TEACHING THE VIETNAM WAR FROM MULTIPLE VIETNAMESE PERSPECTIVES – A SAMPLE SYLLABUS (PART 2)

8. The Big War

• Le Ly Hayslip, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, 26-54, 65-97, 103-124

Journal prompt: How did Hayslip and her family’s attitude towards the NLF evolve from the time the revolutionary forces arrived in her village to her arrival in Saigon? In Hayslip’s description, how was life in the NLF-controlled countryside different from life in the RVN-controlled cities?

My notes: While the reading by Trương Như Tảng in week 8 offers an urban, intellectual perspective on the NLF, this portion of Hayslip’s memoir recounts how peasants experienced life under the revolutionary organization. In class, we discuss why the popularity of the NLF slipped as the war escalated. We also use the memoir to explore the social and cultural differences between the NLF-controlled countryside and the RVN-controlled cities. To get my students to appreciate that the various Vietnamese belligerents weren’t just politically antagonistic towards each other but also culturally distinct, I end the discussion by having the students listen to wartime songs from the RVN, NLF, and DRV. The selection of songs differ each year, but one of the points of the exercise is to help students identify the politics of each song and what that tells us about the regime’s different artistic policies and cultural climate.

9. Tet Offensive

• Nick Turse, Kill Anything That Moves, 1-75

Journal prompt: 1) According to Kill Anything that Moves, how did the training of U.S. soldiers and their experiences on missions encourage them to see Vietnamese civilians as potential enemies, including women and children? 2) How was military success measured during the Vietnam War and how did it incentivize indiscriminate killing?  3) Why did policies like the rules of engagement and free fire zones make things worse rather than better for civilians, according to Turse?  4) Lastly, do you agree with Turse’s argument that training, policies, and the need to exhibit American military success in Vietnam caused so many civilians to die? Why or why not?

My notes: The readings for week 9 actually correspond with the lecture for week 8, and the readings for week 10 actually correspond with the lecture from week 9. I have not found a way to move things around to avoid this chronological lag, but I actually have not found it to be a problem. I just tell my students during week 8 to expect the lag. The readings for weeks 9 and 10 introduce students to historical debates by featuring a “pop history” book by Nick Turse that got a lot of buzz when it came out, followed by a scathing review by Peter Zinoman and Gary Kulik. I choose to assign a work of popular history here for two reasons. First, it’s easier for my students to read popular books than academic ones, and this book will be the basis for the second paper, so understanding the reading will help them write better papers. Second, I know that after they graduate, the history they encounter will much more likely be of the popular variety, and I wanted to give them practice analyzing and critiquing that type of history. For week 9, I designed the journal prompt to help them understand the basic elements of Turse’s argument. Then, during discussion, I make sure we go through these elements and do not let them discuss their views of his argument until we have fully covered Turse’s argument. I also work through a few sample passages in Turse’s book and press my students to explain the argument and evidence.

10. Peace Talks and War Plans

• Nick Turse, Kill Anything That Moves, 76-107
• *Gary Kulik and Peter Zinoman, “Misrepresenting Atrocities: Kill Anything That Moves and the Continuing Distortions of the War in Vietnam,” Cross Currents 12 (Sep 2014): 162-198.
• *Olga Dror, “Translator’s Introduction,” to Mourning Headband for Hue, by Nhã Ca, ed. and trans. Olga Dror (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2014), xxiii-xlii.

Journal prompt: Please answer the following questions: 1) According to Kulik and Zinoman, what is wrong with Turse’s argument? 2) How does Dror’s account of the Huế massacre differ from Turse’s? 3) Which one do you find more persuasive: Turse’s argument or Kulik and Zinoman’s critique?

My notes: The main reading for week 10 is the review of Turse’s book by Kulik and Zinoman. I also include a short excerpt by Olga Dror to give students a sense of what an alternative account of the Huế massacre might read like. I tell students up front that Zinoman was my dissertation adviser but that doesn’t mean they have to agree with him. In fact, I make it a point to stay neutral during both weeks 9 and 10 so that my students have the opportunity to develop and articulate their own views. The results are different every year. Some classes started out agreeing with Turse but then turn completely against him, other classes think Turse as well as his critics had important points to make, and some classes are divided between a minority in favor of Turse and a majority who think he might as well be a novelist. It’s a great set of readings because my students almost always have strong feels about it and come to class excited to discuss their views. I should note that I do not assign the entirety of Turse’s book. Turse is rather repetitive, and my experience is that students understand his argument and produce good papers without having read the full book.

