THE UNITED STATES AND
VIETNAM
(History 3361,
section 001)
Semester: Fall 2009
Location: UH: 014
T-TH: 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Professor:
Joyce S. Goldberg
Office: UH 330;
Phone: 272-2863
Office Hrs.: T-TH:
2:00-4:00 p.m.
Email: goldberg@uta.edu
*************************************
REQUIRED
READING
Gary R. Hess
(GRH) Vietnam:
Explaining America’s Lost War
Mark Philip Bradley (MPB)
Imagining Vietnam & America: The Making
of
Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950
Robert D.Schulzinger(RDS) A
Time for War: The United States and Vietnam,
1941-1975
William
J. Duiker (WJD) Sacred
War: Nationalism and Revolution in
a Divided Vietnam
Robert Buzzanco
(RB) Masters
of War: Military Dissent and Politics
in the Vietnam Era
Andrew Hunt
(AH) The
Turning: A History of Vietnam Veterans
Against the War
Christian G. Appy
(CGA) Patriots:
The Vietnam War Remembered From
All Sides
Paperback editions of these books are available from
bookstores that service UTA, from half-price/used bookstores, or from online
book sites.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
AND OBJECTIVES
This course seeks to place U.S. involvement in Vietnam in historical perspective and to provide the historical framework from which to confront many complex, baffling, yet vital questions about U.S. foreign relations during the cold war: Why did the United States make such a vast commitment in an area of so little apparent importance, one in which it had taken scant interest before? What did it attempt and expect to accomplish during its involvement in Vietnam? Why, despite expenditure of more than $150 billion, the application of great technical expertise and employment of a huge military arsenal, did the world's most powerful nation fail to achieve its objectives? We all live in history. Some of us make it, others are made (or broken) by it. Many of us try fitfully to make use of it, usually by ransacking the past for analogies to explain the present or even to predict the future. But for me, history’s ultimate utility does not lie in its predictive or even its explanatory value, but in its ability to nurture an appreciation of just how limited is our capacity to see the past clearly or to know fully the historical determinants of our own brief passage in time. “If the study of history does nothing more than teach us humility, skepticism, and awareness of ourselves,” one contemporary historian has written, “then it had done something useful.” We must recognize that a knowledge of history will not necessarily make us smarter in the way we handle future events.
STUDENT
COMPETENCIES AND
LEARNING OUTCOMES
A) Students will use cognitive skills to read critically,
construct arguments based on historical evidence, and express them
persuasively in written form.
B) Students will practice historical analysis by learning
to differentiate between primary and secondary sources and between facts and
interpretations.
C) Students will recognize the relationship between
history and memory by discovering the cultural debates that influence “historical
remembrance.”
STUDENTS WITH
DISABILITIES
I am committed to the ADA and will assure that disabled
students are accommodated in my class. If
you require an accommodation based on disability, you are required to provide
appropriate documentation through the Office for Students with Disabilities.
(See Student Handbook)
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Any student caught in an act of scholastic dishonesty or
caught conspiring to commit such an act will be disciplined in accordance with
UTA regulations.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS
UTA offers many programs to help you achieve academic
success. Contact the Office of
Student Success Programs for help. The
History Department web site also links to useful sources offering tips on how
to read a history book, how to take notes, how to study for quizzes and exams.
Go to: www.uta.edu/history.
Click on “Related Sites” or “Student Guides to the Study of
History.”
PROFESSOR’S
PERSONAL CAVEAT
This class is not a typical undergraduate lecture course
either in intensity or in work requirements. I will not be presenting
well-established historical “truths” that you embalm in notebooks and then
regurgitate for exams. In this
course, “knowledge” will come from scrupulous reading, intense classroom
discussion, and some Socratic questioning. As much as possible, we will
closely examine the opposite view of whatever seems to be the class consensus.
For the course to succeed, students must be committed to doing
the reading meticulously. Moreover, please note that this is not a “sociology
of combat” course, not a course in combat tactics, not a “psychology of
killing” course (though all of these may come up in class discussion).
It is absolutely NOT designed to serve as some kind of personal
emotional catharsis for present-day political bitterness, convictions,
or passions.
Please be advised (or consult with my former students)
that in my classes just “showing up” does not guarantee success. I have
exceptionally high, albeit rational, expectations for student performance.
