Table Of ContentAmerica and the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was one of the most heavily documented conflicts of the twentieth
century. Although the events themselves recede further into history every year, the political
and cultural changes the war brought about continue to resonate, even as a new generation
of Americans grapples with its own divisive conflict.
America and the Vietnam War: Re-examining the Culture and History of a Generation
reconsiders the social and cultural aspects of the conflict that helped to fundamentally
change the nation. With chapters written by subject area specialists, America and the
Vietnam Wartakes on subjects such as women’s role in the war, the music and the films of
the time, the Vietnamese perspective, race and the war, and veterans and post-traumatic
stress disorder.
Features include:
n Chapter Summaries
n Timelines
n Discussion Questions
n Guides to Further Reading
n A Companion Website with primary source documents and tools (such as music and
movie playlists) for both instructors and students
Heavily illustrated and welcoming to students and scholars of this infamous and pivotal
time, America and the Vietnam Waris a perfect companion to any course on the Vietnam
War era.
Andrew Wiestis Professor of History and Co-director of the Center for the Study of War
and Society at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is the author of Vietnam’s
Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN.
Mary Kathryn Barbier is Associate Professor of History at Mississippi State University.
She is the author of D-Day Deception: Operation Fortitude and the Normandy Invasion.
Glenn Robins is Associate Professor of History at Georgia Southwestern State University.
He is the author of The Bishop of the Old South: The Ministry and Civil War Legacy of
Leonidas Polk.
America and the
Vietnam War
Re-examining the Culture
and History of a Generation
Edited by
Andrew Wiest
Mary Kathryn Barbier
and
Glenn Robins
First published 2010
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
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©2010 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
America and the Vietnam War : re-examining the culture and history
of a generation / edited by Andrew Wiest, Mary Kathryn Barbier, and
Glenn Robins.
p. cm.
“Simultaneously published in the UK”—T.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—Social aspects. 2. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—
Study and teaching. I. Wiest, Andrew A. II. Barbier, Mary. III. Robins, Glenn.
DS559.8.S6A46 2009
¢
959.7043—dc22
2009026811
ISBN 0-203-86288-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–99529–9 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–99530–2 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–86288–0 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–99529–0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–99530–6 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–86288–9 (ebk)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Introduction: Vietnam in history and memory 1
Mary Kathryn Barbier
1 Vietnam divided: regional history and the Vietnam wars, 1598–1975 15
Martin Loicano
2 Historians and the origins of the Vietnam War 35
Matthew Masur
3 The “other” Vietnam War 55
Andrew Wiest
4 The Women’s Army Corps goes to Vietnam 77
Heather Stur
5 The Black Panthers and the Vietnam War 101
Curtis Austin
6 Patriots for peace: people-to-people diplomacy and the anti-war movement 121
Amy Scott
7 Vietnam and the conscientious objector experience 143
Philip Szmedra
v
CONTENTS
8 The American POW experience 165
Glenn Robins
9 Post-traumatic stress disorder and healing from the war 187
Raymond M. Scurfield
10 The Vietnam War and literature 209
Maureen Ryan
11 Vietnam and film 231
Thomas Doherty
12 The soundtrack of Vietnam 255
Kim Herzinger
13 The legacy of the Vietnam War for the US Army 271
James H. Willbanks
14 Iraq as “the good war” as opposed to Vietnam, the bad war 291
Lloyd Gardner
Contributors 312
Index 315
vi
Illustrations
FIGURES
0.1 Map of Vietnam 4
0.2 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC 7
1.1 Statue of Trâ´nHu˙ng ¯Da.o, downtown Saigon, 1968 19
1.2 President Nguyên Va˘nThiê.u 28
2.1 President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greet
South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington National Airport,
