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Keywords: Vietnam War
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- Abstract: What does it mean to be an American? Far from being a fixed concept, over the past 150 years American identity has been constructed and reconstructed through the conflicts, interchanges, and negotiations between different ethnic, cultural, and religious groups. In this course, we will pay particular attention to two major transformations in American identity: the shift from a conception of citizenship grounded on race to one grounded on shared democratic ideals; and the development of the United States from a colonial backwater to a global superpower. Through a combination of lectures, readings, films and small discussion groups, we will examine the past as both a “foreign country” with its own customs, mores and rituals, and the source of deeply rooted patterns that continue to play out in contemporary society. Beyond covering just facts and figures, this course will focus on how the everyday lives of Americans looked, sounded, smelled, and felt. By the end of the semester, you will have a basic understanding of the major ideas, events, cultures, peoples, and personalities that have shaped the United States from the Civil War to the present day. Perhaps most importantly, through the required weekly discussion section meetings you will learn to question and evaluate historical sources and evidence, in the process becoming informed thinkers and critical readers, rather than passive recipients of conventional wisdom. You will also develop a sense of how historians analyze and interpret the past, and through the writing of a historical research paper, try your hand at the craft of history.
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- Abstract: Course mission: to explain and evaluate past and present United States policies. What caused the United States' past involvement in foreign wars and interventions? Were the results of U.S. policies good or bad? Would other policies have better served the U.S. and/or the wider world? Were the beliefs that guided U.S. policy true or false? If false, what explains these misperceptions? General theories that bear on the causes and consequences of American policy will be applied to explain and evaluate past and present policies. The history of United States foreign policy in the 20th century is covered in detail. Functional topics are also covered: U.S. military policy, U.S. foreign economic policy, and U.S. policy on human rights and democracy overseas. Finally, we will predict and prescribe for the future. What policies should the U.S. adopt toward current problems and crises? These problems include the war against Al Qaeda and the wider war on terror; Iraq and Saddam Hussein; the Taiwan Straits; the Central African conflicts; and more. What should be the U.S. stance on global environmental and human rights questions?
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- Abstract: From 1969 to 1973, Paul Nitze served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT). In this video segment, Nitze describes the useful role that 'back channel' negotiations can play and discusses the particular problems with national security adviser Henry Kissinger's negotiations in the final days of SALT I. The second part of the segment addresses Watergate's impact on Nitze's participation in SALT II.Nitze's interview conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: 'One Step Forward' focuses on SALT I and SALT II. He recounts how he became part of the SALT I delegation, the key issues within the negotiating process, and the initial position statements he drafted for the Soviet delegation. Increasingly critical of U.S. arms policy, Nitze re-formed the Committee on Present Danger, which argued for a massive military buildup of U.S. forces in the post-Vietnam period. He spends considerable time in his interview going over the then-persistent threat of Soviet expansionism. Nitze explains his objection to President Jimmy Carter's nomination of Paul Warnke as his chief arms negotiator. He also explains his opposition to the SALT II Treaty, which he saw as codifying Soviet superiority in missile megatonnage and throw-weight.
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- Abstract: Dr. Randall Forsberg is executive director of the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, a think tank she founded in 1980 with the aim of reducing the risk of war and minimizing the burden of U.S. military spending. In this video segment, she describes the reach of grassroots activism at the height of 1982's national Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, which called for a bilateral, verifiable halt to new production of nuclear weapons. In the interview she conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: 'Visions of War and Peace,' Forsberg describes the genesis of the movement, which was born from the failure of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) II and from public awareness of the development of a new generation of war-fighting systems. Forsberg traces the town-by-town growth of the anti-nuclear petition, which began in 1980 with the four-page document 'Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,' and the referendum process that fanned out across the nation but remained largely ignored by the national media. Forsberg details the negative reaction by President Ronald Reagan's administration and the ensuing support on Capitol Hill, which passed a freeze resolution. This was followed just weeks later by congressional approval of the MX missile by an equally large margin-a vote that Forsberg says 'tore up the movement.' Soon afterward, President Reagan suddenly announced the Strategic Defense Initiative-a program that Forsberg critiques at the end of her interview-and he agreed to negotiate with the Soviet Union, which was a key goal of 'Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race.' The lasting impact of the nuclear-freeze movement, says Forsberg, has been a shift away from public protest and toward grassroots, long-term education. She concludes that this new 'institutionalized peace movement' will re-emerge more informed and cohesive than the last, with the determination to change 'the direction of the permanent peacetime policy of the United States.'
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- Abstract: This site features a multimedia exhibit of key events and decisions that U.S. presidents faced in the 20th century: the stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the atomic bomb, Little Rock school integration, Gulf of Tonkin, trip to China, Berlin Wall, and more.
