Understanding and Teaching the Vietnam War by John Day Tully

Author:John Day Tully
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-940322-23-3
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press

Teachers focusing on America’s response to Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese revolution have a wealth of sources that they can use in their classes. One good starting point is the Pentagon Papers. Like the documents above, the Pentagon Papers is widely available in print and on the Internet.12 Students may not be aware of the Pentagon Papers, so teachers can briefly explain the backstory. The Pentagon Papers refers to a classified Department of Defense report commissioned in 1967 to study the history of America’s intervention in Vietnam. The report was completed in early 1969, and two years later Daniel Ellsberg, a government official involved in the project, leaked it to the press. The New York Times and the Washington Post published excerpts from the report after the US Supreme Court ruled that the Nixon’s efforts to halt publication were unconstitutional. The publication of the Pentagon Papers revealed that American officials had long been pessimistic about the prospects for success in Vietnam but nevertheless continued to escalate American involvement. The study was also a boon to historians writing about Vietnam. They had access to a detailed and lengthy internal study before the war had even ended. Even today the Pentagon Papers is a key resource for people interested in understanding American policy in Vietnam.

The first volume of the Pentagon Papers has many sections that can be used effectively with students. One such section, “Ho Chi Minh: Asian Tito?,” examines the possibility that Ho Chi Minh was like the post–World War II leader in Yugoslavia, who was a communist but did not enter the Soviet bloc. In doing so, it asks an intriguing counterfactual question: could the United States have worked with Ho Chi Minh in the late 1940s? This section is effective because it weighs the evidence and acknowledges both the repercussions of America’s failure to understand Vietnam and the real obstacles to working with Ho Chi Minh after World War II.

Teachers can find a lot to work with in this part of the Pentagon Papers. The brief section comparing Ho Chi Minh to Tito is supplemented by several useful appendixes. One, about twenty-five pages long, includes examples of writers and officials ranging from Bernard Fall to William Fulbright who supported the “Asian Tito” hypothesis in the 1940s and after. The next appendix, also a little over twenty-five pages, is a detailed “political biography of Ho Chi Minh” and timeline of his life. The third appendix compiles about fifteen documents of communication between Ho Chi Minh and the United States in 1945 and 1946.

Teachers can use these materials in any number of ways. If time is limited, students can read the brief overview and summarize the main arguments. Students could then go a step further and assess the argument. Is it convincing? Why or why not? This could be done as a written assignment or in-class discussion. For classes with more time, students can use the supplemental materials to dig deeper into the topic. Students could demonstrate their reading comprehension by summarizing primary source documents.

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