HIST 2804A: War and Society
Winter 2025
Instructor: Dr. Hal Goldman
The “Vietnam War” is mostly understood in the West as the conflict between the United States and its Communist opponents within the South Vietnamese population and with Communist North Vietnam during the 1960s and 1970s. The Vietnamese however called it the “American War” to differentiate it from the other conflicts that had marked their long history. For thousands of years Vietnam has fought for its independence against foreign opponents. It has also been riven by internal conflict sounding in religious, class, ethnic, ideological, and geographical differences. This course will examine that history before focusing on the modern era.
In doing so we will examine these conflicts from various perspectives in order to better understand the motives, methods, and outcomes of the combatants. We will also examine how these conflicts affected ordinary people—soldiers and civilians alike—in Vietnam, and among Chinese, French, and American combatants as well as people and politicians back home. These conflicts generated significant cultural responses as well—especially literary, musical, and cinematic—all of which sought to makes sense of the wars through a variety of ideological lenses. Finally, although American military involvement in the nation ended in 1975, conflict continued, as did the repercussions of the war and its aftermath. This course will examine these phenomena as well.
The course will rely on twice-weekly lectures, short weekly readings, regular quizzes and three short papers which ask students to examine how the war was reflected in literature, music, and film respectively. Students will have significant choice in their selected sources for all three papers. Attendance in lecture is mandatory. There is no exam.