source: - mr. cohoon's us historycohoonushistory.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/8/9/23890950/v… ·...
TRANSCRIPT
Name: Unit 11-Vietnam War Date:
DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION ASSIGNMENT
This question is based on the accompanying documents. It is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Some of these documents have been edited for the purposes of this question. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each document and any point of view that may be
presented in the document.
Historical Context:
Since World War II, conflicts in Asia have played a major role in the Cold War. One of those conflicts arose in Vietnam. The Vietnam War began in the early 1960s with the U.S. sending military advisors to South Vietnam. U.S. troops remained until 1975 when North Vietnamese communist forces took control of the entire country. U.S. involvement in this conflict was often controversial sparking a massive anti-war movement and a great deal of political turmoil as it dragged on. The decision to send troops to Vietnam had a major impact on American society and on U.S. foreign policy.
Task:
Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history and geography, answer the questions that follow each document. Your answers to the questions will help you write the essay. Your essay should be well-organized and include at least six different documents to answer the question (see below). Your essay must include an introduction with a thesis statement, several body paragraphs and a conclusion. Transitions and topic sentences should be used between paragraphs.
Question:
Do you agree or disagree with the U.S.’s decision to become involved in the Vietnam War?
A good answer will:
Have a clear thesis that addresses the question above.
Contain body paragraphs that tie the writer’s thoughts back to their thesis.
Describe and support three specific explanations why you took the position you did.
Document 1
1a. According to President Truman, what is one problem when governments are controlled by the will of a minority?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
1b. According to President Truman, what policy must the United States support?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Document 2
2. According to President Truman, why was it important for the United States to help defend Korea?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
. . . At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation [control] by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. . . Source: President Harry Truman, Address to Congress (Truman Doctrine), March 12, 1947
. . . Communist aggression in Korea is a part of the worldwide strategy of the Kremlin to destroy freedom. It has shown men all over the world that Communist imperialism may strike anywhere, anytime.
The defense of Korea is part of the worldwide effort of all the free nations to maintain freedom. It has shown free men that if they stand together, and pool their strength, Communist aggression cannot succeed. . . .
Source: President Harry Truman, Address at a dinner of the Civil Defense Conference, May 7, 1951
Document 3 3. Based on this cartoon, what problem did the United States face in Asia by 1953?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Document 4
4. According to President Eisenhower, why was Indochina so important to the United States?__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Fred O. Seibel, Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 5, 1953
Robert Richards, Copley Press:Mr. President, would you mind commenting on the strategic importance of Indochina to the free world? I think there has been, across the country, some lack of understanding on just what it means to us.
The President:You have, of course…the possibility that many human beings pass under a dictatorship that is inimical to the free
world…you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences…Then with respect to more people passing under this domination, Asia, after all, has already lost some 450 million of its peoples to the Communist dictatorship, and we simply can't afford greater losses.
But when we come to the possible sequence of events, the loss of Indochina, of Burma, of Thailand, of the Peninsula, and Indonesia following, now you begin to talk about areas that not only multiply the disadvantages that you would suffer through loss of materials, sources of materials, but now you are talking really about millions and millions and millions of people.
Finally, the geographical position achieved thereby does many things. It turns the so-called island defensive chain of Japan, Formosa, of the Philippines and to the southward; it moves in to threaten Australia and New Zealand.
It takes away, in its economic aspects, that region that Japan must have as a trading area or Japan, in turn, will have only one place in the world to go -- that is, toward the Communist areas in order to live.
So, the possible consequences of the loss are just incalculable to the free world. Source: News Conference with President Eisenhower April 7, 1954
Document 5
5. According to President Lyndon B. Johnson, why was the United States involved in Vietnam?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Document 6
6. What justification does Congress use to authorize the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and what authority does it give the President?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
THE NATURE OF THE CONFLICT…The world as it is in Asia is not a serene or peaceful place.The first reality is that North Vietnam has attacked the independent nation of South Vietnam. Its object is total conquest. Of course, some of the people of South Vietnam are participating in attack on their own government. But trained men and supplies, orders and arms, flow in a constant stream from north to south. This support is the heartbeat of the war…
WHY ARE WE IN VIETNAM?Why are these realities our concern? Why are we in South Vietnam?We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954 every American President has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. We have helped to build, and we have helped to defend. Thus, over many years, we have made a national pledge to help South Vietnam defend its independence.And I intend to keep that promise…
Source: President Lyndon B. Johnson, Speech at Johns Hopkins University, April 7, 1965
Whereas the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protect their freedom and has no territorial, military or political ambitions in that area, but desires only that these people should be left in peace to work out their destinies in their own way. Now, therefore be it:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.
