America's War in Vietnam

This course will examine America's thirty-year military involvement in Southeast Asia, one of the most controversial episodes in U.S. history. Students will read a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, from recently declassified state and Defense Department documents to poetry and short stories. Course readings are selected from various points on the left-right political spectrum, with both "hawks" and "doves" receiving their day in court. Lectures will include the origins of the Cold War; the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies; antiwar activism and other Vietnam era movements; and American soldiers' experience during and after service in Vietnam.