Name: Period: Vietnam War Essay Prompt

Transcription

1 Name: Period: Vietnam War Essay Prompt Did the attitudes and poliies of the United States government regarding the war in Vietnam ( ) reflet the attitudes of the Amerian people during the time of the war? Why or why not? Inlude present-day opinions and fats about the war in assessing this question as well as the douments. Use the outline at the end of this paket to help you map out your answer. Refer to the AFHS writing rubri to ensure you over the essay in its entirety. DOCUMENT A SOURCE: Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Four Freedoms, January, 1941

2 DOCUMENT B Prior to the defeat in Vietnam, most Amerians had been ontent to think of themselves as honorable people, unerringly drawn to the side of what was true and noble and right, not the kind of people to push women and hildren away from the last heliopter out of town. If the war proved them wrong in this judgment, it was beause the war was never honestly delared and beause, at the end of it, nobody, ertainly none of its offiial sponsors, ould say why 58,000 Amerian soldiers were dead and another 300,000 wounded. What ould be said was that Ameria had lost not only a war but also the belief in its virtue. SOURCE: Lewis H. Lapham, Harper s Magazine, May, DOCUMENT C SOURCE: Politial Cartoon, 1971.

3 DOCUMENT D I want to say that these advoates of retreat, defeat, surrender, and national dishonor have not been doing the ountry any good when they went before a television network suggesting that this Nation was not ommitted to fighting aggression in this area. The Senate voted for the resolution in 1965, and Senators voted that this ountry would help that ountry resist aggression, and speifially authorized the President to take whatever steps he felt neessary to resist further aggression. We are ommitted. We have more than 200,000 men there. We have at stake our national honor. We are ommitted to resisting Communist aggression. That is what this is all about. SOURCE: Russell Long, Congressional Reord, February 16, DOCUMENT E Our waging the war, not our losing of it, disgraed us in men s eyes.... Our national effort was squalid in onept and exeution. We tried to bend an anient and ivilized people to our will, and we failed, but not before we used our overwhelming power and tehnology to the full. We ratered vast strethes of Vietnam with our bombs. We destroyed villages without number and herded their inhabitants into stokades. We poisoned the wells, the forests and the farms with Agent Orange. We bulldozed millions of ares of forest and jungle. All in all we killed over two million of them, mostly ivilians. We napalmed women and hildren. Many of our soldiers disintegrated and did terrible things whih haunt them today." SOURCE: Charles Owen Rie, The Catholi Bulletin, January 13, DOCUMENT F "In this, as in most of the reproahes with whih our hildren shower us, there is of ourse an element of justifiation. There is a point somewhere along the way in most of our adult lives, when enthusiasms flag, when idealism beomes tempered, when responsibility to others, and even affetion for others, ompels greater attention to the mundane demands of private life. There is a point when we are even impelled to plae the needs of hildren ahead of the ditates of deviant idealism, and to devote ourselves, pusillanimously, if you will, to the support and rearing of these same hildren, preisely in order that at some future date they may have the privilege of turning upon us and despising us for the materialisti faintheartedness that made their maturity possible. This, no doubt, is the nature of the ompromise that millions of us make with the imperfetions of government and soiety in our time. Many of us ould wish that it might have been otherwise, that the idealisti pursuit of publi auses might have remained our elusive dediation down into later life.... SOURCE: George F. Kennan, speeh at Swarthmore College on De. 11 th, 1967

4 DOCUMENT G SOURCE: Ellen Frey-Wouters Robert S. Laufer, Legay of a War. Reprinted with permission of M.E. Sharpe, In., Armonk, New York, DOCUMENT H It is time we reognized that ours was, in truth, a noble ause. A small ountry newly free from olonial rule sought our help in establishing self-rule and the means of selfdefense against a totalitarian neighbor bent on onquest. We dishonor the memory of 50,000 young Amerians who died in that ause when we give way to feelings of guilt as if we were doing something shameful, and we have been shabby in our treatment of those who returned. They fought as well and as bravely as any Amerians have ever fought in any war. They deserve our gratitude, our respet and our ontinuing onern. SOURCE: Ronald Regan in a 1980 speeh. DOCUMENT I "No responsible world leader suggests that we should withdraw our support from Vietnam. To do so would unhinge a vast and vital area, thereby ommitting to Communist domination its resoures and its people. This we annot do. Therefore, we need the dediation and the ourage to fae some hard and unpleasant fats. We are at war in Vietnam and we must have the will to win that war... This nation must bak up its resolve with whatever manpower, equipment, and weaponry it may take, first to stem the Communist advane in Laos and Vietnam, and then to help these ountries, along with their neighbors in Thailand, to reate onditions of stability and freedom in Southeast Asia. The seurity of all Asia hinges on this ruial battle. SOURCE: Barry Goldwater, Where I Stand, 1964.