May 8, 1957 39
2.2 President Lyndon B. Johnson meeting with Joint Chiefs of Staff around a picnic
table on the L.B.J. Ranch front lawn, December 22, 1964 45
2.3 President Kennedy confers with General Maxwell Taylor and Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara in the cabinet room, 25 January 1963 49
3.1 President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam 59
3.2 Hue City from the air during Tet 64
3.3 American advisers and Army of the Republic of Vietnam troops 66
3.4 Army of the Republic of Vietnam troops on operations near the Laotian border
in 1969 68
4.1 aand b: “Opportunity Awaits You in the Women’s Army Corps” 78–9
4.2 “Meet Today’s WAC Officer” 82
4.3 Untitled Women’s Army Corps recruitment pamphlet, 1959 85
4.4 “Long Binh Wacs Provide a Study in Women’s Lib” 93
4.5 “Wac of the Week: One of 85 in ’Nam” 95
5.1 Yellow Peril, Oakland, CA 1969 107
6.1 US poster regarding the recruitment of black soldiers to fight in Vietnam, 1967 126
6.2 Actress Jane Fonda and North Vietnamese soldiers and peasants near Hanoi in
July 1972 136
vii
ILLUSTRATIONS
7.1 The author with his mother and younger brother prior to his graduation from
Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, in June 1969 147
7.2 a and b: The author’s draft cards indicating changes in draft status 150
8.1 American POWs 168
8.2 “The Vietnamese Rope Trick” 172
8.3 American POWs who participated in the Hanoi March were surrounded by hostile
crowds and were punched, kicked, and cursed 177
8.4 POWs meeting with Canadian journalists 180
9.1 Raymond M. Scurfield working with Vietnamese civilians during his tour on one of
the US Army’s two psychiatric teams in Vietnam 189
9.2 Raymond M. Scurfield at the 98th Medical Attachment, 8th Field Hospital, during
the Vietnam War 196
9.3 Raymond M. Scurfield seated with Vietnam veterans Roy Ainsworth and Charles
Brown during a trip back to Vietnam in 2000 203
10.1 Combat scenes 212
10.2 “A female demonstrator offers a flower to military police...” 216
10.3 Viet Cong soldiers moving forward under covering fire from a heavy machine gun
during the Vietnam War, ca. 1968 224
10.4 Arrival of South Vietnamese refugees, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida,
May 1975 225
11.1 Director-star John Wayne on the Hollywood set of The Green Berets(1968),
his World War II-style combat film about Vietnam 235
11.2 Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) rescues American POWs still languishing in Vietnam
in Rambo: First Blood Part II(1985) 242
11.3 Charlie Sheen and Keith David as grunts in Oliver Stone’s Platoon(1986) 244
11.4 Marine drill Sergeant Hartman (Lee Ermey) expresses his displeasure about
jelly doughnuts to Private Pyle (Vincent D’Onofrio) in Stanley Kubrick’s
Full Metal Jacket(1987) 245
12.1 Jimi Hendrix performing live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, February 24,
1969 257
12.2 British pop group the Beatles pose with the cover of their new album,
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 260
12.3 Creedence Clearwater Revival, ca. 1970 267
13.1 General William DePuy, chief architect of the new American military doctrine of
“Active Defense” 276
13.2 USMarines from Alpha Company, 1st Tank Battalion, provide security in an
M1A1 Abrams tank while Marines from Regimental Combat Team 2 search
for weapons caches along a section of the west bank of the Euphrates River,
March 9, 2007, north of Hit, Iraq 280
13.3 General Donn Starry, chief architect of the US doctrine of AirLand Battle 281
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS
13.4 An Army AH-64 Apache helicopter, one of the chief weapons systems of AirLand
Battle that made possible the stunning coalition victory in Operation Desert
Storm 284
14.1 President George W. Bush speaks to an audience in the Pentagon auditorium
on March 19, 2008 293
14.2 Army Spc. Anthony Dowden of the 3rd Infantry Division presents a plaque made
from a piece of armor that saved him from a sniper’s bullet to Donald H. Rumsfeld
in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 12, 2005 301
14.3 American troops during the Iraq War, a conflict that, to many in the American
public, brought back uncomfortable reminders of Vietnam 304
14.4 Commander of US Central Command Gen. David H. Petraeus talks with members
of Combined Joint Task Force 101 at Combat Outpost Marghah, Afghanistan,
on November 6, 2008 307
ix
