Spring Term, 2024
Prof. Edwin E. Moise
Office: Hardin 102
Cell: 650-8845
e-mail: eemoise@clemson.edu
Messages can be left in my mailbox in Hardin 124, or in the box on my office door.
Office Hours: I will try to be in my office at the following hours. It is possible that I may occasionally miss office hours, but on the other hand, I will be in my office, and available to you, at a lot of other times. E-mail me, or just check and see if my door is open.
Monday 2:30-3:20
Tuesday 11:00-12:00, 2:00-3:15
Wednesday 2:30-3:20
Thursday (none)
Friday (none)
If something unfortunate happens I might have to change my plans, but I plan to teach this as a traditional history class. Lectures, the quiz, and tests will take place in the classroom. Most discussion will be in the classroom, though some will take place through Canvas. You will turn in written assignments (other than the quiz and tests) through Canvas.
The First Indochina War (1946-54) and the Second Indochina War (1960-75) were both fought mostly for control of Vietnam, and fought mostly in Vietnam. The course will deal with the first at moderate length, but most of the emphasis will be on the second.
There are no prerequisites for HIST 4360/6360.
Research Paper: The most important single part of your grade will be the course
paper. You can write it on whatever topic you please, within the limit of the subject matter of this course.
The papers should be at least eight pages long typed double
spaced for the actual text (not including title page, maps, illustrations, or Works Cited page). Longer
papers are acceptable. If footnotes take up a lot of each page, make it at least nine pages.
Papers for students in HIST 6360 should be fiftten to twenty pages, or more.
When you are trying to decide what sources to use for your term paper, or if you are just curious about something that has come up in the course, I suggest you consult my Bibliography of the Vietnam War on the Web. But bear in mind that when you see a book listed in this bibliography, this does not necessarily mean you will actually be able to find a copy of that book, in or near Clemson.
A lot of things that have been written about the Vietnam War are not true. As you do your research, you should be thinking actively about whether you believe the things your sources are saying. I will not flunk you for guessing wrong, but you should make an effort to judge who is telling the truth and who is not; don't just take things on faith. Don't dodge the problem by sticking to questions on which you believe everything you read, either. Explaining why you think a particular source was wrong about a particular fact will tend to have a good influence on your grade.
For more detailed guidelines on the term paper, see Writing a Term Paper in Military History.
The paper is due Wednesday, April 24. I request that you turn it in electronically through Canvas, which records the date you submitted it. If Canvas says it was turned in on April 24 (in other words, if it got in before 11:59 pm), it will be considered on time. There will be a five point penalty if the paper is submitted on April 25 or 26. The penalty will be fifteen points if it is not in by midnight April 26.
You can have a pretty free choice of topics for this paper, within the limits of the subject matter of this course. You must talk with me, in person or by Zoom, and discuss the sources you will be using. It is not enough to say to me as we are walking out of the classroom one morning "Professor Moise, is it OK if I write about the American bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail?" You will need to talk things over with me for ten or fifteen minutes, not just a few seconds. After we have talked, I will give you a blank topic sheet, which you will then fill out and return to me. The sheet should describe your topic, with a list of the main sources you plan to use. There will be a five point penalty if you have not given this to me by March 13, an additional five points if it is not in by March 27.
If you give me a preliminary draft of your paper as an e-mail attachment by April 12 (preferably before that), I will look it over and give you suggestions about how you could improve it.
Tests: The midterm test (70 points) and the final exam (120 points) will be mostly essay.
Newspaper Research Exercise: 40 points. (Two newspaper exercises for students in HIST 6360.)
Short Questions Based on the Reading: I will ask eight questions about the reading, which I will post on Canvas and you will answer on Canvas, due ten minutes before the beginning of class, ten points each but only your six best count toward the final grade: 60 points.
There will be 20 points possible for class participation, either in class or through the Discussion section on Canvas. If you are the sort of person who
feels comfortable speaking up in class, do so. If you don't feel comfortable with that, post in the discussion section on Canvas so you won't lose out on this. If
you catch me in a mistake and persuade me that it was in fact a mistake, you get two
points in the gradebook, over and above the regular poinst for discussion. If you present a good clear argument that I am wrong about something,
with evidence, then your grade may be boosted even if you do not succeed in convincing me.
This adds up to 460 points for undergraduates, 500 for graduate students.
