Interrogating the Vietnam War: A History of Modern Vietnam (1885-1975)

Catalog description

When we think of the Vietnam War, we think of a critical period in 20th century American history: the swinging 60s, napalm bombs, mysterious Viet Cong fighters, campus protests, the peace movement, and America’s defeat. We may even think of Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July, or that famous picture of desperate people climbing up the ladder to a helicopter on the roof of the US embassy. But there is another side to the war: the “Vietnam” side. This course explores the conflict from that other side. To understand why the Vietnamese took up arms, we examine roughly a century of history beginning with the complete loss of independence to the French in the 1880s and ending with the reunification of the country in 1975. We explore why the Vietnamese resented the French, how young Vietnamese broke with their centuries-long traditions and radicalized, how women found opportunities in a new modernity, how Ho Chi Minh made several efforts to ally with America (and why the US said “No”), and how, ultimately, the US got drawn into a war it had little understanding of. Along the way, we will explore the changing nature of what it means to be Vietnamese on a personal, social and national level, as Vietnamese of different ethnic, class, gender and educational groups, from various geographic areas, confront new forces that re-shape their identities. We will read a mixture of primary and secondary materials, including films, memoirs, recollections, newspaper articles and autobiographies by Vietnamese participants. Code 3. RE.