Activity 1 - How did conflict emerge?

  1. Examine - Read and make notes from Slides 1-20 of the Lesson Presentation on the causes of the Vietnam War. 
  2. Sort - Make a simple table which identifies and organises the key causes of the war into long-term, short-term and immediate causes of US intervention in the war. Are long-term or short-causes more important for explaining this?
  3. Discuss - Watch the following clip from the film ‘Fog of War’. What was the issue concerning the second attack in the Gulf of Tonkin? What was the result of this second attack for escalating US involvement? What are McNamara’s conclusions about this attack?
  4. Watch - Watch the documentary video, CNN The Cold War Episode 11 - Vietnam, and answer questions 1-14 on this worksheet. ​

Activity 2 - Which President was to blame?

  1. Analyse - Using the Lesson Presentation and pages 111-148 of your textbooks, research and record details of the policies and actions taken by each US President in support of the Republic of Vietnam on this worksheet. Then make notes of the ways in which they could be blamed and not blamed for escalating the war.
  2. Write - Which US President was most to blame for causing the Vietnam War? Write a paragraph explaining your perspective. Remember to refer to the events to support your argument.
  3. Discuss - How important was 'the commitment trap'? i.e. the fact that once the US was involved in Vietnam, no President could get out due to the loss of face that this would involve; the rest of the world would perceive the US as weak.
  4. Debate - 'Had American leaders not thought that all international events were connected to the Cold War there would have been no American War in Vietnam' (Robert D Schulzinger). To what extent do you agree?

Activity 3 - What was the main reason?

  1. Examine - Review the three factors on Slide 21 of the Lesson Presentation. Which factor best explains the main reason for US intervention in the Vietnam War?
  2. Evaluate - In pairs read the quotes from historians on the causes of the Vietnam War. For each quote decide (a) what evidence there is to support each one (b) if it supports long or short term factors as being more important (c) which key factor is being identified as the cause:
    1. 'The choice Johnson faced in 1965 between war or the abandonment of South Vietnam was the consequence of decisions taken by US governments over the previous 15 years' Kevin Ruane, Modern History Review, April 2003
    2. 'Domestic political pressures persuaded [Johnson to commit troops]. After the outrage in the United States in the United States over the 'loss' of China to the communists in 1949, few American politicians wanted to be held responsible for losing South Vietnam and opening up southeast Asia to further communist victories'  Gordon Barrass The Great Cold War, pg 157
    3. '..the central precondition for American involvement in Vietnam was the set of assumptions that underlay and shaped the entire history of the Cold War. Once committed to the view that the communist world was one, and systematically involved  n a world wide conspiracy to subvert freedom, any effort in other countries that could be interpreted as hostile to the United States automatically became defined as that world-wide conspiracy..' William chafe, The Unfinished Journey, p 298

Further Reading

OBLIGATORY READING
  1. Sanders, V. (2015). Access to History: The Cold War in Asia 1945-93, pp. 111-148
RECOMMENDED READING
  1. Mamaux, A. (2015). Oxford IB Diploma Programme - The Cold War: Superpower Tensions and Rivalries, pp. 173-181
SUPPLEMENTAL READING
  1. Williamson, D.G. (2015). Access to History for the IB Diploma - The Cold War: Superpower Tensions and Rivalries, pp. 187-195
MRBUDDHISTORY.COM was created in 2012 in order to support the learning of students in History. The site is devoted to creating high-quality and accessible teaching and learning resources for history education and other humanities subjects.