The basic grade scale is that 90% (414 points for undergraduates) is the bottom of the
A range, 80% (368 points for undergraduates) is the bottom of the B range, 70% (322 points for undergraduates) is the lowest C. Sometimes
I alter the scale in the students' favor, never against them.
Thus 432 points (90% of 480) is a guaranteed A for an undergraduate; 428 or 424 points might be an A, depending on how the rest of the class does.
If there are graduate students, I will meet with them once a weeks to discuss materials covered in the past week, either in person or by Zoomm depending on how it is easiest to schedule this.
I do not emphasize trivial factual details in this course. On tests and quizzes I will NOT ask you to tell me the date of the Battle of "Hamburger Hill", or to name the American units that fought in it. There are some facts you need to know, but they are more important things than dates. On the other hand, I will expect you to get an idea of the sequence of events, what came first and what came later.
Academic integrity requires that we not try to pass other people's work off as our own. The ways students have gotten into problems of academic dishonesty in courses I have taught that were similar to this one, in past years, have been:
Large portions of a term paper copied from a book or web site, without any indication that the material was copied. Typically this involves both large amounts of material quoted word-for-word, without quotation marks, and also a serious shortage of source notes pointing to the book from which the material came. Often there are misleading source notes claiming the material came from some source other than the one from which it was actually copied word-for-word. These false source notes are especially strong evidence that the copying was dishonesty and not just carelessness.
Whole term paper obtained from some source (a commercial term paper service, or the Internet, or the collection of term papers that one of the fraternities used to have, and may still have).
One student copies another student's 40-point newspaper research exercise, maybe changing a few words and substituting synonyms, but leaving the two papers still so similar that it is obvious the resemblance could not be coincidence. I would be likely to bring charges both against the student who copied and the student who allowed his or her paper to be copied.
If a student copied a paper from someplace without citing that source, but rephrased it, substituting synonyms for enough words so that the copied paper was not identical, word for word, to the original, this would still be academic dishonesty, but would be more difficult for me to prove.
There are some ways in which it is all right for students to help each other. If two students want to study together getting ready for a test, that is perfectly OK. Only after I have handed out the questions does help on a test become improper. But if two people work together on a newspaper research exercise, and turn in papers that are very similar because each has been getting a lot of help from the other in writing it, both will be in deep trouble. If one of your fellow students asks to look at your paper, to get a better idea of how the assignment was to be done, please say no. They should come to me to ask for further explanations of the assignment, rather than looking at a completed paper to give them their clues. If two papers are so similar it is obvious the author of one must have seen the other, I will file charges.
In furtherance of its Academic Integrity policy, Clemson University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism in student assignments. I will request that you submit your research papers, at the end of the semester, to Turnitin through Canvas. You will have the right to refuse to do this, if you wish. Turnitin will provide me with an originality rating and notation of possible text or contextual matches with other source documents. Turnitin does not make any determination of plagiarism. Rather, it identifies parts of an assignment that may have significant matches with other source documents found on the Internet, in the Turnitin database, or from other sources. If matches are identified and indicate the possibility of inclusion of material that is not properly cited, I will discuss this information with you before reaching any judgment or decision.
Do not turn in a paper in this course that you have also submitted in some other course, in this semester or a previous one, without consulting me first.
Clemson University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, veteran's status, genetic information or protected activity in employment, educational programs and activities, admissions and financial aid. This includes a prohibition against sexual harassment and sexual violence as mandated by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This policy is located at http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/campus-services/access/title-ix/. Ms. Alesia Smith is the Clemson University Title IX Coordinator, and the Executive Director of Equity Compliance. Her office is located at 110 Holtzendorff Hall, 864.656.3181 (voice) or 864.656.0899 (TDD).
Clemson University values the diversity of our student body as a strength and a critical component of our dynamic community. Students with disabilities or temporary injuries/conditions may require accommodations due to barriers in the structure of facilities, course design, technology used for curricular purposes, or other campus resources. Students who experience a barrier to full access to this class should let the professor know, and make an appointment to meet with a staff member in Student Accessibility Services as soon as possible. You can make an appointment by calling 864-656-6848, by emailing studentaccess@lists.clemson.edu, or by visiting Suite 239 in the Academic Success Center building. Appointments are strongly encouraged – drop-ins will be seen if at all possible, but there could be a significant wait due to scheduled appointments. Students who receive Academic Access Letters are strongly encouraged to request, obtain and present these to their professors as early in the semester as possible so that accommodations can be made in a timely manner. It is the student's responsibility to follow this process each semester. You can access further information here: http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/campus-services/sds/.
