The Quiet American. Due Dates. Friday, MAY 1: Notecards due

Transcription

1 The Quiet American This unit is designed to acquaint you with some of the people, places, and events that are referred to in Graham Greene s novel, The Quiet American. The novel is set in French Indochina in Although the French are going to be defeated in 1954 at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the United States already had established a presence in Vietnam with the employment of military-trained advisors who were charged with garnering anti-communist political support among the Vietnamese. You are to assume the real or fictitious persona of someone who either played a major role in the first Indochina War or is an expert about it for the purpose of a National Public Radio Fresh Air interview. To prepare for the interview, you must complete the following: 1. Listen to the Fresh Air interview: Things They Carried Back From Vietnam. (You ll find this on my Whipple Hill page.) This is a sample of the product you will be crafting over the course of the next 2 two weeks. (The written transcript for this interview is attached.) 2. Read over this entire assignment, your specific topic, as well as the project rubric (attached). 3. Research and cite at least 2 print and 2 Internet sources. 4. Take notes and create an appropriate number of notecards using Noodletools (suggested number: at least 20). The majority of them should consist of My Ideas rather than sentences copied directly from your sources. 5. Outline stage. Write a list of questions that an interviewer might ask. Under each question, bullet point main ideas that you will include in your response. 6. Write a 2-3 page Fresh Air style interview. Be sure to include a parenthetical citation with any material you found in another source. 7. Attach a Works Cited list to your written assignment. 8. With a friend, who will be your interviewer, record the interview. Be sure to be in character when you give your responses. Friday, MAY 1: Notecards due Due Dates Monday, MAY 11: Outline, Written Transcript, Works Cited List, and Audio Version of Interview (If you are finished with the written portion of the paper before May, please turn it in. The sooner I have the projects, the quicker I will be able to get them back to you!)

2 Research Hints 1. Determine what the topic asks you to research by highlighting or underlining the key search terms in your assignment. 2. Use the list of search terms from your question to search for books/internet sites that will give you an overview of your topic. (An overview is an approximate 2 page summary that answers the who, what, where, when, and how of your topic.) 3. Underline subtopics and search terms in the overview as you read it. 4. Read pages from the various sources that you have found and take notes using Noodletools. 5. Prepare a working bibliography of sources that you can use. Remember you may read a Wikipedia article, but it cannot count as one of your sources for the paper. 6. Go to Eagle Eyes and type in the words <quiet american> to retrieve a list of relevant web sites. If you have a topic about a person, be sure to search the database, Biography Reference Center. 7. For citing your sources, you must use Noodletools. 8. Click on the Noodletools link on the library homepage. Create a project. Choose MLS, then Starter for creating the notecards and bibliography. Go to Tips in a Minute and watch the videos for creating notecards if you need a refresher course. 9. To use the databases from home: Go to: Click on the link, Home Access. The password is Eagles (It is case-sensitive.) A list of databases with their own usernames and passwords will appear. Print it out and use it when you need to access the databases from home or off the Close. 10. Outline your work. Create your interview questions and answers. Under each question bullet, in note form, the main pieces of information that you plan to include in your response. 11. Write/type a first draft of the interview and read it aloud. 12. Write/type a revised draft of the interview, complete with parenthetical citations and bibliography. Refer to the library s sample paper on the web site. 13. Record your Fresh Air Interview 14. By May 11 (earlier if possible) hand in the following: 1. Outline 2. Interview transcript 3. Bibliography

3 Sundman/English 8 Quiet American Research Project BIBLIOGRAPHY/CITATIONS All sources are cited at least 1 time in paper Punctuation and formatting are perfect; Works Cited heads the page Sources are accurately and consistently cited in paper, using parenthetical style NOTECARDS (AT LEAST 20) DIRECTIVES INTERVIEW Correct font, header; length (2-3 pages) Typed final draft is double-spaced, 12-pont font, correct margins Direct quotes, if used, are punctuated, integrated and cited correctly /5 /5 /5 /25 Interviewer questions o are clear and help the interviewee create a focused message, philosophy and purpose o hook the listener o help the interviewee provide a clear structure for responses o help the interviewee tell his/her story o responds to interviewee answers appropriately and crafts strong segues between questions Interviewee responses o are research- and factually-based o are sequentially narrated and logically formulated o are specific and not generalized o show creativity and contribute to telling a story o carefully sticks to the interviewer s question o are narrated in sentences that flow together smoothly o capture the voice of the interviewee; this voice is sustained throughout the interview o use some creative license Closing Question and Response o Both Interviewee and Interviewer are able to bring the interview to clear, creative, and logical conclusion. MECHANICS /5 Correct punctuation, comma/semicolon usage, capitalization, spelling, syntax No run-ons, commas splices or fragments Correct verb tense (past tense is best for this assignment) who vs. that numerals are written out STYLE & ORGANIZATION /5 Well organized; the argument is logical and sequential fashion No repetition of ideas or strong words Writing is concise; words chosen with care No contractions, colloquialisms, exclamation points Good sentence variety (not many consecutive sentences beginning with subj.) Avoids common words: thing, good, bad, nice, sad, happy, big, really, so, very, got, scary, thing, said, interesting, prove Avoids this/that is, there is/are, it is/was, there were/was, this proves that TOTAL / 50