I strongly recommend:
1) Regular attendance and serious preparation for each class;
2) Note-taking from the reading as well as class discussions and videos;
3) Regular rewriting/ reviewing of notes;
4) Purposeful “engagement” of the material through class participation;
5) Study groups (????);
6) Extensive preparation long before each quiz or exam.
CLASSROOM DECORUM
Although I prefer an atmosphere of informality and good
humor, rudeness is unacceptable and common courtesies should be observed by
all of us:
1) Students
should attend all classes, although no record will be kept.
You will be neither penalized nor rewarded for attendance, however you
are absolutely and completely responsible for all work transacted every class.
2) You are expected to arrive on time, having completed
the day's assignments, and you must remain for the duration of the class.
Students arriving late or who must leave early should enter and leave
inconspicuously.
3). ALL
ELECTRONIC “GADGETS” MUST BE PLACE ON SILENT MODE AND OUT OF SIGHT.
NO TEXTING WILL BE PERMITTED DURING CLASS OR EXAMS.
STUDENTS WHO WISH TO TAKE NOTES ON A LAPTOP MUST SIGN A “LAPTOP
PLEDGE.”
4) Reading, sleeping, doing homework, or other disruptive
activities are not courteous classroom behaviors.
No tape recorders are permitted without my consent.
Eating and drinking, in moderation, are permitted but please use common
sense.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
TO PASS THIS COURSE,
UNDERGRADUATES ARE REQUIRED TO TAKE ALL QUIZZES AND ALL EXAMS AND RECEIVE
PASSING GRADES ON AT LEAST FIFTY PERCENT OF THE TOTAL OF ALL GRADED
WORK. STUDENTS WHO DO NOT, WILL
NOT PASS THE COURSE. [Merely taking
all exams and quizzes, however, does not guarantee a passing grade.]
There will be six multiple-choice READING quizzes (requiring scantrons.) Their purpose is to ensure close and careful reading of assignments, to enhance class discussion, and to reinforce facts and concepts. The lowest quiz grade (but not a zero for a missed quiz) will be dropped. Each of the five highest scores is worth ten percent of the final grade. There also will be two essay exams (requiring bluebooks). These will stress the ability to think in broad conceptual terms as well as master essential facts. Each is worth twenty-five percent of the final grade.
I grade essays according to this rubric:
1) relevance--how well the essay answers the specific question;
2) comprehensiveness--how much relevant material is used as evidence;
3) analysis--how well the essay develops concepts and ideas;
4) documentation--is there sufficient evidence for each argument;
5) logic--do conclusions actually follow from the
premise.
Makeup quizzes and exams will be offered only at the
instructor’s convenience and never will be multiple-choice.
I do not offer extra-credit work nor grant incompletes.
Students are solely responsible for withdrawing from this course.
I
will never email any grades
READING ASSIGNMENTS
AND DISCUSSION
TOPICS
In case of inclement
weather or school closings, you are expected to remain current with the
syllabus, including all test dates.
T-Aug.
25th: Organizational
Meeting
Syllabus distribution and course introduction
TH-Aug. 27th:
Vietnam's Heritage
Handout:
"Why Men Love War"
GRH: pp. ix-xi; Ch. 1
WJD:
pp. xv-xvii; pp. 1-11
CGA: Preface
T-Sept. 1st:
The Vietnamese Nationalist Tradition
MPB: pp. ix-x; Preface; Ch.
