Vietnam Class Discussion Questions

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VietnamClass Discussion Questions

• AMST 3100 The 1960s
• Rutledge

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Early Period, 1945-1954

• Why did the U.S. support the French (and not the
  Vietnamese nationalists) in the Indochina War?
• What kind of support did we give the French and
  in exchange for what?

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Geneva Accords, 1954

• Why did the U.S. step in themselves after the
  French defeat in 1954?

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Geneva Accords, 1954

• The Geneva Accords of 1954 stipulated that
  southern and northern Vietnam would be
  temporarily divided for 2 years, whereupon a
  national referendum would be held throughout
  Vietnam for the Vietnamese to determine their own
  national direction basically whether to create
  a permanent South Vietnam or unify all of
  Vietnam.
• Why did the Americans prevent this national
  democratic referendum from occurring in 1956?

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Diem, 1954-1963

• South Vietnams first leader was Diem. Who was
  Diem and what was his relationship to the U.S.?
• Did he enjoy indigenous support from the
  Vietnamese people?
• What kind of leader was he (and his brother)?
• Why was he killed in 1963, and what role did the
  Americans play in his murder?

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South Vietnam Politics

• Diem was supposedly elected via a democratic
  election. Was South Vietnam a democracy?
• How and why did the Americans influence the
  political system of South Vietnam?

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The View from Home, 1954-1966

• How did the average American understand the
  events that were taking place in Vietnam from
  1954 thru the mid-1960s?
• How did the mainstream corporate American press
  portray Vietnam and the American involvement in
  Vietnam from 1954 - 1966?
• Was this portrayal accurate?
• Whose interests did this portrayal serve?

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Rise of War Protest Movement

• About when, where, and why did fairly large
  groups of Americans emerge and begin to question
  American policy in Vietnam?
• Who were these protestors and on what basis did
  they question this war?

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The Draft

• While the draft had long been in effect, in what
  year did the draft escalate to call up huge
  numbers of men?
• What role did the draft play in the
  politicization of the war?
• How did the draft affect the 1960s youth culture?
• How could one avoid the draft?

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Escalation of Conflict

• How did LBJ view the Vietnam conflict?
• Why did he escalate this war?
• What was the basic war strategy of Gen.
  Westmoreland?
• How did the Viet Cong and the northern regulars
  counter this strategy?
• Would dropping atomic bombs have won this war?
• Given the rural population, who do you drop the
  Bomb on?
• Wasnt Agent Orange a weapon of mass destruction?
  Did it work?

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Victory in Vietnam?

• How was victory defined by the Americans?
• In what way was an American victory dependent
  upon winning over the hearts and minds of the
  indigenous population of the southern region of
  Vietnam?
• What does the very presence of the Viet Cong
  early on in this war suggest about American
  success in winning over the hearts and minds of
  local peasants in the southern region?
• How were Americans commonly perceived by the
  southern Vietnamese in 1954?
• Did this perception change over time?

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The Anti-War Counterculture

• How did the war contribute to the emergence of a
  large and disparate counterculture by the mid to
  late 60s?
• What kinds of people joined this counterculture?
• What did they all have in common with each other?
• Why did this counterculture seem to get angrier
  and less idealistic as the decade moved on?
• How did the power structure respond to this
  growing counterculture?

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1968

• What explains the shift in American Vietnam
  policy in 1968?
• How did the Tet Offensive influence this shift?
• How did mainstream media coverage of the war
  change in 1968?
• How did the politics of the war change during
  this year?
• Why did LBJ decide not to run for re-election,
  and how did this open up the possibility for
  political, military, and social change?

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Richard Nixons War Policy

• What was Nixons strategy for Vietnam?
• Was the outcome 6 years later much different from
  what it would have been if the U.S. had pulled
  out unilaterally in 1968?
• Why did Nixons strategy fail?

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Reflections

• Ultimately why did the Americans lose this war?
• What are the lessons of this war?

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Points to Consider

• 1. The Americans, like the French before, did not
  understand the history and culture of the
  Vietnamese people, most of whom were determined
  to resist foreign occupation.
• Many Americans held racist notions of the
  Vietnamese, calling them gooks or ginks and
  believing them to be simple savages. Such
  racism is a common feature of imperialist
  cultures.
• 2. The Americans, like the French before,
  underestimated the organization, strength and
  tenacity of the indigenous resistors
  particularly the Viet Cong (VC) and the North
  Vietnamese Army (NVA).

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Points to Consider

• 3. The Vietnamese nationalists conducted a
  peoples war of citizen resistance against the
  Americans, just as they had against the French
  and the Japanese before that.
• Entire families were involved, and this created
  horrible situations in which whole families were
  bombed or attacked by U.S. troops. When this
  occurred, it fed hostility against the foreign
  occupiers.
• 4. It is extremely difficult for any occupying
  army to counter an indigenous population that
  resorts to guerilla warfare on their own turf.
• Despite dropping more bombs on the Vietnamese
  than were dropped in all of World War II, the
  Americans could not stop the flow of arms and
  goods coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail or
  disrupt their complex tunnel systems.

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Points to Consider

• 5. American military tactics were deeply flawed.
• They relied on the ARVN, a largely unmotivated
  aggregate of reluctant draftees who tended to
  lack dedication, discipline, and the will to win.
• They relied on conventional military strategies
  in the face of an unconventional enemy. The enemy
  chose the time and place of battle and could
  easily disappear.
• Chemical warfare was used, causing deep anger
  toward Americans.
• They used Agent Orange to defoliate a rural
  countryside, yet the bulk of Vietnamese peasants
  relied on farming to get by. These chemicals also
  harmed people and livestock.
• The use of napalm was highly controversial.
• They wiped out whole villages and also moved
  entire villages of Vietnamese civilians into
  virtual concentration camps for their own
  protection.

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Points to Consider

• 6. The Americans never won over the hearts and
  minds of the Vietnamese.
• It was a gross mistake to rely on Diem, a
  ruthless tyrant who failed to serve the interests
  of the Vietnamese.
• There was racism and misunderstanding by
  Americans.
• We were never invited into this region by the
  Vietnamese.
• 7. American policy makers lost the hearts and
  minds of their own American public by 1968.
• The draft was unpopular, especially among youth.
• The war had become a quagmire by 1968.
• A powerful, organized, widely visible peace
  movement had emerged to challenge LBJ and Nixons
  characterization of the war.
• The U.S. corporate media shifted from a pro-war
  slant to a neutral or even anti-war slant after
  the Tet Offensive.
• The Pentagon Papers (1971) exposed the lies of
  our leaders.

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Points to Consider

• 8. By 1969, the U.S. had lost the will to win and
  was now fighting an exit war.
• Troop morale dropped severely by early 1968.
• Troop desertion rates dramatically increased.
• Escapist drug use by U.S. troops dramatically
  increased.
• Americans were not prepared for the high number
  of casualties they suffered, especially given
  such limited progress in the war.
• 9. Nixon increased frustration and anger by
  continuing the war six more years.
• He had no plan for victory, despite allowing
  such rumors.
• His Vietnamization plan was deeply flawed.
• He widened the war into Laos and Cambodia,
  destabilizing Southeast Asia and contributing to
  the rise of Pol Pot.
• Peace with Honor? What did this mean? Was this a
  mere slogan?

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AMST 3100
End