4 NPR INTERVIEW: Fresh Air with Terry Gross 'Things They Carried' Back From Vietnam MAY 31, :00 AM ET (Soundbite of music) TERRY GROSS, host: On this Memorial Day, we're going to hear from the author of a classic book of stories about the Vietnam War, "The Things They Carried." It was republished in a 20th anniversary edition in March. The author, Tim O'Brien, served in Vietnam as an infantryman in I spoke with him in 1990 when the book was first published. This collection of stories is tied together by a fictional narrator whose name is also Tim O'Brien. In this passage, the narrator is reading 17-page disjointed letter in which his former combat buddy writes about the problem of finding a meaningful life after fighting in the war. Mr. TIM O'BRIEN (Author, "The Things They Carried"): I felt it coming and near the end of the letter it came. He explained that he had read my first book "If I Die in a Combat Zone," which he liked, except for the bleeding heart political parts. For half a page he talked about how much the book had meant to him, how it brought back all kinds of memories, the villes and paddies and rivers, and how he recognized most of the characters, including himself, even though almost all the names were changed. Then Bowker came straight out with it: What you should do, Tim, is write a story about a guy who feels like he got zapped over that (BLEEP). A guy who can't get his act together and just drives around town all day and can't think of any damned place to go and doesnt know how to get there anyway. The guy wants to talk about it but he can't. If you want he can use the stuff in this letter but not my real name, okay? Id write it myself except I can't find any words, if you know what I mean, and I can't figure out what exactly to say. Something about the field that night. The Kiowa just disappeared into the crud. You were there - you can tell it. GROSS: Has anything like that actually ever happened to you, getting a letter from a friend or having a friend say to you, youve got to tell my story, I can't do it, but youve got to tell it? Mr. O'BRIEN: Oh it's happened hundreds and hundreds of times. I've never taken them up on the offer, and even in this case I didnt. The letter is made up. GROSS: Mm-hmm. Do you feel that people almost define themselves by maybe a half dozen or a dozen stories that describe the pivotal incidents in their life? Mr. O'BRIEN: I do. But in my own life, you know, I would say there were a handful, maybe a dozen incidents that are like touchstones that occurred, you know, occur over and over in my fiction. There's one incident in the book about the shooting of a baby water buffalo in Vietnam and the image of a defenseless water buffalo being shot over and over and over again is one that's appeared in I think everything I've written, or close to everything I've written. I'm not sure, you know, what the image is there for in terms of symbol or metaphor. Probably nothing. It just has the feel of meat, which was the feel of war, flesh and blood and a poor baby buffalo being shot over and over and over again. That's a senseless, you know, that's war. GROSS: Well, in the novel, the person who's shooting the buffalo - the water buffalo is doing it after he's seen a friend of his die. Mr. O'BRIEN: Yes. GROSS: You know, one of his buddies die and this is interpreted as a kind of, not exactly revenge but venting, some kind of venting of the frustration. Did you witness something like this? Is that why the image keeps recurring in your fiction?