11. The Fall of Saigon

• Watch Little Girl of Hanoi in class. No journals due.
• ***Paper #2 due on discussion day

My notes: When possible, I like to give my students a break from the reading in order to focus on their papers, so movie weeks are great. Little Girl of Hanoi is about a little girl in the DRV who lives through Operation Linebacker II (the so-called Christmas bombings) and the devasating consequences for her family. The movie is a wonderful illustration of civilian life in Hanoi during the late years of the war There is often not enough time for lecture, movie, and discussion during week 11, so I usually make time the following week to discuss the movie’s portrayal of North Vietnamese government and society. Little Girl of Hanoi pairs well with the movie Journey from the Fall in week 13, and they form a debate of sorts about the meaning of the war.

12. Reunification and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

• *Lê Minh Khuê, “A Day on the Road,” in The Stars, the Earth, the River, trans. Bac Hoai Tran and Dana Sachs, ed. Wayne Karlin(Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 1997), 37-54.
• *Lu Van Thanh, The Inviting Call of Wandering Souls (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1997), 50-54, 122-125, 129-134.

Journal prompt: What is Lu Van Thanh’s attitude towards the new socialist economy and other aspects of postwar life under communism? In Lê Minh Khuê’s “A Day on the Road,” what is the narrator’s attitude towards the RVN’s consumerism and material prosperity? What is Đức’s and the other characters’ attitudes towards consumerism and material prosperity?

My notes: Week 12 covers the first decade after the conclusion of the war and victory of the DRV over the RVN. The theme of the readings is the encounter between former enemies, how they experience the postwar period, and their reaction to the economy and culture of the other side. After covering the questions in the journal prompt at the start of discussion, I ask students to consider how Lu Van Thanh and the characters in Lê Minh Khuê’s short story would think of each other and what that tells us about the difficulties of reunification.

13. Exile and Diaspora

• Watch Journey from the Fall in class. No journals due.
• *Start reading Lifton and Dean…

My notes: Another movie week! Whereas Little Girl of Hanoi offers a communist perspective, Journey from the Fall is about the postwar period from an anticommunist refugee perspective. I find that both movies in combination with the readings from week 12 and my lectures give students a fairly strong grasp of the changes in the postwar decade. Journey from the Fall employs the themes of family and community similar to Little Girl of Hanoi but offers a completely different interpretation of the war.

14. Veterans and the Memory of War

• *Robert Jay Lifton, Home from War (1973), 13-22, 35-44, 99-102
• *Eric Dean, Jr., “The Myth of the Troubled and Scorned Vietnam Veteran,” Journal of American Studies 26, no. 1 (Apr 1992): 59-74

Journal prompt: 1) What unique challenges did Vietnam veterans in the “rap groups” experience, according to Lifton? 2) According to Dean, where did our popular image of the “troubled and scorned” Vietnam veteran come from? 3) Do you find Dean’s argument persuasive? Why or why not?

My notes: The last lecture covers changes in Vietnam since economic renovation, and I tie it back to Paradise of the Blind from week 4. The readings focus on American veterans and picks up the topic of soldier experiences from weeks 9 and 10. Lifton’s book was one of the first to argue that American Vietnam veterans were unusually troubled compared to those from other wars and is partly responsible for the stereotypes of Vietnam veterans in American pop culture. In contrast, Dean argues that this popular image is inaccurate. The Lifton reading is a little meandering, so I use it to give students a taste of where this stereotype comes from. Dean’s article is an engaging read, and students tend to take strong and very different positions on Dean and enjoy explaining why they think his argument is right or not. When there’s time, I also have students read a short passage in class from Bảo Ninh’s Sorrow of War to help them see that some DRV veterans – that is those on the winning side – also experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and struggled to reintegrate into society.