1
WJD: pp. 11-22
CGA: pp. 3-11
TH-Sept. 3rd: Patriotism, Nationalism, Marxism
MPB:
Ch. 2
RDS: pp. ix-xi; pp. 3-11
WJD: pp. 22-36
CGA: pp. 12-19
T-Sept. 8th: Enemies East and West
MPB:
Ch. 3
RDS: pp. 12-17
WJD: pp. 37-44
CGA: pp. 20-27
TH-Sept. 10th:
Independence and the Resurgent French
MPB: Ch. 4
RDS: pp. 17-19
WJD: pp. 44-52
CGA: pp. 28-31
**QUIZ #1**
T-Sept. 15th:
U.S. Postwar Policy and the French
MPB: Ch. 5
RDS: pp. 19-31
WJD: pp. 53-67
CGA:
pp. 35-43
TH-Sept. 17th:
Vietnam and the Cold War
GRH: Ch. 2
MPB: Conclusion
RDS: pp. 31-50
WJD: pp. 67-75
CGA: pp. 44-59
T-Sept. 22nd:
The Great French Failure
RDS: pp. 51-62
WJD: pp. 75-94
CGA: pp. 60-78
TH-Sept. 24th:
Diem--the Flawed Solution
RDS: pp. 62-68
WJD: pp. 95-106
CGA: pp. 60-78
RB:
Ch. 1
**QUIZ #2**
NO OFFICE HOURS THIS DAY
T-Sept. 29th:
Diem--U.S. Advice and Support
RDS: pp. 69-80
WJD: pp. 107-123
RB:
Ch. 2
CGA: pp. 79-98
TH-Oct. 1st:
Diem's Economic and Military Miracles
RDS: pp. 80-91
WJD: pp. 124-134
CGA: pp. 101-111
RB:
Ch. 3
T-Oct.
6th:
Deepening the Commitment
RDS: pp. 91-96
WJD: pp. 134-137
CGA: pp. 112-127
RB:
Ch. 4
TH-Oct. 8th:
Communist Resurgence
RDS: pp. 97-105
WJD: pp. 138-150
CGA: pp. 128-161
RB:
Ch. 5
**QUIZ #3**
T-Oct. 13th:
**MIDTERM EXAM**
TH-Oct. 15th:
The Best and the Brightest
GRH: Ch. 3
RDS: pp. 105-123
WJD: pp. 150-164
CGA: pp. 162-176
T-Oct. 20th:
The Continuity of Containment
GRH: Ch. 4
RDS: pp. 124-150
CGA: pp. 177-199
RB:
Ch. 6
AEH: Introduction; Ch. 1
TH-Oct. 22nd:
Tonkin and Incremental Escalation of the War
GRH:
Ch. 5
RDS: pp. 150-181
WJD: pp. 164-172
CGA: pp. 200-220
RB:
Ch. 7
NO OFFICE HOURS THIS DAY
T-Oct. 27th:
Resistance and LBJ's Decision for War
RDS: pp. 182-214
WJD: pp. 172-181
CGA: pp. 221-237
RB:
Ch. 8
TH-Oct. 29th:
U.S. Military Strategy
GRH:
Ch. 6
RDS: pp. 215-245
WJD: pp. 181-208
CGA: pp. 238-281
RB:
Ch. 9
**QUIZ #4**
(last day to drop is Friday,
Oct. 30)
T-Nov. 3rd:
Tet:
Turning Point
GRH: Ch. 7
RDS: pp.
246-263
WJD: pp.
208-218
RB:
Ch. 10
CGA: pp. 285-306
AEH: Ch. Introduction; Ch.
1
TH-Nov. 5th:
Resistance Escalates
RDS: pp. 263-273
RB:
Conclusion
CGA: pp. 307-327
AEH: Ch. 2
T-Nov. 10th:
The United States at War at Home and Abroad
RDS: pp. 274-284
AEH: Ch. 3
CGA: pp. 328-342
TH-Nov. 12th:
Nixon's War for Peace
RDS: pp.
274-280
WJD: pp.
219-225
AEH: Ch. 4
CGA: pp. 343-370
T-Nov. 17th:
Vietnamization Proceeds
RDS: pp. 280-284
AEH: Ch. 5
CGA: pp. 371-376
**QUIZ #5**
TH-Nov. 19th:
Cambodian Sideshow
RDS: pp. 284-292
WJD: pp. 225-232
AEH: Ch. 6
CGA: pp. 377-389
T-Nov. 24th:
The End
of the Tunnel
WJD: pp. 232-235
AEH: Ch. 7
CGA: pp.393-440
T-Dec. 1st:
Toward an Accord
GRH: Ch. 8
RDS: pp. 292-304
WJD: pp. 235-244
AEH: Ch. 8
CGA: pp. 441-492
TH-Dec. 3rd:
Peace in Our Time? Legacies
and Reflections
GRH: Conclusion
RDS: pp. 305-336
WJD: pp. 244-271
AEH: Ch. 9
CGA: pp. 493-549
**QUIZ #6**
TH-Dec.10TH:
**COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM**
8:00-10:30 a.m.
(Light breakfast provided)