5 Mr. O'BRIEN: Yeah, I did. I witnessed, we were walking along a paddy dike one day after a horrible - a few hours in a village adjacent to the village of My Lai, where the massacre happened and we lost several fellows who hit landmines. And the platoon was lined up in a long, long row across the paddy dike and 100 yards away stood a water buffalo. And with no signal the men began firing and the buffalo stood there and you could see gobs of flesh jumping off the beast and then it stuck. GROSS: Were you one of the men who fired? Mr. O'BRIEN: No. No. I watched dumbly. I understood. You can't justify something like that but there was no enemy to take, you know, take it out on. Men were feeling sorrow and rage simultaneously and the buffalo was there to bear the brunt. GROSS: How vivid are your memories from the war? I mean how much do you think you remember of, what, the year that you were there? Mr. O'BRIEN: Oh a few scattered images. In a way if you were to pick up a photographic album and page through it you'd maybe seven or eight pictures of, you know, that are really vivid, another 24 or so, vaguely recollect. The rest of the album is empty. A lot of black, black pages which you'd expect, I think that our memories leave us. But beyond that, a lot of the war was not memorable, plodding along from village to village, hot days, mosquitoes. It was a kind of monotony to it but a strange monotony. You know, it was boredom with a twist. GROSS: And what was the twist? Mr. O'BRIEN: The twist was a kind of like a leaky faucet in your stomach and like instead of water there was this acid feeling dropping out where you can feel like it's eating away inside you. Youre bored, frightened simultaneously. Try it sometimes. Its tough. GROSS: Let me ask you about a couple of the images in the book and see where they come from in actuality or your imagination. I mean what they signify to you. One of the men in the company, Henry Dobbins, is always wrapping his girlfriend's pantyhose around his head. It's his protective magic - his good luck charm. Mr. O'BRIEN: Mm-hmm. GROSS: Did a lot of the men you know have something like that? Did you have anything like that yourself? Mr. O'BRIEN: No I didnt carry pantyhose, but there were talisman that men carried in war and the kind of talismans that touch on peace. That the pantyhose business that's wrapped around a fellow's neck as a kind of comforter is a reminder of all he doesnt have - his girlfriend and the peace that that girl represents for him. And, you know, like some men carried letters from home, some men carried coins their father may have sent them. A lot of us carried photographs, some carried lockets of hair. GROSS: What were the things that you carried with you to remind you of who you were and what it was that you loved? Mr. O'BRIEN: I carried odd things. I carried, you won't believe this, I carried a book of German grammar. I wanted to learn German while I was in Vietnam. GROSS: That seems like such a remote thing to... (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. O'BRIEN: What an odd thing to be saying, you know, (foreign language spoken) trying to get the accents right and then learn the, you know, the grammatical structures of German after, you know, marching all day long through really horrible things. It was a way - a lot of us, you know, by pushing the war aside if even for a few moments.

6 GROSS: Well, I guess it was also a way of like affirming that you had a life of the mind, that there was more besides like your body in the war. Mr. O'BRIEN: Yeah. I think that was a great part of it and a way of just touching on civility and civilization, which for me books represented then and continue to. I mean that's what they are. GROSS: What else did you carry? Mr. O'BRIEN: Oh gee. Oh I carried so much. I carried cans of orange juice that my father had sent me from Minnesota. These were as precious to me - he sent me 12 cans and they were heavy. And it wasnt the orange juice that I craved. It was the fact that these cans of orange juice had come from my dad from so, so, so far away. And I gave myself one month for each can. One can a month. GROSS: So you measured your whole tour of duty by those cans. Mr. O'BRIEN: By those cans of orange juice. GROSS: Did you ever try to travel light? Mr. O'BRIEN: Yeah. I mean eventually you have to. I think you discard things. You discard odd things as a soldier. You discard things like hand grenades and belts of ammunition, the things you think you'd keep, claymore mines. We were so burdened by stuff that we were like giants lumbering through that countryside hauling along with us the whole, you know, all of the resources of the American war chest. GROSS: Your first book, "If I Die in a Combat Zone," was really one of the early war memoirs. When did it first come out? Was it 1973? Mr. O'BRIEN: Yes. GROSS: And then, "Going After Cacciato" came out a few years later. It was still one of the early Vietnam novels. Was it different for you writing about the war before Vietnam had so penetrated fiction, movies and television? Mr. O'BRIEN: Oh, I can't say that the output of recent books and movies and so one about the war has helped me or hindered me. I haven't seen many of the movies and I haven't read many of the books. GROSS: I'm surprised to hear that. Mr. O'BRIEN: Well, you know... GROSS: I mean I thought you'd to curious either to see like what other people were doing with it or to see if how it compared to your own experiences or your own telling of the experiences. Mr. O'BRIEN: I think for me, at least, and I'm not much interested in the war stories. Most of them tend to be melodramatic and predictable and bad stories. And I think a lot of readers feel the same. Weve been, you know, brought in too many John Wayne movies and too much bad writing. This isn't true just for Vietnam, of course, it's true for, you know, for, you know, if you look at love stories with all the Harlequin Romances out there and, but nonetheless, there's something about a war, the war story that makes me want to turn my head and move away gently. For me, the war is, I mean, that isn't important to me now. Whats important to me is language about the war and about the human heart. I was never a very good soldier. I hated that war and its now in the distant past. What's in the present for me are the stories that have really in a way, nothing to do with the war. They're set in the war but they're stories for me of friendships and ghosts and girlfriends and that kind of thing. GROSS: Another image I want to ask you about and I wasnt sure whether this was literary or actually.