There will also be reading assignments that I will make available online.
January 10: Introduction to the course.
January 12: Background to Vietnam. Vietnamese civilization began in
the Red River Delta of what is today northern Vietnam, slightly
more than 2,000 years ago. It spread southward gradually. The French conquered Vietnam, in chunks, in the late 19th century.
Vietnamese could not effectively defy French power.
>>> Read Moise, The
Vietnam Wars all the way through, to give you an idea of the overall pattern of
events we will be seeing in this course, and to allow you to get started thinking of
what topic you might want to choose for your term paper.
January 15: MARTIN LUTHER KING'S BIRTHDAY, NO CLASS
January 17: Ho Chi Minh founded the Vietnamese Communist movement, and
the Second World War gave the Communists their chance to try to make Vietnam an independent country.
In 1945 the Communists established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
>>> Herring, pp. 3-10.
January 19: Continue discussion of those events, particularly looking at a Communist viewpoint on them.
>>> Truong Chinh,
The August Revolution (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House,
1958), pp. 1-40. The story of the Viet Minh siezure of power in 1945. Truong Chinh was General
Secretary of the Indochinese Communist Party at that time; he published the Vietnamese original
of this work in Su That in 1946. By the time this translation was published in
Hanoi as a book, Truong Chinh had been demoted as punishment for his errors in the Land
Reform campaign of 1953-1956. The text has been placed on-line
in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project
at Texas Tech University, in two parts. I am asking that you read only the first part, up to page 40.
January 22: All-out war between Vietnam and France broke out in 1946.
It was a classic guerrilla War. Meanwhile, the Cold War was deepening. US policy was ambivalent.
>>> Herring, pp. 11-15.
>>> Reading for January 22, posted in Files on Canvas
January 24: In 1950, the war in Indochina became much more entangled in the Cold War.
>>> Herring, pp. 16-23.
>>> "Indo-China Viewed as Key Asia Point,"
New York Times, January 24, 1950, p. 11.
>>> Robert Trumbull, "Asia's
Vital Rice Bowl Now Communist Target", New York Times, January 29, 1950, E5
>>> "Asia's Rice Bowl", New York Times
editorial, January 31, 1950, p. 19.
>>> Draft report by the National Security Council,
"The Position of the United States with Respect to Indochina", February 27, 1950.
>>>C. L. Sulzberger, "Bao
Dai is Held Ineffective as Popular Viet Leader," New York Times, June 11, 1950.
January 26: In the early 1950s, the Democratic Republic was gaining ground in the war.
>>> Herring, pp. 24-32.
>>> One of the most important sources of information about the war is the collection of documents, with analysis, commonly known as "The Pentagon Papers." Originally compiled inside the Defense Department between 1967 and 1969, it was a long and detailed history of U.S. policy toward Vietnam from 1945 to about March of 1968, plus about 4,000 pages of the actual texts of some of the most important documents dealing with Vietnam, up through 1963, found in Defense Department files. Substantial portions were leaked to the press in 1971; the complete text was declassified and released to the public in 2011.
In the section
"U.S. Involvement in the Franco-Viet Minh War, 1950-1954,"
read pages A-17 to A-30 (pages 23 to 36 the way the computer counts pages in the .PDF).
>>>"NATO and Indo-China,"
New York Times editorial, December 19, 1952.
January 29: In 1954, The United States didn't quite jump
openly into the war when France got in bad trouble in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
>>> Herring pp. 33-44
>>>Hanson W. Baldwin, "Conflict
in Indo-china Is Vital to Free World," New York Times, March 28, 1954.
>>>"French Units Smash
Vietminh Besiegers," New York Times, March 29, 1954.
>>> Bernard Fall, "Indochina--The Last Year of the War,"
Military Review, XXXVI:7
(October 1956), pp. 3-11.
Newspaper research exercise due January 31: Check to see what one or two newspapers and/or newsmagazines were saying in May 1954 about the struggle in Indochina, and/or the question of what the United States should be doing about it. How optimistic or pessimistic were people? Use at least four articles. Write an essay of about two pages (typed double spaced), or more, about what you found. Say what there was in the articles that you found interesting or surprising. I want to see one essay based on several articles, not a string of essentially separate mini-essays, each based on a single article. Try to select articles that will allow you to have some unifying themes in your essay.
