Richmond (Ernest Bolt)
Course and Title: History 398
Special Topics: The Vietnam Experience
MW 2:45 to 4:00 p.m.Ryland Hall 215
Office and Office Hours: Ryland Hall 107, MW 11:00 to noon; TTH 2:15-3:00; other times by appointment
Class begins on Wed Aug 25
Class ends on Mon Dec 6
Final Exam 7-10 p.m. on F Dec 10
==========================
Wed Aug 25 -- Local Course: Nature of Online Course and Introductions
WEEK 1: What made the wars possible?
Mon Aug 30: Pre-Colonial Vietnam (Bolt)
1. SarDesai 1-30
2. Duiker 5-11
3. Taylor, from The Birth of Vietnam (Library Reserve) 17-27, 37-41, 334-339
4. Terada, from Under the Starfruit Tree (Library Reserve) 120-125
Wed Sept 1: The French Experience in Vietnam (Lairson)
1. SarDesai 31-56
2. Duiker 11-94
3. Herring 21-45
Complete the Background Knowledge Survey
WEEK 2: Origins of American involvement
Mon Sept 6: (Labor Day -- Not a holiday at Richmond): Exemplary French film and literature (Alexander)
1. Hayslip, from When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, 1-23 (Library Reserve)
2. "Indochine"
Wed Sept 8: The U.S. Advisory Experience, 1954-1965 ( Bolt)
1. Duiker 95-164
2. Herring 47-119
3. Moore, from The Green Berets (O'Nan 17-40)
WEEK 3: Americans cross the Rubicon
Mon Sept 13 and W Sept 15: Paths not taken: Counterfactual Thinking about the Johnson escalation, 1964-65 (Lairson)
1. Herring 121-157
2. Burke and Greenstein, from How Presidents Test Reality: 118-133; 150-173; 195-230 (Library Reserve)
3. Duiker 172-184
4. Simulation
WEEK 4: LOCAL COURSE
At this point in the course, each professor determines readings for your class, based on the local course requirements.
Mon Sept 20 and Wed Sept 22: Who was John Paul Vann?
1. Sheehan, from A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, "Ap Bac" (Library Reserve) 203-265
(Yom Kipur)
Wed Sept 22 -- First film/documentary review paper due
WEEK 5: Search and Destroy/People's War
Mon Sept 27: American strategic operations and questions (Lairson)
1. Herring 159-201
2. Halberstam, from One Very Hot Day (O'Nan 57-72)
Wed Sept 29: People's
War and Tran Van Tra (Bolt)
1. Duiker 139-184; 185-208
2. Tran Van Tra (online selections of his memoirs)
3. "Life in the Maquis" (Library Reserve)
WEEK 6: Literature and film on fighting the war: Part One
Mon Oct 4 and Wed Oct 6: Perspectives of witnesses: representing the combat experience (Alexander)
1. Edwards, from Bloods (O'Nan 324-337)
2. O'Brien, from The Things They Carried (O'Nan 503-538)
WEEK 7: The Tet Offensive
1. Herring 203-241
2. Duiker 204-218
3.O'Brien, from In the Lake of the Woods (O'Nan 655-671)
Mon Oct 11: NO CLASS - FALL BREAK AT RICHMOND
Wed Oct 13: The Tet Offensive (Lairson)
Additional Materials on the Tet Offensive (Bolt)
WEEK 8: LOCAL COURSE
At this point in the course, each professor determines readings for your class, based on the local course requirements.
Mon Oct 18: Further Discussion of My Lai
Wed Oct 20 -- Visiting Speaker: Tayloe Wise
1. Wise, "August - LZ Becky's Death" (Library Reserve)
WEEK 9: Nixon's Wars
Mon Oct 25: The war at home: The antiwar movement (Bolt)
1. Hassell, "Christman" and "untitled" (O'Nan 576, 578)
2. Rabe, from Sticks and Stones (O'Nan 351-364)
3. Herring 186-192
4. DeBenedetti and Chatfield, from An American Ordeal (Library Reserve)
5. Moser, from New Winter Soldiers (Library Reserve)
Wed Oct 27: Nixon's War through Cambodia (Lairson)
1. Webb, from Fields of Fire (O'Nan 130-149)
2. Herring 243-283
3. Edelman, ed., from Dear America (O'Nan 351-364)
WEEK 10: Americans Leave the War
Mon Nov 1: The Peace Accords (1973) and Release of POWs (Bolt)
1. Herring 243-283
2. Duiker 219-244
Wed Nov 3: End of the war (1975) (Lairson)
1. Herring 285-321
2. Duiker 244-250
WEEK 11: Literature and Film on Fighting the War - Part Two
Mon Nov 8: Literature, women and film (Hendricks and Alexander)
Wed Nov 10: The Veteran Experience (Hendricks and Alexander)
1. Herr, from Dispatches (O'Nan 200-233)
2. Weigl, selected poems (O'Nan 579-592)
3. Auger, in A Piece of my Heart (O'Nan 338-350)
4. CNN story on 1999 Women's Vets' Convention
WEEK 12: LOCAL COURSE
At this point in the course, each professor determines readings for your class, based on the local course topics:
Richmond: Cambodia and the Vietnam Wars
Rollins: Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia; US/USSR/China
Centenary: Vietnamese refugee culture in America
Mon Nov 15
Wed Nov 17: Second film/documentary review due
WEEK 13: Postwar Vietnam: Doi Moi and Normalization
Mon Nov 22: Doi Moi and Normalization (1981 to the present) (Lairson)
1. SarDesai 93-119; 161-178
2. Ehrhart, "The Invasion of Grenada" (O'Nan 679)
3. O'Brien, "Speaking of Courage" and "Notes" (O'Nan 593-611)
Wed Nov 24: NO CLASS (Thanksgiving Break)
WEEK 14: Memorials and Remembering
Mon Nov 29: Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War - Review Paper Due
Wed Dec 1: Discussion of Bao Ninh's Novel
Mon Dec 6 -- Local Course Day: Retrospective on the Course and Final Exam Preparation
Fri Dec 10 Final Exam 7-10 p.m.