5 DOCUMENT J The assertion that the Vietnam War was an immoral war was heard more and more often as the years dragged on. This said less about the war than about the onstrution that ritis were putting on the idea of morality. Like all wars, Vietnam was brutal, ugly, dangerous, painful, and sometimes inhumane. This was driven home to those who stayed home perhaps more forefully than ever before beause the war lasted so long and beause they saw so muh of it on television in living, and dying, olor. Many who were seeing war for the first time were so shoked at what they saw that they said this war was immoral when they really meant that all war was terrible. They were right in saying that peae was better than war. But they were wrong in failing to ask themselves whether what was happening in Vietnam was substantively different from what had happened in other wars. Their horror at the fat of war prevented them from onsidering whether the fats of the war in Vietnam added up to a ause that was worth fighting for. Instead, many of these naive:, well-meaning, instintual opponents of the war raised their voies in protest." SOURCE: Rihard Nixon, No More Vietnams, DOCUMENT K The debate over Vietnam has hanged surprisingly little from the early '70s. Great division still exists over whether we should have been involved in that war. A majority of Amerians remains sharply ritial of the way the war was onduted. The Washington Post and ABC News asked a national sample of adults whether, in hindsight, the United States should have avoided sending troops to Vietnam, or should have sent troops but "gone all out to win the war." About half-54 perent-said the United States should not have sent troops. Another 36 perent said the United States was right to have entered the war and should have 'gone all out to win'. The rest were undeided." SOURCE: The Washinton Post National Weekly Edition, April 29 May 6, DOCUMENT L The President, in his April 16, 1953, address, and I myself in an address of Sept. 2, 1953, made lear that the United States would take a grave view of any future overt military Chinese Communist aggression in relation to the Paifi or Southeast Asia area. Suh an aggression would threaten island and peninsular positions whih seure the United States and its allies. If suh overt military aggression ourred, that would be a deliberate threat to the United States itself. The United States would, of ourse, invoke the proesses of the United Nations and onsult with its allies. But we ould not esape ultimate responsibility for deisions losely touhing our own seurity and self-defense. SOURCE: John Foster Dulles, speeh, June 11, 1954.

6 DOCUMENT M "The reason for the loss of publi support for the Vietnam War was that the United States never had a very onvining ase for intervention in the first plae; and whatever moral and strategi reasons it did have for intervention were far outweighed by the osts of the war. So it is a gross over-simplifiation to say that Amerian publi opinion turned against the Vietnam War simply beause they ould wath it, unlike earlier wars, on television. Publi opinion turned against the war beause the osts of the war were in plain sight while the benefits to be gained by ontinuing the war were quite elusive." SOURCE: Ernest Evans, Wars Without Splendor, DOCUMENT N Nor has the Rolling Thunder program of bombing the North either signifiantly affeted infiltration or raked the morale of Hanoi. There is agreement in the intelligene ommunity on these fats.... In essene, we find ourselves.... no better, and if anything, worse off. This important war must be fought and won by the Vietnamese themselves. We have known this from the beginning. But the disouraging truth is that, as was the ase in 1961 and 1963 and 1965, we have not found the formula, the atalyst, for training and inspiring them into effetive ation." SOURCE: Defense Seretary Robert MNamara, Report to President Lyndon Johnson, "Dear Mom,... DOCUMENT O Yesterday I witnessed something that would make any Amerian realize why we are in this war. At least it did me. I was on daylight patrol. We were on a hill overlooking a bridge that was out of our setor. I saw a platoon of Vietong stopping traffi from going over the bridge. They were beating women and hildren over the head with rifles, lubs, and fists. They even shot one woman and her hild. They were taking rie, oonuts, fish, and other assorted foods from these people. The ones that didn't give they either beat or shot.... Those slobs have to be stopped, even if it takes every last believer in a demoray and a free way of life to do it. I know after seeing their brave tatis I'm going to try my best. So please don't knok [President] Johnson's poliy in Vietnam. There is a good reason for it. I'm not too sure what it is myself, but I'm beginning to realize, espeially after yesterday.... How are the people taking to the war in Portland? I've read too muh.... about the way some of those owardly students are ating on ampuses. They sure don't show me muh as far as being Amerian itizens.