Evaluate the attitudes
of the authors. Is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to think that the facts may
be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? What assumptions is the author making? Notice
the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had
said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said,
that you consider biased. What kind of bias was it (false statements, or use of emotionally
loaded language, or just careful selection of facts so that only
facts favorable to one side get mentioned)? Notice what you are reading:
--A news article is not supposed to have too much of the reporter's own opinions in it, but
there is nothing inherently wrong with the reporter quoting the opinions of other people. If a reporter is
quoting some very opinionated person, try to judge whether the reporter agrees with the person's opinions.
--An editorial is supposed to present the opinions of the newspaper; there is
nothing inherently wrong about it being opinionated. But you can still complain about bias if the
editorial is illogical or deceptive in the way it pushes that opinion.
--The same applies to an opinion piece written by someone who does not represent the newspaper.
There is no requirement that you use The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, or The Times of London, but those papers have the advantage that you can access them online through the Clemson Library's Databases Page. If you want to use newspapers other than those, you you use some other online repository of old newspapers, such as Google News, or read them on microfilm. Most of the Clemson University Library's microfilms are in storage, so you will probably have to request them the day before you are going to be reading them. The microfilm readers are on level 4 of the library. If you want to use weekly newsmagazines, the easiest way is to use the ones that have been bound into volumes, on the shelves on level 1 of the library. Some are also on microfilm.
Please give source notes. Source notes must give page numbers, if the source had numbered pages. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have a list at the end, if I can't tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing where. It isn't even enough to have a link to the article, if you are turning the paper in electronically. I don't care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what I need to know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the name of the author if it was given, the title of the article, the title of the publication, and the date and page, is OK. If you found the articles on the Internet, give a link.
Please turn your papers in electronically through Canvas.
January 31: The Geneva Accords of 1954 ended the First Indochina War and split Vietnam in half. Ngo Dinh Diem became prime minister of the State of Vietnam.
>>> Herring pp. 45-63
February 2: Ngo Dinh Diem managed to get actual control of South Vietnam. The Communists did a very bad job of running North Vietnam.
>>> Herring pp. 64-81
February 5: The war began again in 1959-60, both in South Vietnam and in Laos.
The guerrillas, who came to be called the Viet Cong did pretty well.
>>> Herring, pp. 81-95
February 7: The guerrillas gained strength, despite increasing U.S. aid to Diem.
>>> Herring, pp. 95-109
February 9: By 1963, Diem was in bad trouble.
>>> Herring, pp. 110-117
>>>> David Halberstam,
"Vietnamese Reds
Win Major Clash," New York Times, January 4, 1963.
>>>> "War Without
Will," Wall Street Journal, January 10, 1963.
>>>> "Felt Sees
Defeat of Vietnam Reds," New York Times, January 12, 1963.
The Battle of Ap Bac: Plan and Assumed Enemy Situation
The Battle of Ap Bac: Situation About 1400 (2:00 p.m.)
February 12: The U.S. encouraged a coup that overthrew Diem
>>> Herring, pp. 117-133
February 14: After Diem's death, Le Duan escalated the war on the Communist side; President Johnson hesitated about expanding the
American role.
>>> Herring, pp. 135-146
February 16, 19 (no class)
February 21: Communist forces continued to strengthen, the Saigon government was weak and divided, President Johnson finally decided to escalate.
>>> Herring, pp. 146-177
February 26: The war was complex and messy
>>> Herring, pp. 183-213
February 28: What was happening in the United States? Also, an American infantry unit in 1967.
>>> Herring, pp. 213-231
>>> Begin Downs, Section 1
March 1: An American infantry unit in 1967.
>>> Continue Downs, Section 1
March 4: Air War.
>>> Herring, pp. 177-183
March 6: One infantry unit around the end of 1967.
>>> Downs, pp. 99-147.
Newspaper research exercise due March 8: Check to see what one or two newspapers and/or newsmagazines were saying in November 1967 about the war in Vietnam, and/or the disputes about it in the United States. How optimistic or pessimistic were people? Use at least four articles. Write an essay of about two pages (typed double spaced), or more, about what you found. Say what there was in the articles that you found interesting or surprising. I want to see one essay based on several articles, not a string of essentially separate mini-essays, each based on a single article. Try to select articles that will allow you to have some unifying themes in your essay.