Source: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964
Document 7
7. According to these cartoons, what were two effects of the Vietnam War on American society?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Document 8
8. What concern is detailed in the document above?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
…When the country looks to Lyndon Johnson these days, it gains the inescapable impression that Vietnam is America’s top priority. Mr. Johnson uses the bully pulpit [power] of the Presidency (not to mention the Rose Garden) time and again to tell a painfully divided nation why it is fighting and must continue to fight in Southeast Asia. No amount of resistance- and it is growing- can blunt [lesson] his resolve. Few question his personal resolve on the Negro [African American] problem (he is after all, the President who proclaimed “We Shall Overcome!” in a speech three years ago). But his public posture [position] here projects none of the sense of urgency that marks his Vietnam crusading…
Source: “The Negro in America: What Must Be Done,” Newsweek, November 20, 1967
7a 7b
Source: Charles Brooks, Birmingham News (adapted) Source: Herblock, Washington Post, 1966
Document 9
9. What concern does Dr. King raise in the document above?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Document 10
10. What problems does Robert Kennedy highlight about the U.S. has conducted the Vietnam War?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Document 11
…it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem.
Source: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1967
For years we have been told that the measure of our success and progress in Vietnam was increasing security and control for the population. Now we have seen that none of the population is secure and no area is under such control. . . .
This has not happened because our men are not brave or effective, because they are. It is because we have not conceived our mission in this war. It is because we have misconceived the nature of the war. It is because we have sought to resolve by military might a conflict whose issue depends upon the will and conviction of the South Vietnamese people. It is like sending a lion to halt an epidemic of jungle rot.
Source: Robert F. Kennedy, 1968
I know it may not be fashionable to speak of patriotism or national destiny these days. But I feel it is appropriate to do so on this occasion. . . .
Let historians not record that when America was the most powerful nation in the world we passed on the other side of the road and allowed the last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people to be suffocated by the forces of totalitarianism. And so tonight to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support. . . .
Let us be united for peace. Let us also be united against defeat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.
Source: Richard Nixon, Address to the Nation, 1969
11. What argument in favor of continuing the Vietnam War is President Nixon making in the document above?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Document 12aThis article appeared in the New York Times three days after the Kent State shootings.
Document 12b12. Based on these documents, state two ways the Vietnam War affected American Society?
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
Illinois Deploys GuardMore than 80 colleges across the country closed their doors yesterday for periods ranging from a day to
the remainder of the academic year as thousands of students joined the growing nationwide campus protest against the war in Southeast Asia.
In California, Gov. Ronald Reagan, citing “emotional turmoil,” closed down the entire state university and college system from midnight last night until next Monday. More than 280,000 students at 19 colleges and nine university campuses are involved.
Pennsylvania State University, with 18 campuses, was closed for an indeterminate [indefinite] period.In the New York metropolitan area about 15 colleges closed, some for a day, some for the week, and
some for the rest of the term. A spokesman for the National Student Association said that students had been staying away from
classes at almost 300 campuses in the country…Source: Frank J. Prial, New York Times, May 7, 1970
Anti-Vietnam war protestors march down Fifth Avenue in New York City on April 27, 1968. The demonstration attracted 87,000 people and led to 60 arrests. Also on the 27th, some 200,000 New York City students boycotted classes.
Source: The Sixties Chronicle, Legacy Publishing
Document 13
David Miller became the first American to be prosecuted for burning his draft card. In the excerpt below he describes the event.
11. How does the document above show opposition to the Vietnam War?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Organize Your Thinking:
Pro-War Documents Anti-War Documents
What are some arguments the documents show about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War? List the arguments and document numbers that go with them.
Pro-War Arguments Anti-War Arguments
Surveying the assemblage, I suddenly discovered that I would have to say something. I could not just stand there and burn my draft card without a word.
…I said the first thing that came to my mind. "I am not going to give my prepared speech. I am going to let this action speak for itself. I know that you people across the street really know what is happening in Vietnam. I am opposed to the draft and the war in Vietnam."
I pulled my draft classification card from my suit coat pocket along with a book of matches brought especially for the occasion since I did not smoke. I lit a match, then another…The draft card burned as I raised it aloft between the thumb and index finger of my left hand. A roar of approval from the rally crowd greeted the enflamed card.
Source: excerpted from I Didn't Know God Made Honky-Tonk Communists, by David Miller