1. In each essay you must essentially make an argument, using the sources (the book, textbook, and lectures) as sources to back up your argument. The most important source is the book that you have been assigned to read (i.e., Devil in the White City, etc). You are required to use and cite the textbook and lectures, but neither of those should be the main source for your paper. However, if you rely solely or primarily on the textbook and lectures and not the main book you’re supposed to read, I will take off points.
2. You must ONLY use the sources that are mentioned in the essay prompt. In other words, the book you’ve been assigned to read, your lectures, and the textbook.
3. In each essay I want you to express your opinion, but it needs to be backed up by historical evidence. You should provide specific quotes from the book assigned to illustrate your answers as well as the textbook or lectures.
4. By specific quotes I do not mean just parroting the conclusions of the author. Each book contains numerous specific examples and quotes from the people who were there at the time of the subject of the book. You are required to quote from these historical figures to bolster your argument. In other words, you make your own argument, then use specific examples taken from the book or the other sources mentioned.
5. You must cite sources WHEN YOU USE THEM, not just when you quote them directly
6. Please do not use overly long quotes. And make sure you set up the quotes. Don’t just use it to complete a sentence or state a fact. For instance, there’s no need to quote a sentence like, “Huey Long was assassinated in 1935.”—that’s an obvious fact. If you can paraphrase something factual, then do that. However, if you use a source and do not quote it directly, you still need to cite that you used the source.
7. Since the papers are not research papers, you can cite your sources simply. For instance, if you quote or paraphrase specific passages or information from the first book, you’d just need to put the title and page number in parentheses at the end of the quote or usage, like this: (Devil in the White City, 45).
8. In each essay you need to have the prescribed number off pages, with 12 font and standard margins. I will not penalize you if you go over the number of pages assigned, but if your paper is too short there’s a good chance that you didn’t adequately answer the question asked.
9. Each paper will be turned in to Turnitin.com. This program checks for regular plagiarism AND the use of CHATGPT or other AI programs.
Essay Prompt:
“It is not a war fought for territory, nor for pieces of land that will be won and held.It is not a war fought to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese nationals, not in the wake of contempt drawn on our faces and on theirs, not in the wake of a burning village, a trampled rice patty, a battered detainee.If land is not won and if hearts are at best left indifferent; if the only obvious criterion of military success is body count and if the enemy absorbs losses as he has, still able to lure us amid his crop of mines; if soldiers are being withdrawn, with more to go late and later and later;….if any of this is truth, a soldier can only do his walking, laughing along the way and taking a funny, crooked step.”
“We weren’t the old soldiers of World War II. No valor to squander for things like country or honor or military objectives.All the courage in August was the kind you dredge up when you awaken in the morning, knowing it will be a bad day.Horace’s old do-or die aphorism, ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ (It is sweet and glorious to die for one’s country)–was just an epitaph for the insane.”
–Tim O’Brien, If I Die in a Combat Zone
In your study of US History you’ve encountered many stories of soldiers in many settings.Vietnam has always been described as different than any of the other American wars that preceded it.Using O’Brien’s book and your textbook and lectures, discuss the character of the Vietnam War.Describe the conflicts within the army itself, from the common soldiers (racial difficulties, officers vs. enlisted men, etc) to the differences between civilian and military leadership.Also discuss the treatment of noncombatants. Make an argument as to whether this war was different from all other American wars. In addition, answer and defend this question.Was this war winnable?Why or why not?
Make sure you include specific quotes from If I Die in a Combat Zone as well as your lectures or textbook to back up your assertions.
4-6 pages, 12 font, standard margins