7 Mr. O'BRIEN: All right. (Soundbite of laughter) GROSS: There's a sequence and it's a pretty pivotal sequence where a couple of the characters in your novel are in a field of sewage. Mr. O'BRIEN: Mm-hmm. GROSS: And the smell just won't go away. I mean long after theyve left the smell just won't go away. And I mean its - the literary image there is clear. I was wondering if that was an actual experience too, if there were fields of sewage like this that you got caught in. Mr. O'BRIEN: Yeah. I mean it was meant to be a description of actual things and not as metaphor and not as symbol, just lots of stuff... GROSS: I'm really glad to hear that, by the way. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. O'BRIEN: But they were shocking to read in, you know, in some column or review that, you know, this was taken as a metaphor for something. It didnt occur to me. As soon as it was written I said oh my God, you know, I can see it but it was intended just as stuff, a field full of sewage that we camped in one night and we were attacked and mortared and the men went under. GROSS: The men went under the sewage. Mr. O'BRIEN: Yeah. No metaphor, just under. GROSS: I'd like to try to explain why it is that I'm almost relieved that it really happened. Do you know what I mean? It's something that really happened it seems quite horrible. As something that would've been metaphor it would seem like too much. Mr. O'BRIEN: Yeah. Yeah it would've. You know, in a way its one of those things where, you know, if I would've like thought a little more clearly about it I might have avoided it, but what would I do? Why would I change things? I probably wouldnt in the long run. I think if Melville in writing "Moby Dick" thought that that whale would be finally like just a metaphor he might've changed it to, you know, a tuna fish. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. O'BRIEN: Not quite so godlike. GROSS: How long did it take before you could wash the sewage off and get out of there? Mr. O'BRIEN: I never have. I mean that smell is still in my dreams. It's the one thing that's really stuck with me. I dont dream Vietnam but the smell - I dont know if you ever had an operation and had ether. GROSS: Yes. Yeah. Mr. O'BRIEN: I did as a kid. GROSS: My tonsils - getting my tonsils out. Mr. O'BRIEN: Now and then every three years or eight years the smell of ether returns to me. It's not set in the hospital. There's a folding feeling in the brain, just a folding over the brain with a smell inside the folds and that's what returns to me now and then, the smell of that field of sewage folding through my dream.

8 GROSS: What do you think it is that it's the smell that stays with you more than anything else? Mr. O'BRIEN: That's a pretty terrible smell. GROSS: Yeah. Mr. O'BRIEN: And that's part of it and part of it is I'm sure is linked somehow to the awful thing that happened in the field that night. GROSS: Tim O'Brien recorded in 1990 after the publication of his book "The Things They Carried." A 20th anniversary edition was published in March. You can read a chapter on our website, freshair.npr.org. Tim O'Brien now teaches creative writing at Texas State University. Coming up, Jehanne Dubrow reads from her collection of poems "Stateside" about being a military wife whose husband is deployed overseas. This is FRESH AIR. Copyright 2010 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information.

