HST 404/504 The Vietnam War in Movies

Summer 2003

Classroom: TBA

Term: July 14-Aug. 8, 2003

Time: MTWTh 10:30-1:20

Instructor: Dr. Pingchao Zhu

Office: Rm315 Administration Building

Office Phone: 885-7166 or 885-2563

Office Hours: MW 1:30-2:00pm, or by appointment

Email: pzhu@uidaho.edu

Website: www.uidaho.edu/~pzhu

Course Description

For the Americans, Vietnam was only the war. But for the Vietnamese, it is their country. This course is not just about America’s war in Vietnam. It is, as Loren Baritz puts it, about “how American culture led us into Vietnam and made us fight the way we did.” It is about the study of two different cultures, which came to be in real contact, not before and during the Vietnam War, but after the war. With this in mind, this class has several goals: to study the cultural traditions of both American and Vietnamese societies and how they affected the way of war from both sides; to examine policymaking process of both Washington and the North Vietnamese leadership regarding military campaign strategies and peace negotiations, to explore how the war has changed America and Vietnam, and to learn major theories and recent scholarship debating U.S. involvement in the war. Our primary mission in this course is to “Reinterpret the Vietnam War” through individual understanding and through identifying major problems in the war and important lessons we have learned.

Textbook

1. Loren Baritz, Backfire, Baltimore, MD: The johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Course Requirements

1. Four movie reviews 50 points each

2. In-class presentation 50

3. One term paper 100

4. Attendance 50

Information on Assignments

The movie reviews are on six of the movies under discussion in this courses. Specific movies will be given at the beginning of the course. The review must be typed, double spaced and 3-4 pages in length.

Please follow the guideline below in your writing:

--a brief background of the movie making (director's name, main characters' name, or interesting stories about the movie making);

--a general summary of the story;

--historical reality behind the movie (most of the movies on the list have a history or event behind);

--your comments on the movie in terms of how the movie portrays the war and people in the war (on both sides, if applicable).

Graduate students should see the instructor for graduate credits.

Grade Scale

A=500-450 B=449-400 C=399-350 D=349-300 F=299 and below

Course Schedule

Week One July 14-17

Monday Vietnam in early history

French Indochina

Ho Chi Minh

Film: Documentary: Ho Chi Minh

Tuesday Vietnam and the Cold War

Kennedy’s strategies

NLF & VC

Film: We Were Sildiers

Wednsday Escalation of war

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution

Film: The Green Beret

Thursday Americanization

The Tet Offensive

Film: Full Metal Jacket

Week Two July 21-24

Monday Home Front, USA

Anti-war movement

Film: Born on the Fourth ofJuly

Tuesday Counter-culture

Film: Hair

Wednesday The Realities of War

Film: Hamburger Hill

Platoon

Thursday Casualties of War

War atrocities

My Lai

Film: Casualties of War

Week Three July 28-31

Monday Vietnamization

Invasion of Cambodia

Film: When the October Comes (North Vietnamese movie)

Tuesday “Peace with Honor”

Peace talks

Film: Documentary

Wednesday The End of the War

The fall of Saigon

Film: Heaven & Earth

Thursday Reporting Vietnam

Media & Literature

Film: We Were Soldiers

Week Four Aug. 4-7

Monday Remembering the War

The Memorial

Veterans of both sides

Film: Dear Hunter

Tuesday The POWs

Film: Hanoi Hilton

Wednesday Postwar Vietnam

Communist Rule

Reforms

Film: Three Seasons(North Vietnamese movie)

Heading South Going North

Thursday Overview

Film: TBA

This schedule is subject to changes by the instructor.