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History 388—US and Vietnam
Midterm exam
For Wednesday, February 20, 2007.

Directions Part I(70%): Prepare answers to the following questions, gathering concrete evidence to support the points you make. Use the text, videos, lectures and any outside readings and reflection you have done. You will do ONE of these on test day, but you do not know WHICH one for sure, so it is wise to prepare all three.

1. The chief architect of the Vietnam war, Robert Strange McNamara, listed as one of his life lessons, “Emphathize with your enemy” in a conflict or war. You are an advisor to Robert McNamara and the year is l961, the year JFK came to office. Adopting the perspective of the Viet Minh leadership, write a profile of the group for McNamara, including what conditions in the country account for their appearance, what their objectives are and why they seem to be so popular among ordinary Vietnamese. Conclude by describing how they view Diem and the United States, and what you believe the United States should do about them.

2.As a senator, President John F. Kennedy visited Vietnam in the last years of the Viet Minh’s war with the French. He and his brother Robert declared that the US should not stand in the way of “rekindled nationalism” and criticized their father and others who had backed the re-imposition of French rule on Vietnam after the war. Yet this was the same John Kennedy who told his advisers in l962 that United States foreign policy” must be credible” and the “place to make it credible is Vietnam.” Write an essay in which you explained what changed his mind, and what concrete measures he took with respect to the American presence there.

3.Ngo Dinh Diem was the United States’ choice to head an anti-Communist south Vietnamese government. On paper, he was a good candidate: he was intelligent, well-spoken and religious. President Eisenhower and others hoped that he would convince the Vietnamese to embrace “capitalist” or “western” values—freedom of speech, movement, press, economy. Why wasn’t Diem able to succeed in this?

Directions Part II(30%): Ids. Identify, briefly discuss and GIVE THE SIGNIFICANCE of the following. You will do THREE of FOUR on test day:

General Giap, l7th parallel, Trung sisters, “mission civilizatrice,” counterinsurgency, Dienbienphu