America in Vietnam - A Political and Military History, 1950-1975

Martin Clemis, Command and General Staff College

This course examines the American war in Vietnam by exploring a substantial portion of the scholarship produced over the past four decades. Although it will examine the origins, events, and consequences of the conflict – including its political, military, diplomatic, and social dimensions – the course is specifically designed to explore the retrospective “meaning” and “lessons” of America’s lost war in Southeast Asia as contained within contentious debate among scholars, journalists, and participants. For some, the war in Vietnam was an immoral catastrophic failure: an unwinnable conflict that never should have been fought by the United States. For others, American intervention was a noble cause: a necessary war that could have been won had different political and strategic avenues been taken. These diverse interpretations, along with other significant arguments advanced by the orthodox and revisionist schools constitute the major focus of this class.