Evaluate the attitudes
of the authors. Is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to think that the facts may
be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? What assumptions is the author making? Notice
the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had
said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said,
that you consider biased. What kind of bias was it (false statements, or use of emotionally
loaded language, or just careful selection of facts so that only
facts favorable to one side get mentioned)? Notice what you are reading:
--A news article is not supposed to have too much of the reporter's own opinions in it, but
there is nothing inherently wrong with the reporter quoting the opinions of other people. If a reporter is
quoting some very opinionated person, try to judge whether the reporter agrees with the person's opinions.
--An editorial is supposed to present the opinions of the newspaper; there is
nothing inherently wrong about it being opinionated. But you can still complain about bias if the
editorial is illogical or deceptive in the way it pushes that opinion.
--The same applies to an opinion piece written by someone who does not represent the newspaper.
There is no requirement that you use The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, or The Times of London, but those papers have the advantage that you can access them online through the Clemson Library's Databases Page. If you want to use newspapers other than those, you can use some other online repository of old newspapers, such as Google News. If you want to use weekly newsmagazines, the easiest way is to use the ones that have been bound into volumes, on the shelves on level 1 of the library.
Please give source notes. Source notes must give page numbers, if the source had numbered pages. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have a list at the end, if I can't tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing where. It isn't even enough to have a link to the article, if you are turning the paper in electronically. I don't care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what I need to know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the name of the author if it was given, the title of the article, the title of the publication, and the date and page, is OK. If you found the articles on the Internet, give a link.
Please turn your papers in electronically through Canvas.
March 11: Continue reading Downs, and also consider the issue of Counterinsurgency vs Conventional Warfare
>>> Downs, pp. 147-184
>>> "Reading for March 11" in Files on Canvas
Due date for term paper topic sheets: March 15
March 13, 15: One infantry unit around the end of 1967.
>>> Downs, sections 3 and 4.
March 18, 20, 22: SPRING BREAK, NO CLASS
March 25: Le Duan decided to launch the Tet Offensive
>>> "Reading for March 25" in Files on Canvas
March 27, 29: The Tet Offensive of 1968: a major Communist
offensive, that attained partial surprise. Militarily it cost the
Communists a lot of men, but it produced important political benefits
for them by shaking American confidence that the war could be won. Tentative peace talks began in Paris.
>>> Herring, pp. 233-275
April 1: Richard Nixon came into office as President in 1969.
>>> Herring, pp. 276-289.
April 3: In 1969, the US began to pull out of Vietnam.
>>> Herring, pp. 289-93
>>> At least glance (you don't have to read the whole thing) at
"The Massacre at Mylai," LIFE Magazine, December 5, 1969.
>>> Read pages 906-907 of
President Nixon's statement of November 3, 1969,
on Vietnamization of the war.
>>> Links to other readings in "Reading for April 3" in Canvas under Files.
Photo taken during the
My Lai massacre
April 5: Laos and Cambodia
>>> Herring, pp. 295-301
April 8, 10, 12: The U.S. pullout continued until
U.S. participation in ground combat ceased in 1972. But Laos continued to be a battleground, and
Cambodia became one. U.S. bombing declined in 1971, but increased again in 1972, especially after the
Communists' Easter Offenive began.
>>> Herring, pp. 301-317
April 15, 17: The Paris Peace Agreement
>>> Herring, pp. 318-329
April 19: The War after the Paris Agreement, 1973-1974
>>> Herring, pp. 330-341
April 22: The End, 1975
>>> Herring, pp. 342-353
April 24: Submit term papers online through Canvas
April 26: Aftermath and Legacies of the War; Review
>>> Herring, pp. 353-74.
Final exam: Friday, May 3, 3:00 p.m.
Other Links
Web site of the Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas
Military History Map Library: Vietnam War (U.S. Military Academy, West Point)
President Johnson's Speech, March 31, 1968
Clemson University Academic Success Center, which provides help and tutoring for students encountering academic problems. It does not, however, have tutors specifically for History courses.
"Vietnam State Army Is Formally Created", New York Times, December 9, 1950.
"More Aid for Indo-China", New York Times, September 6, 1953.
Dana Adams Schmidt, "French Due To Get More U.S. Planes as Indo-China Aid", New York Times, March 23, 1954.
"Test in Far East", New York Times, March 28, 1954.
"The U.S. and Indo-China", New York Times, March 30, 1954.
"Invading China's Air Space", New York Times, August 22, 1967.
Revised March 3, 2024. **