9 Quite American Questions 1. Your name is Nguyen Dinh Luc. You are a very old Cao Dai priest who has been asked to speak about your experiences as a member of the Cao Dai religious/political sect during the Indochina War ( ). Your listeners needs to learn about the following political and aspects of this multifaith sect. What are the basic beliefs of Cao Dai? Name some of the people whom Cao Daism venerates? Where did the majority of Cao Daists live during the Indochina War? Where is the principal shrine of Cao Dai located and what does it consist of? Which side did the Cao Daists favor in the Indochina war? What political/military role did Cao Daists play in the Indochina War? Sources: Kutler, Stanley, Ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, p. 101; Bui, Hum Dac, M.D. Cao Dai Faith of Unity, pp , 40-45, 69-86, glossary. Gobron, Gabriel. History and Philosophy of Caodaism, pp ; 139; 153; Enclyclopedia of Religion Vol. 3, pp Hammer, Ellen J. The Struggle for Indochina, pp Catholicism is one of the three major Vietnamese religions. It was one of the most organized religious groups in Vietnam during the Indochina War dominating the politics and government of Vietnam during this time. Your name is Father Francois Jaccard. You are an old French Catholic missionary who ran a mission during the Indochina War. Your listeners need to learn about the political role that Catholicism played in Vietnam in the 1950s. How did the Catholics privileged position in the country alienate the majority of the Buddhist population? Why did more 700,000 Catholics move to South Vietnam after the signing of the Geneva Accords? How did this high Catholic population provide a strong foundation for the President Ngo Dinh Diem s regime? What role did the Archbishop of Hue Ngo Dinh Thuc (brother of President Diem) play in making sure that Catholics stayed loyal to his brother during the Indochina War? Describe the differences in education and wealth between northern and southern Vietnamese Catholics? Sources: Hammer, Ellen J. The Struggle for Indochina. (look under Roman Catholics in index pp ; Fall, Bernard. Viet-Nam Witness , pp ; and passim; Trager, Frank N. Why Vietnam? pp , ; Fitzgerald, Frances. Fire in the Lake, pp ; Chu, Lan T. Catholicism vs. Communism: The Catholic Church in Vietnam, Journal of Vietnamese Studies; pp. 158,162; Crisis Point in Indo-China in The World Today. p. 239.

10 3. Your name is Dorothy Payne. You were an Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles at the 1954 Geneva Conference also known as the Geneva Accords. Your listeners need to learn about specific aspects of the agreement. What was decided at the Geneva Conference? Describe the DMS or Demilitarized Zone ( how it worked and where it was located) Describe some of the sticky points of the negotiations including: evacuation of French wounded and members of the Vietnamese National Army from Dien Bien Phu (the latter were considered traitors by the north Vietnamese) and promises to respect the 17 parallel from incursion by both sides. Do you think that the Geneva Accords were a victory for North Vietnam? What big problem remained unsolved by the Geneva Accords? How did the Geneva Accords ensure that the United States would change its policy and begin to play an even more active role in the defense of Southeast Asia? Sources: Kutler, Stanley I. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Vietnam, pp ; Simpson, Howard Dien Bien Phu, pp ; Karnow, Stanley Vietnam A History the First Complete Account of Vietnam at War, pp , In 1950, fearing a Communist takeover of Indochina, President Truman began funneling military aid and funds to the French who were engaged in the actual fighting of the Viet Minh. The organization that was created to handle the funds and aid was called MAAG-I (Military Assistance Advisory Group Indochina). You are a retired U.S. Brigadier General who was involved in carrying out President Truman s command to aid the French militarily. Your listeners need to learn about specific aspects of MAAG-I. What role did MAAG-I play in aiding the French in Indochina? What form of military assistance did MAAG-I supply? How much of the total French military expenditure was the United States paying? What type of political support did MAAG-I provide to the associate states to try and keep them in the non-communist orbit? Why do you think MAAG-I failed? Provide some examples and reasons. Sources: Kutler, Stanley I. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Vietnam, pp Hammer, Ellen J. The Struggle for Indochina; pp and other pages. Fitzgerald, Frances. Fire in the Lake; pp. 85, 121, ; Mann, Robert. A Grand Delusion; pp , 80-82, 84-85, 89-91, ,

11 5. In 1954, the French were decisively defeated in battle by the Viet Minh Communist-Nationalist revolutionaries in a place in northwestern Vietnam called Dien Bien Phu. It was a classic David and Goliath fight with the superior-equipped French forces unaware of the Viet Minh s abilities to move heavy artillery up steep mountainsides and dig tunnels through them to place their guns directly over the French encampment. You are a military historian who specializes in analyzing battles fought in Southeast Asia. Your listeners need to learn about specific aspects of the battle including: The political and military reasons why French forces were stationed at Dien Bien Phu. The numbers of soldiers who were involved in the battle from both sides. Military historians credit the Viet Minh for their victory because of extraordinary logistical preparations. Describe their preparations using data such as numbers of weapons, soldiers, etc. Describe the battle plans of the Viet Minh and why you think they were successful. Explain some of the military mistakes that French General Navarre made including ignoring intelligence reports. Describe the French garrison s fortifications. Were they adequate? How many soldiers were killed from Vietnam and France, respectively? What was the effect of the battle on the French military and French public? Kutler, Stanley I. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, pp ; Simpson, Howard R. Dien Bien Phu, pp.1-14, 40-41,46,50-51, 90; Fall, Bernard B. Viet-Nam Witness, pp and other pages. (Use the index). 6. Your name is Vo Nyguen Giap. You are the only twentieth century general to successfully help defeat three super powers: Japan, France, and the United States. Known as the Red Napoleon, much of the information published in the West has been historically inaccurate about various aspects of your background and career. In 2003, you granted an interview to Cecil B. Curry about your private and public life which was published in the Journal of World Studies in the Fall of Your listeners are eager for basic information including: Significant details about your birth, siblings, parents and early childhood. Your educational background including how you obtained an education. When did you become a Communist and why? Relate details about your imprisonment. Describe what happened to your wife and child during the French occupation of your country. Where and how did you obtain your military experience? How did you become the lead General of the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh? Currey, Cecil B. Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap Remembers (in green folder on cart); pp ; Woods, Shelton, L. Vietnam A Global Studies Handbook, pp.62-64; Fall, Bernard B. Street without Joy, pp ; Corfield, Greenwood Histories Of Modern Nations The History of Vietnam, pp.50-51

