This is an 9 page essay assignment, double spaced.
In our Domino text ch 5 “Planning a Tragedy” p 99, we read in the middle of the page in reference to us – the United States of America – “For the nation to maintain its global commitment to anticommunism, South Vietnam had to be saved.” But on p 120 we learn South Vietnam was a “corrupt, illegitimate government.” And on p 124 “in Vietnam, enough was never enough.” These quotes are just brief background to apply the three rules of strategic thinking on p 126 to the early phase of our American war in Vietnam. In your own words as much as possible, what are these 3 rules? Use evidence from ch 5 to support your understanding of how effectively (or not) we (USA) applied these rules as we took our dive “Into the Abyss, 1965-1966.” (ch 6 Domino) Use several supporting documents from ch 5 “America’s War” in our Documents text.
How did our government and military present “The Mirage of Progress” (ch 7) On p 153 Sir Robert Thompson warned that we (USA) were using “a military solution to [solve] the political problem in Vietnam…” as we unleashed our “killing machine.” What is the most effective propoganda you find In the Documents text ch 4 “Selling Patriotism”?
Ch 8 in Domino presents a significant turning point in our American war in Vietnam: “Tet and the Year of the Monkey, 1968.” The photograph on p 167 “became symbolic of the Tet offensive.” Please explain why. Pages 174-5 describe the March 25, 1968 meeting of the so-called “Wise Men.” What was significant in President Johnson’s (LBJ hereafter) conclusion that “the establishment bastards have bailed out.”? (p 175)
Here in America 1968 brought the election of Richard Nixon to the presidency, and Domino’s ch 9 “The Beginning of the End, 1969-1970.” On p 197 we learn about the effort to pick “up where the French left off” with our policy of “Vietnamization” reinventing the failed French policy of jaunissement, or yellowing of the fight against…the Viet Minh (Knutson’s preferred understanding), or North Vietnam (the American Government’s presentation). How did this effort go?
The Tet Offensive had led “Fighting Abe” Abrams to recognize that it had been “a psychological and political and therefore strategic disaster.” Our own military’s “new strategic assumptions” (both quotes p 196) contibuted to the My Lai Massacre, covered in Domino pages 204-205, and Documents text pages 131-136. Now it is also time to use our My text as well. Briefly explain/describe this perhaps most horrific single incident in our war in Vietnam.
Another counterproductive effort in our Vietnam War was President Nixon’s ordering an invasion of Cambodia, found on pages 209-214 in ch 9 “The Beginning of the End, 1969-1970.” Why was this invasion such a catastrophe?
Briefly describe “The Fall of South Vietnam, 1970-1975.” What doe this have to say about our American War in Vietnam?
Course Materials Olson, James S. and R. Roberts. Where Domino Fell. (Blackwell Publishing, 2008) Olson, James S. and R. Roberts. My Lai. (Bedford Books. 1998) Young, Marilyn B., John J. Fitzgerald, and A. Tom Grunfeld. The Vietnam War: A History in Documents. (Oxford University Press, 2002) The Ken Burns series on The Vietnam War is being streamed onto Moodle site The PBS series Vietnam: A Television History and the related guide available on the Internet at: http://www.askasia.org/frclasrm/readings/r000189.htm
Please put a heading on each as you usually do.