7 .... A few weeks ago, I had the hane to talk with some Marines. What they had to say would have had an impat on the people bak home.... From what they said, the Vietong aren't the only ruthless ones. We have to be, too. Have to. You'd be surprised to know that a guy you went to shool with is right now shooting a nine-yearold girl and her mother. He did it beause if they got the hane they would kill him. Or throwing a Vietong out of a heliopter beause he wouldn't talk. One guy (who had broke down and ried) said that his one desire is to get enough leave to go home and kik three of those demonstrators in a well-suited plae and bring him bak. I tell you, it's horrible to read a paper and see our own people aren't baking you up." SOURCE: Exerpts from several letters of Glenn Munson, ed., Letters from Vietnam (New York: Parallax Publishing Co., 1966), pp. 104, 118. DOCUMENT P

8 ESSAY PROMPT Did the attitudes and poliies of the United States government regarding the war in Vietnam ( ) reflet the attitudes of the Amerian people during the time of the war? Why or why not? Inlude present-day opinions and fats about the war in assessing this question as well as the douments. Claim (one sentene): o Counter-laim: Reason 1: Name a reason/fat to support the laim (from the douments) o Write an explanation of how this reason supports your laim: Reason 2: Name a reason/fat to support the laim (from the douments) o Write an explanation of how this reason supports your laim: Reason 3: Name a reason/fat to support the laim (from the douments) o Write an explanation of how this reason supports your laim: Conlusion:

9 Author s Name/Number AFHS Writing Rubri Reader s Name/Number 1 Main Claim/Thesis: A statement that asserts the writer s position on the given prompt, question, or topi 2 Organization: Struture that inludes an introdution, body paragraphs, transitions, and onlusion 3 Evidene: Speifi fats, quotations, paraphrasing, data, et., used to support the author s laim 4 Explanation/Analysis: Writing that explains how the evidene relates to and supports the laim 5 Aademi Voie Style: Language that is sophistiated, strutured, assertive; uses elevated dition and maintains larity 6 Extension: Ideas, evidene, or other relevant material that ontextualizes, relates, or synthesizes ideas, themes, et. Inomplete Emerging Moderate Effetive Exellent 0 points 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points The author offers no identifiable thesis. The organization of the paper is unintentional or haoti. The author speaks generally and uses no speifi evidene. The author does not explain or analyze the evidene. The writing is riddled with spelling, strutural, and grammatial errors. Extension options: The author does not offer extension material. In a single sentene at the end of the introdution, the author asserts their position on the prompt, question, or topi. The author supports most of the sublaims with paragraphs that reinfore the thesis. Evidene is mostly fatual and reasonably aurate. The author offers explanation for most piees or groups of evidene. Most sentenes are omplete and... introdue ideas with larity. Author aknowledges ontraditory evidene or differing perspetives. Extension material relates to the topi in an appropriate manner. or The thesis is learly written... and asserts an opinion (analysis, argument) OR presents the entral idea (info.) that requires further support (doesn t simply restate the prompt). Most paragraphs inlude a topi sentene that expresses a entral idea with an appropriate level of generality. Evidene is relevant and... properly ited (if neessary). Explanation is lear and oherent. The author uses a variety of sentene strutures and... avoids asual and informal language that is inappropriate for the audiene. Author onnets the laims to other ontexts or (themes, time periods, movements, et.). Extension material is plaed appropriately. The thesis/entral idea addresses the fullness of the topi, question, or prompt (e.g. responds to all parts of multi-part question). The author uses transitions effetively to move from sentene to sentene and... paragraph to paragraph. Evidene is speifi and... supports all of the author s laims. Explanation is logially valid or reasonable. The author uses dition appropriate for the subjet matter and disipline and... has very few grammatial and/or spelling errors. Author develops an additional sublaim or beyond the demand of the prompt. Extension material is developed appropriately. The author further limits, larifies, and/or fouses their thesis (e.g. announes sublaims by introduing topis, offers a road map, et.). The author utilizes an introdutory paragraph effetively to introdue the thesis and... a onluding paragraph to reinfore the thesis. Evidene effetively and onviningly supports the author's position (aurate and suffiient). Explanation thoroughly and onviningly relates the evidene to the laims (well informed and omplete). Presentation is sophistiated and assertive,... has mature sentene struture, and... follows the formal style given by the teaher. Author offers broader insight that relates to life, humanity, philosophy, et. Extension material is well-integrated and onvining. GradeCam Soring Item # Total Sore Sore Thesis: Organization: Evidene: Explanation: Voie Style: Extension: TOTAL: /30

10 Sore Weaknesses Writing Element Strengths Main Claim/Thesis: A statement that asserts the writer s position on the given prompt, question, or topi Organization: Struture that inludes an introdution, body paragraphs, transitions, and onlusion Evidene: Speifi fats, quotations, paraphrasing, data, et., used to support the author s laim Explanation/Analysis: Writing that explains how the evidene relates to and supports the laim Aademi Voie Style: Language that is sophistiated, strutured, assertive; uses elevated dition and maintains larity Extension: Ideas, evidene, or other relevant material that ontextualizes, relates, or synthesizes ideas, themes, et. Other: Total: /30