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- Abstract: The four major wars in which American women served after World War II can be split into two pairs. Korea and Vietnam were conflicts fought in Asian countries divided by the politics of the Cold War. The Persian Gulf War and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq were fought in the Middle East and grew out of tensions over aggression in that region and, in the latter instance, the 9/11 attacks. For women, the first two wars signaled few advances in their roles in military service, but in the two recent wars, the areas of women’s participation expanded immensely, with potentially more dire consequences.
- Subject:
Social Sciences, Humanities
- Grade Level:
Primary, Secondary, Post-secondary
- Collection:
Library of Congress
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- Abstract: This site features more than a dozen moments in history -- Washington's worry that Britain was spreading smallpox among American troops (1775), Jefferson's observations of the French revolution (1789), Truman's first meeting with Stalin (1945), and others.
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- Abstract: See the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial wall in Washington D.C. through the eyes of war veteran and contemporary poet Yusef Komunyakaa. In this video segment from Poetry Everywhere, Komunyakaa reads his poem Facing It.
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- Abstract: Denis Healey was the British secretary of state for defense from 1964 to 1970 and chancellor of the exchequer from 1974 to 1979. In this video segment, Healey reflects on the period in which he was defense secretary under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. He recalls the opposing interests of Germany and the United States with regard to nuclear strategy, explains his 'Healey theorem' of deterrence, and clarifies France's position that alliances can't coexist with nuclear weapons. Healey also assesses U.S. defense secretary Robert McNamara's quest for tidy solutions to 'insoluble' nuclear problems. In his interview conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: 'The Education of Robert McNamara,' Healey begins with a comparison between Soviet and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conventional military strength. He elaborates on France's opposition to the notion of 'extended deterrence' and on his own role in persuading NATO to adopt 'flexible response' strategy. He traces the evolution of his military analysis of massive retaliation, describes his collaboration with McNamara in developing flexible-response doctrine, reiterates the expectation that SALT III would follow shortly after a ratified SALT II Treaty, and shares how he ultimately lost faith in flexible response. He also discusses the extraordinary growth of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, Britain's response to the proposal for a Multilateral Force in the early 1960s, German chancellor Helmut Schmidt's distrust of U.S. president Jimmy Carter, and his own opposition to U.S. Euro-strategic missiles. As a fellow defense intellectual, Healey was encouraged by national security adviser Henry Kissinger's appointment: he was sure that detente could move forward. He admired Kissinger's boldness in dodging 'all official channels which he doesn't like anybody else doing,' but he was disappointed by Kissinger's failure to consult with allies. For the future, Healey believes that there should be fifty-percent reductions in strategic and conventional weapons, particularly when 'one side or the other has superiority.' He also advocates a 'nuclear-free corridor' to avoid accidental war.
- Subject:
Humanities, Social Sciences, Science and Technology, Business
- Collection:
WGBH Open Vault
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- Abstract: Welcome to Hindsight, an online history project that will transport you back to New York City on May 8, 1970. Your mission is to determine what happened on that day, and what meaning it might hold for us today. Our site uses the web's characteristics to foster historical inquiry -- you will navigate through multiple sources of evidence, explore diverse perspectives, and make connections within this "web" of material. The site is part archive, part essay, and part interactive exhibit.
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- Abstract: HPOL is a collection of invaluable audio materials some available for the first time on this website capturing significant political and historical events and personalities of the twentieth century. The materials range from formal addresses delivered in public settings to private telephone conversations conducted from the innermost recesses of the White House. Our aim is to provide an accessible source of audio information to enliven instruction and scholarship in history and politics and to enable easy access for all persons to the rich audio archives of American history and politics.
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- Abstract: Henry Kissinger, U.S. national security adviser from 1969 to 1973 and then secretary of state until 1977, was the dominant figure in creating the foreign policy of the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations. This video segment deals with the concept of "linkage": interlocking U.S. arms-control negotiations with leveraging Soviet behavior and policy.
Kissinger's interview conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: "One Step Forward" touches on points contained in his blueprint for de: a relaxing of tensions between the superpowers. Detente was designed to "contain" Soviet influence and power, based on a combination of pressures and inducements. Kissinger speaks to issues of nuclear parity, its influence on negotiations, and the breakthrough in Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) once the Soviet Union agreed to link offensive and defensive weapons. He also addresses the significance of opening relations with China; his "back channel" diplomacy with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin independent of the SALT delegation; the controversy surrounding multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs); and the significance of the SALT I Treaty as a frame of reference for future negotiations. What followed, Kissinger recalls, was a general antagonism toward SALT II, the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to link trade with improving human rights within the Soviet Union, and the problems for arms control created by MIRVs-all of which coincided with the fall of Nixon.
