produced important political benefits for them by shaking American confidence that the war could be won. >>> Herring, pp. 225-268 >>> Sheehan, 693-729 November 13: Laos and Cambodia Graduate students only: Newspaper research exercise due November 13. Use six articles published in 1969, dealing with events and/or military operations occurring in or over Laos. November 15, 17, 20, 27: In 1969, the U.S. began to pull out of Vietnam. This went on until U.S. participation in ground combat ceased in 1972. But Laos continued to be a battleground, and Cambodia became one. U.S. bombing declined in 1971, but increased again in 1972, especially after the Communists' Easter Offenive began. >>> Herring, pp. 271-310 >>> Sheehan, 729-790 Thanksgiving: No Class November 22, 24 November 29: The Paris Agreement >>> Herring, pp. 310-320 December 1, 4: The End, 1973-1975 >>> Herring, pp. 323-340 --- Isaacs, Without Honor --- Snepp, Decent Interval December 6: Hand in Term Papers December 6, 8: Aftermath and Legacies of the War; Review >>> Herring, pp. 340-368 >>> Moise, "Limited War"