12 7. In 1941 Ho Chi Minh, leader of Vietnam s independence movement, founded the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh (League for Vietnam Independence).He invited patriots of all ages to form a united front and overthrow French colonial rule. The party became known as the Viet Minh. You are a political scientist with expertise in the Indochina War ( ) and the role of the Viet Minh. Your listeners need to understand how the Viet Minh fought the French including: Seizing the northern part of the country including the city of Hanoi Waging a guerilla war against the French Seeking aid for military weapons and supplies from the Chinese and the Soviet Union Playing down the Communist aspect of the Viet Minh party to the Vietnamese people Seizing public and private properties and distributing them to the poor Trager, Frank N. Why Vietnam? pp ; Holland, William L. Asian Nationalism and the West, pp ; and Hammer, Ellen J. The Struggle for Indochina, pp The French occupied what is now Vietnam for more than a century. While they assisted with developing the country, they also behaved as imperialists to a people who were proud of their culture and traditions and also open to modernization. You are famous political scientist whose area of specialization is Southeast Asia. You have recently written a book about the pros and cons of French colonialism in Vietnam. Your listeners need to understand various aspects of French colonialism as they relate to the first Indochina War. Describe some of the benefits of being a member of the French Republic in Vietnam including the construction of a network of roads, railways and irrigation canals. Explain how the imposition of direct and indirect taxation on items such as alcohol, salt, and customs duties imposed a burden on the Vietnamese even though it resulted in the construction of hospitals and schools. Include information about the French importation of the rubber tree, mining of coal, and their attempts to wipe out malaria. Why did the French outlaw the name Vietnam and insist that Vietnamese learn French if they wanted to work as civil servants? Explain how the French and the Vietnamese missed opportunities to peacefully trade and coexist. Kutler Stanley I. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, pp ; Phan Quang Dan. The Situation in Indochina. Pakistan Horizon (December 1954): pp ; Rosinger, Lawrence K. & Associates. The State of Asia, pp. 221, 267.

13 9. Your name is To Ngoc Van, one of the most influential Vietnamese artists of the 20 th century. Your personal and artistic history is intertwined with Vietnam s turbulent political and social history from the late 1920s through the dramatic turning point of the First Indochina War in What kinds of artistic works are associated with pre-colonial Vietnam? What kinds of materials and techniques were used by pre-colonial artists and artisans? How did you become an artist? Where did you first study art? Explain the school s purpose and how it because an influential force on modern Vietnamese art. How did you and other artists of your generation combine traditional Vietnamese subjects and artistic techniques with French styles and concepts? What are the three major categories usually used to classify Vietnamese architecture? Even before invasion by the French, architecture in the area now known as Vietnam was heavily influenced by other cultures, especially that of China. Briefly describe a few of the major characteristics of traditional Chinese-influenced buildings in Vietnam. What is Phat Diem? How does it illustrate the combination of Eastern and Western cultural influences in Vietnamese architecture? Culture and Customs of Vietnam by Mark W. McLeod and Nguyen Thi Dieu (p ); A Dragon Apparent by Norman Lewis (pp ) and Little China by Alan Houghton Brodrick (pp. 46, ). Be sure to use the links in Eagle Eyes to answer this question. 10. You are former Army Nurse who served in Vietnam during the later Vietnam War and has since become a renowned medical historian specializing in the history of opium and addiction in war. During your service during the American conflict in Vietnam, you witnessed soldiers try and often become addicted to opium and opium derivatives; these memories remained with you after the war and as you pursued a new career as medical historian, you chose to focus on the history of opium and opium addiction, especially in Southeast Asia. What is opium? Describe the plant from which it is derived. How is the plant grown and harvested? How is opium created from the plant? At many points in history, opium and its derivatives have been used to treat various illnesses and medical conditions. What properties made opium such a popular medicine? What are three examples of different times & places in history where opium was widely used medicinally? Opium played a significant role in the economies of Southeast Asia. What is the Golden Triangle? What is an opium pipe? Bring a diagram or drawing and explain how the pipe worked. What role did opium play in the First Indo-China War? Opium: A History by Martin Booth (use index); Opium: A Portrait of the Heavenly Demon by Barbara Hodgson (p ; p. 101); In the Arms of Morpheus: The Tragic History of Laudanum, Morphine, and Patent Medicines by Barbara Hodgson (p.1-5, p.14-40); Confessions of an Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey

