The Vietnam War

Semester and Year	SP 2013
Course Number	IDSEM-UG1589
Section	001
Instructor	Hannah Gurman
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	4:55 PM - 6:10 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	HUM, GLOBAL

Description

The Vietnam War occupies a special place in U.S history and foreign relations. For decades, it was known as America’s longest war, the only war the United States ever lost, a war that shattered Americans' faith in their government and spawned a culture of protests that divided one generation from another. More recently, it has become the conflict against which the U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya are most often compared and contrasted. In this course, we examine the history of the Vietnam War both in its own context and as part of ongoing debates about U.S. foreign policy and military interventions. In addition to considering the war from the U.S. perspective, we also read texts that offer insights into the Vietnamese experience. We cover a wide range of genres and disciplines, including: official documents written by Robert McNamara, George Ball, and Daniel Ellsberg; historical scholarship by Leslie Gelb, David Hunt, and Marilyn Young; and novels, films, and poetry of Eugene Burdick, Norman Mailer, Yusef Komunyaaka, and Tim O’Brien.

Syllabus

IDSEM-UG1589

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)