Note to teachers

A good way to bring these issues alive, is to have students research and role play various policy options that were truly debated at the time. Depending upon the size of your class and the time you have, you might want to divide the class into 3 groups and have different students represent the possible options available at the 3 periods discussed below.

You may just want to have one group do one of these, and have other groups work on other projects at other times in the unit.

During this period, between 1950--1965, three different American presidents had to make decisions about the precise relationship between the United States and Vietnam. These decisions were not about doing just one thing or doing another. There was an entire spectrum of possibilities that had to be explored.

• 1954 -- After the Battle of Dienbienphu, at the Geneva Conference, "Indochina" was on the agenda. What should the American attitude be toward the settlement of the war in Indochina? Should there be 1 Vietnam? Two? Ruled by whom? Why? What role, if any, should the United States play in that part of the world?
• 1963 -- It is October 1963. President Diem's government in South Vietnam is staggering. President John Kennedy has advisors who call for an increase in a conventional military presence. Other advisors want to use the techniques of counterinsurgency. Some want the United States to withdraw the soldiers who have been sent there. Vietnam, they say, is not the United States' to save. Some want the United States to demand democratization. Others are willing to support Diem as long as he removes his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, and Nhu's wife, from positions of power and influence. Some feel that Diem is impossible and needs to be overthrown. What factors could support these positions?
• 1964 -- August. A clash has occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin.
  What happened? What should be done? Two American Senators, Morse of Oregon and Gruening of Alaska, have raised questions. President Johnson has sent American planes to bomb North Vietnam. A resolution is on the Senate floor. What does it mean? Should you, as a Democratic senator, vote for it? If you were a Republican senator would you vote for it? Why or why not? Explain.

Using a copy of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the United States Constitution, consider the following:

1. What power does the Executive Branch possess in regard to war and military action?
2. Why did President Johnson believe that bi-partisan congressional support for his policies were important in Vietnam?
3. Why did the Johnson administration go immediately to the Congress and the American people rather than waiting for a full investigation of the attack?
4. Johnson later remarked that his resolution was “like grandma’s nightshirt-it covered everything”
What did he mean by this?
5. What consequences were the result of this resolution? (intended and unintended?)

Category: The origins of the war

What was colonialism? Whom did it benefit? How?
What was the “mission civilisatrice?” What that real? Imagined? Partially true? Wholly fictitious? Propaganda?

The African American scholar and activist, W.E.B. DuBois said in 1900 that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line-the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.” Evaluate that comment. Was he right? Is that still an issue in the twenty-first century?

Why was there a large, world wide, anti-colonial movement operating after World War II?
What was the US government attitude toward that movement? Why?

What did OSS agents in Indo-China think about Ho Chi Minh and the movement for Vietnamese independence?
Why did the US government take a different point of view?
At the beginning of the First Indochina War, the United States played a very small role. That changed by 1950. How come? What events led the US government to reevaluate the meaning and importance of the revolt against the French?

What happened at Dien Bien Phu in 1954? Why has it been called one of the most significant military engagements of the twentieth century?
Why was the United States shocked by the results of the battle of Dien Bien Phu?

What role did anti-communism play in the U.S. support of France from 1945 to 1954?

What was going on in China during this period?

Why did the United States refuse to have diplomatic relations with China after 1949?

What role did McCarthyism play in the formation and discussion of American foreign policy?
Who were the American Friends of Vietnam? What role did John F. Kennedy and Michael Mansfield play in this group?

Who was Ngo Dinh Diem? Who were his principal supporters in the United States? What role did his religion play in creating a base of support during the Cold War? What was his religion?

Why did the United States not abide by the decisions of the Geneva Conferences of 1954 and 1955?

What role did the United States play, overtly and covertly, in the creation of the Republic of Vietnam?

Is it correct to say that the United States “invaded” Vietnam by way of our economic and military support of the government of “South Vietnam?”

What did President Eisenhower say about the national elections of 1956, that we urged Diem to cancel? What does this say about American support for democracy?

What was the political situation in Vietnam during World War II? What role did the following play – Japan, France, USA, England?

Using documents from this time period, identify the foreign policy choices that were made by each of the intervening countries.

Using PBS: Vietnam: a Television History Part 1 “Roots of War”, as well as documents from Ho Chi Minh, et al., identify the situation in Vietnam on September 2, 1945.

Using the messages and letters Ho Chi Minh sends to President Truman imploring him for recognition as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, what considerations are involved in the US decision?

Why did the US choose to go along with the restoration of France in Vietnam? What was at stake for the US?

What were some alternative foreign policy choices the US could have suggested and what might have been the political consequences of each?

What was SEATO? What was the point behind it? What was motivating US policy choices?