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- Abstract: Fred Simon's intimate portrait of a Vietnam War veteran centers on Frank and his attempts to re-tell his experience during the conflict, and his life once the conflict was over. In this touching sequence, Frank talks about his feelings of guilt, and of wishing he had died during the conflict.
- Subject:
Arts, Humanities, Science and Technology
- Collection:
WGBH Open Vault
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- Abstract: This manual provides you with a variety of creative and engaging strategies to help students think about how wars have been defining moments in both the history of the nation and the lives of individual Americans.
- Subject:
Humanities, Social Sciences
- Grade Level:
Primary, Secondary, Post-secondary
- Collection:
Smithsonian Institutions
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- Abstract: Harry McPherson was special counsel to U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1969. In this video segment, McPherson captures the thinking behind Johnson's internal stalemate: his anguish over the Vietnam War; his diminished political strength; his tension-filled relationship with newly appointed defense secretary Clark Clifford, who pushed to de-escalate; and Johnson's own inability to let go. In the interview he conducted for Vietnam: A Television History, 'Tet 1968,' McPherson provides an intimate portrait of that year in the White House. He describes conversations in which he participated; President Johnson's state of mind; and the impact on the administration as 'contributing nation' allies, Congress, advisers, and public opinion turned against the war. McPherson begins the interview by recalling the conflicted mood at the White House following the Tet Offensive. The optimism found in military cables and official information clashed with televised images showing the nation that the war was resulting in massive loss of human life and that a prisoner could be shot at point-blank range. McPherson's account also follows the internal politics of the Johnson administration from 1964 to 1966. President Johnson's domestic agenda was swallowed by a war he doubted privately; U.S. involvement in Vietnam deepened considerably even as public confidence eroded; Democrats suffered midterm-election defeats. Defense secretary Robert McNamara, who was a key architect of U.S. policy in Vietnam, became convinced that the war was unwinnable and resigned shortly after Tet. McPherson remembers a luncheon at which McNamara, his voice breaking, spoke of the 'crushing futility' of the air campaign that he 'had ultimate responsibility for.' The arrival of Clark Clifford as the new defense secretary set in motion a sea change of opinion in the White House-namely the recognition, finally, that continuing to escalate troop levels was doing nothing to stem North Vietnam's war of attrition with the United States. McPherson recounts his burgeoning alliance with Secretary Clifford, who stated, 'Together we'll get this country and our president out of this mess.' McPherson talks in great detail about the three-month process of writing the president's pivotal speech to be televised at the end of March. He recalls reworking drafts as the administration debated whether to continue, increase, or selectively arrest bombing as a prelude to peace talks a proposal that McPherson presented and that was eventually adopted. Given the change in policy, the speech required a new ending, which Johnson himself decided to write. On March 31, 1968, the president stunned the world with his announcement that he would not seek reelection. Reflecting on the Vietnam experience, McPherson probes the feasibility of fighting a limited war. He ends his interview with a personal sketch of President Johnson, a complex and tragic figure. McPherson considered him brilliant in 'sheer intellectual mental horsepower' and 'the smartest man I ever saw.'
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- Abstract: These learning materials are designed to engage students in hands-on activities that stimulate them, and, most importantly, encourage critical thinking in the classroom. These educational activities in this section will provide high school social studies, media education and language arts teachers, as well as college journalism and communication educators with extensive lesson plans, resource materials, and discussion questions to introduce students to the world of war correspondence.
Reporting America at War offers students invaluable insights as it allows them to experience the life of a war reporter through the lens and the experiences of such noted journalists such as Christiane Amanpour, Walter Cronkite, David Halberstam, Chris Hedges and Morley Safer. The video explores press censorship, message control, the power of pictures, finding the right words, and works by Ernie Pyle and Edward R. Murrow.
- Subject:
Humanities
- Grade Level:
Secondary, Post-secondary
- Collection:
PBS
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- Abstract: Readings and discussions focusing on a series of short-term events that shed light on American culture and social organization. The events studied in 2001 were the Boston Tea Party of 1773; the crisis at Boston over the case of Anthony Burns, an escaped slave, in 1854; the lockout and strike at Homestead, Pennsylvania, in 1892; and the uprisings at Columbia University in 1968. Emphasis on finding ways to make sense of these complicated, highly traumatic events, and on using them to understand larger processes of change in American history.