14 11. You are a literature professor who recently published a new book analyzing Graham Greene s The Quiet American. You ve been asked to speak about the novel s intriguing epigraphs the two quotes selected by the author to appear as an introduction or preface to the novel. Who is Lord Byron? Why is he considered important in the history of English literature? The selection that appears as an epigraph for The Quiet American comes from a long poem by Byron titled Don Juan. How did Byron categorize this poem? What kind of poem is it? What is Don Juan about? What are the poem s major themes? Who is A.H. Clough? What type of literature did he usually write? What role did religion play in Clough s life and work? The selection that appears as an epigraph for The Quiet American comes from a long verse novel titled Amours de Voyage. What is a verse novel? What is Amours de Voyage about? What are the novel s major themes? How do these two larger works and these specific selections appear to be connected? Why might Greene have chosen to use them in his novel? You will need to use Biography Reference Center and the websites listed in Eagles Eyes to answer many of these questions. Lord Byron s Don Juan edited by Harold Bloom ( Introduction ) 12. You are an esteemed literary and media critic specializing in war and conflict studies. You have recently edited a collection of essays focused on portrayals of war in American literature. You ve been asked to speak about Stephen Crane, a nineteenth century American writer well known for his naturalistic writing style and his emphasis on writing about war, and the connections or comparisons to be made with Graham Greene s work. Who was Stephen Crane? What are some of his most famous works? What literary movements or styles is he associated with? Briefly describe The Red Badge of Courage. What is the novel about? How was it received by the public and critics when it was first published? Why is The Red Badge of Courage considered to be unique for its time? How did it treat the subject of war differently than most other novels or stories during the nineteenth century? Did Stephen Crane have experience in warfare when he wrote The Red Badge of Courage? Graham Greene s The Quiet American also takes place during a real historical conflict. How did Greene s experiences in Vietnam influence his writing of this novel? Stephen Crane edited by Harold Bloom, Stephen Crane s The Red Badge of Courage edited by Harold Bloom, The Quiet American: Text & Criticism edited by John Clark Pratt (use especially the Introduction and the selections in The Author and His Work ) Use Biography Reference Center to research both Stephen Crane and Graham Greene.

15 13. You are Blaise Pascal, famous French mathematician and philosopher. You made several significant contributions to both disciplines and your ideas have remained influential into the 21 st century including in the moral questions explored by characters like the Roman Catholic inspector Vigot and the atheist journalist Fowler in The Quiet American. You ve been asked to speak about your life and work, focusing especially on your religious philosophy and your views on Christianity. Briefly describe your early life, focusing on the aspects of your childhood and adolescence that helped make you into an esteemed intellectual at a fairly young age. How did you carve out a literary reputation? What are some of your most famous contributions to mathematics and philosophy? Summarize your complicated religious history. What role did the Jansenist movement play in your life? What are your famous Pensees about? What were some of the human contradictions of human existence that you explored in your work? Blaise Pascal by Hugh M. Davidson You will need to use Biography Reference Center and the websites listed in Eagles Eyes to answer many of these questions.

