Workin on a paper for school, and I'd like to get some outside opinions.
Part I (2/3 of final exam):
Analyze the following excerpts from Newsweek, November 16, 2009:
1955 After winning independence from France, Vietnam accepts U.S. aid to train its newly formed Army; a power struggle threatens the unity of North and South Vietnam.
1957 As U.S. throws its support behind South Vietnam’s democratic leader Ngo Dinh Diem, communist guerillas—later dubbed Viet Cong—assassinate 400 government officials.
1959 Two U.S. military advisers become first Americans killed by guerrillas, marking start of Vietnam era.
“Vietnam has become code for American hubris and inevitable military defeat. ‘What ifs’ are always a risky exercise, but some good historians have suggested that there were two moments when victory—or at least a semblance of victory—was possible in America’s long war in Southeast Asia. The first came early, in 1965. Had Lyndon Johnson moved aggressively into Vietnam then—taking the war to the enemy and cutting off its supply routes into South Vietnam—the North Vietnamese might have backed off. The second fell five years later, when the military was finally having success with a new counterinsurgency strategy.”