- Subject:
Humanities, Social Sciences
- Grade Level:
Post-secondary
- Collection:
MIT OpenCourseWare
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- Abstract: The 1960s and early 1970s were characterized by a series of protests as groups that had long felt disempowered sought to make their voices heard. California was the heart of many of these new movements. The protests put into motion by the Civil Rights movement evolved to address social justice issues affecting many groups, including students facing the draft, ordinary people protesting the war, farm workers fighting for better working conditions, Chicanos expressing a new identity, and African Americans who felt that nonviolence as a tactic was no longer working. America's continued involvement in the Vietnam War galvanized many groups. Across the United States, students protested US involvement in the war by resisting the draft. All sorts of people joined in by disrupting "business as usual," marching, and going on strike. One photograph shows a banner declaring "On Strike" hanging over UC Berkeley's Sather Gate; the deserted campus demonstrates widespread support among both faculty and students. Other photographs depict students marching in protest against the war, signing a "Women for Peace" petition, and waving an American flag in an anti-war parade. The Chicano Moratorium Committee protested the war by marching in parades, but they also registered their own social justice agenda: one photograph shows them carrying banners that read, "Our fight is in the barrio, not Vietnam."
People also rallied around workers' rights, pushing boundaries and demanding better working conditions. The United Farm Workers (UFW), co-founded and led by Cesar Chavez, used strikes to protest the unfair treatment that California's mainly Mexican field workers received. In one photograph pickets stand at the edge of a Central California grape field and carry placards that say "Huelga," Spanish for "strike." Another photograph shows UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta addressing a group. Groups demanding their rights did not work in isolation; a 1971 letter from Cesar Chavez to the NAACP reflects the support that existed between the two groups, both of which were fighting for equal treatment under the law. The Oakland, California-based Black Nationalist organization, the Black Panther Party, was fighting for social justice on several fronts, in a way that often confused their more moderate supporters. They strongly promoted important and positive social issues such as free clinics, programs to feed children, and drug rehabilitation programs; yet, at the same time, they embraced controversial and at times violent tactics. Although Panthers were involved in violent clashes with police, it is still unclear whether the Panthers initiated these actions or were simply defending themselves against police violence directed at them. Many of the Panther leaders were persuasive and charismatic speakers, and photographs here show many of them in action: Black Panther Minister of Defense Huey Newton and his wife, Gwen; Black Panther Chairman Bobby Seale in jail; members of the Black Panthers at a press conference; Kathleen Cleaver in a prosecutor's office; and Angela Davis in Los Angeles speaking to the press after a Black Panther shootout. When Huey Newton was put on trial in 1968, accused of murdering a police officer, Black Panthers lined up on the second day of trial to show their support. Another image shows a multiracial crowd gathered at a Huey Newton rally in 1969 at San Francisco's Federal Building.
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- Abstract: Dr. Randall Forsberg is executive director of the think tank she founded in 1980, the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies. In this video segment, she recalls the moment during arms negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union when she determined that the arms race is not driven by basic deterrence but by the imperative to gain superiority in threatening to win-without actually waging-nuclear war.In her wide-ranging interview for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: 'Visions of War and Peace,' Forsberg explores war-and-peace issues, military doctrine, the history and economics of nuclear-weapons development and policy, war-fighting capability and force structure, scenarios and resistance to arms reduction, the history of relations between the superpowers, and their interactions with developing nations. Seven countries, she asserts, account for 99 percent of nuclear weapons. The dispersal of weapons-in the form of the Rapid Deployment Force, tactical weapons, and missiles fitted with multiple warheads-heightens the risk of war in a world moving toward becoming what she calls 'a global nuclear porcupine.' Forsberg asserts that 'threatening to commit genocide as a way of conducting politics' is one of the most 'deeply immoral and subversive acts of government in the modern world.' Moreover, she maintains, a conventional military crisis could easily cross that nuclear threshold. Forsberg advocates the three Rs: 'reduce, restructure, and restrain' conventional forces-the other side of the military coin-that consume 75 percent of the U.S. military budget. She compares disarmament with abolitionism: most people understood that slavery was evil and didn't know when it would end, but they realized that they had to work until it was eliminated. Forsberg's analysis of the country's 'defense dependency' and of the shortcomings of the nuclear-freeze movement she spearheaded is laced with her optimism about Soviet Union general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms. She has never abandoned her vision of an educated public that will prevail in 'demilitarizing international relations" to achieve a "secure, stable permanent peace.'
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- Abstract: In this lesson, students explore their various opinions about the War in Iraq, create and view Venn diagrams that compare and contrast the Wars in Iraq and Vietnam, and write informed letters to their senators about the War.
- Subject:
Humanities, Social Sciences
- Grade Level:
Primary, Secondary
- Collection:
New York Times
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