16 14. You have a Ph.D. in human geography with a minor in physical geography. Your specialty is studying the interaction between the two and the resulting influences upon a country such as Vietnam. Your listeners need to know human and physical geographical facts about Vietnam and how they may have affected the destiny of millions of Vietnamese citizens. Describe the population size of Vietnam and include the percentage of people of different ethnic origins that make up the country of Vietnam. What parts of the country did the majority of the people live in the 1950s? Describe the topography and climate of Vietnam and which countries are its neighbors. What products did Vietnam export in the 1950s? Explain geographically how the Chinese had such political influence over the Vietnamese. Explain how the jungled parts of Vietnam aided the Viet Minh in fighting the French. East & Southeast Asia by Steven A. Leibo pp , and Vietnam: A Global Studies Handbook by L. Shelton Woods, pp. 3-10, 14-42, Culture and Customs of Vietnam by Mark W. McLeod and Nguyen Thi Dieu pp Asian Nationalism and the West by William L. Holland (Ed.) p ; The Struggle for Indochina by Ellen J. Hammer, pp ; A Dragon Apparent by Norman Lewis, pp. 54,57, You are Graham Greene, author of The Quiet American. It is 1955 and your book has just been published in the United Kingdom. This is your first radio interview about this book. You must explain to your audience how your own history and experience influenced this work. In 1950 and 1951 you traveled as a war correspondent to British Malaya and Vietnam. How did your trip to Vietnam influence The Quiet American? Opium plays a fairly significant role in your novel. Did you draw on personal experience when incorporating this drug into your book? Many critics, especially in the United State, believe your work is anti-american. Do you believe that your novel is anti-american? In your book, the character Fowler encounters some marital difficulties with his wife. Did you base this situation on your own personal experiences? Sources: O Neil, Patrick (Ed.) Great World Writers. pp ; Stade, George (Ed.) British Writers, ; Sherry, Norman The Life of Graham Greene (Volume II), 276, , , ,

17 16. Your name is Huynh Phu So. You are the founder of the religion known as Hoa Hao. Your listeners are largely unfamiliar with both you and this religion. Help them understand by explaining key elements and principal beliefs of Hoa Haoism. The religion of Hoa Hao is a sect of what religion? How does it differ from the main religion it was created from? What group of people primarily practices Hoa Haoism and why? Why were you arrested by the French in the 1940s and committed to an insane asylum? Why did the Japanese arm your group for a period of time in the 1940s? What was the main political focus of your group during both Indochina wars? Sources: Kutler, Stanley I. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, pp. 228; Karnow, Stanley Vietnam A History, 143,146, 148, 220, 222, 223, You are an American historian specializing in United States Intelligence and espionage. NPR has asked you to give an interview regarding your research on the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the role it played in Vietnam. What is the OSS and why was it formed? Was it the predecessor of any notable agency still in existence today? When and why did the OSS start operating in Indochina? We think of Ho Chi Minh as an enemy, but that wasn t always the case. What are some things the OSS did at the end of World War II to support him and the Vietminh? Why was Ho Chi Minh initially so open to receiving help from the OSS and the Americans? Many OSS officers favored self-rule for the Vietnamese. Was this view shared by other US leaders? Sources: Kutler, Stanley I. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, pp ; Karnow, Stanley Vietnam A History,

18 18. You are a classically trained French chef. You have just completed writing a book on the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine. In this interview, you will be promoting your book by sharing some of the information you learned with your listeners. Why is there such a strong French influence on Vietnamese cuisine? The French brought many ingredients, flavors, and foods to Vietnam. Upon entering Vietnam, what French food item is most noticeable? Banh mi is an extremely popular Vietnamese street food. Explain what is in this dish and how it has been largely influenced by French cuisine. What are some popular vegetables that the French introduced to Vietnam? What beverage did the French introduce to Vietnam in the 1880s? Is it popular now? Sources: Eagle Eyes; McLeod, Mark W. Culture and Customs of Vietnam, pp ; Woods, L. Shelton Vietnam: A Global Studies Handbook, pp You are Trinh Minh Thé, military leader in the Cao Dai politico-religious movement. Listeners may be unfamiliar with you and your cause, so you must teach your listeners a little bit about yourself and you military cause. You are Vietnamese, but were not trained by the Vietnamese armed forces. Who gave you your military training? In June 1951, you broke from the Cao Dai hierarchy. What did you do? The U.S. funded you and other Cao Daist groups. Why? You and your third force figure prominently in Graham Greene s The Quiet American. Can you explain this concept of third force? A sniper killed you on May 3, Your murder was unsolved, but there are a number of theories on why you were killed and who you were killed by. Can you explain some of these? Sources: Hammer, Ellen J. The Struggle for Indochina, pp. 285; Logevall, Fredrik Embers of War, pp. 294, 299, , 642, 645.