The Vietnam War

Course Description

HIST 3322 - The Vietnam War

Professor: Robert Buzzanco

Description: This course is designed to be a lecture course focusing on the prominent developments in twentieth-century Vietnam and the United States intervention there.  We will also use readings, discussions, and video presentations to supplement the class lectures.  During the course of the semester we will examine the fundamental issues in history of Vietnam and the American involvement in its civil war-cum-revolution, including, but not limited to: the emergence of Vietnamese nationalism and Communism and the rise of Ho Chi Minh; the battles against French colonialism and Japanese occupation; putative independence and the 1st Indochina War; the initial American commitment to French-occupied Vietnam; the Diem regime in the late 1950s; the Kennedy and Johnson escalations; the debate over U.S. intervention; the American air war; division within the military over strategy; the Nixon approach; widening the war into Cambodia; the "search" for peace; the final offensives; the antiwar movement and the media; the POW and MIA issues; and Vietnam since 1975.  By the end of the semester, each student should have a basic and working knowledge of the Vietnamese war.

Syllabus: http://vi.uh.edu/pages/buzzmat/vnsyll00.htm