LEAD 389(F) The Vietnam War (Same as History 389)

HIST 389(F) The Vietnam War (Same as Leadership Studies 389)
The Vietnam War, the longest Americans have known, still haunts us. But the passage of time, the accumulation of documentation, and an impressive body of scholarship make it possible to confront the ghosts of that painful conflict with ever greater detachment and confidence. This course is guided above all by a concern with setting the Vietnam War in a broad context. The course will trace origins-for Vietnamese patriots and peasants going back to the nineteenth century and earlier and for American cold warriors beginning with the immediate post-1945 period. The course will also encompass a wide range of groups-from the leaders in Washington, Saigon, Hanoi, and Beijing who directed the conflict, to the soldiers who fought it, to the non-combatants who lived with its consequences. The course will finally follow the war's legacies for each of the countries involved.
Format: lecture/discussion. Readings will consist of primary sources, oral history, and fiction-as well as conventional historical accounts, averaging about a hundred pages a week over the term. Evaluation will be based on two papers, two exams, and participation in class discussion.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25).
Groups B and F
Hour: HUNT