Introduction
Two maps of Vietnam
I. Vietnamese Nationalism and Communism (to 1945)
1. Excerpt from "History of the Loss of Vietnam" [Viet Nam Vong
Quoc Su] by Phan Boi Chau, 1905
2. Excerpt from Lettres du Tonkin et de Madagascar by Louis Hubert
Gonzalve Lyautey, 1921, including reflections on native population
and goals of French colonialism
3. "A Song of National Restoration" by anonymous, in Colonialism
Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism, 1900-1931, ed.
Truong Buu Lam
4. Vietnamese appeal for self-determination at Versailles, June
1919
5. Ho Chi Minh speech at the founding of the Indochinese Communist
Party, February 18, 1930
II. From Colonial War to Cold War Crisis (1945-1954)
1. Ho Chi Minh's declaration of independence, September 2, 1945
2. Telegram from Secretary of State George C. Marshall to U.S.
embassy in Paris saying U.S. sees no easy answers to war in
Indochina, February 3, 1947
3. Telegram from French High Commissioner Léon Pignon to Ministry
of Overseas France on meaning of communist victory in China and
Chinese recognition of DRV, January 24, 1950
4. Political cartoon from Rochester Times-Union, "Neighbors Now,"
depicting Stalin menacing Southeast Asia, January 1950
5. CIA study, "Consequences to the US of Communist Domination of
Southeast Asia," October 13, 1950
6. Excerpt of report by Ho Chi Minh to the 2nd Congress of the
Vietnam Workers Party, February 1951, especially section on
forthcoming tasks such as land reform, creating the "new man," and
building up the army
7. Excerpt, Ngo Van Chieu, Diary of a Viet Minh Fighter [Journal
d'un combatant viet-minh], 1955.
III. Between Two Storms (1954-1961)
1. Dwight Eisenhower "domino theory" press conference, April 7,
1954
2. Memorandum of conversation among Vyacheslav Molotov, Zhou Enlai,
and Pham Van Dong, from Molotov's journal, July 17, 1954
3. Declaration by the government of Ngo Dinh Diem opposing
elections to unify Vietnam, August 9, 1955
4. Le Duan, "The Path of Revolution in the South" [Duong Loi Cach
Mang Mien Nam], circa 1956, trans. Robert K. Brigham
5. Ngo Dinh Diem speech to National Press Club, Washington, D.C.,
May 1957
6. Excerpt from No Other Road to Take: Memoir of Mrs. Nguyen Thi
Dinh, 1976, trans. Mai Van Elliott
IV. Americanization (1961-1965)
1. Walt Rostow speech, "Guerrilla Warfare in the Underdeveloped
Areas," August 7, 1961
2. Excerpt of resolution of the 9th Congress of the Vietnam Workers
Party, December 1963, especially sections expressing uncertainty
about U.S. intentions after Diem coup
3. Memo by David Nes for Henry Cabot Lodge, "Where We Stand in
Vietnam," February 17, 1964
4. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, August 7, 1964
5. Vietnam Workers Party Politburo resolution, January 2, 1965,
urging that nation prepare for bigger war against U.S. forces but
not give up on negotiated solution
6. Memo by McGeorge Bundy for President Johnson, January 27, 1965,
stating that the moment of decision had arrived
7. Memorandum for President Johnson by Vice President Hubert
Humphrey, February 17, 1965, emphasizing political dangers of
escalation
V. Waging War (1965-1968)
1. Lyndon Johnson speech at Johns Hopkins University, April 7,
1965
2. Pham Van Dong speech with "four points," April 8, 1965
3. Minutes of LBJ meetings with advisers, July 21-22, 1965,
discussing big new troop commitments
4. Le Duan, "Letters to the South" [Thu Vao Nam], 1965, trans.
Robert K. Brigham
5. North Vietnam propaganda poster, "Firmly Defend the Frontiers of
the Fatherland," from Vietnam Posters, ed. David Heather and Sherry
Buchanan
6. Excerpt of oral history by Douglas Anderson, corpsman, 3rd
battalion, 1st Marines, in Everything We Had: An Oral History of
the Vietnam War by Thirty-Three American Soldiers Who Fought It,
ed. Al Santoli
7. Political cartoon, "Obstacle Course," Sunday Telegraph (London),
June 3, 1966
8. Martin Luther King speech,"A Time to Break Silence," Riverside
Church, New York, April 4, 1967
VI. The Tet Offensive (1968)
1. General Westmoreland speech to the National Press Club,
Washington, D.C., November 21, 1967
2. Resolution 14 of the Vietnam Workers Party, January 1968, laying
out general strategy for the Tet Offensive
3. Associate Press photo of U.S. Marines with dead bodies on
embassy grounds, January 31, 1968
4. "Bloody Path to Peace," New York Times editorial, February 1,
1968
5. Notes of president's meeting with senior advisers, March 4, 1968
(meeting in which Clark Clifford called attention to drain on U.S.
economy)
6. Abbie Hoffman testimony about 1968 Democratic Convention from
"Chicago Seven" trial, December 1969
7. Minutes of conversation between Mao Zedong and Pham Van Dong,
November 17, 1968
VII. Fighting and Negotiating (1968-1973)
1. COSVN Resolution no. 9, July 1969, acknowledging failures of
previous months but noting that time was on communists' side and
calling for sustained effort
2. Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech, November 3, 1969
3. Ronald L. Haeberle photo from My Lai, shot in 1968 but published
in late 1969 and later used in "And Babies?" antiwar poster
4. Notes of conversation between Zhou Enlai and Pham Van Dong,
September 17, 1970
5. John F. Kerry testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, April 22, 1971
6. Resolution of the Twentieth Plenum of the Vietnamese Workers
Party Central Committee, February 11, 1972
7. Excerpt of transcript of conversation between Richard Nixon and
Henry Kissinger, August 3, 1972
VIII. Legacies of War (1973-2011)
1. Letter from President Nguyen Van Thieu to Gerald Ford, September
19, 1974, requesting U.S. support promised by Nixon
2. Gerald Ford speech, Tulane University, April 23, 1975
3. Hubert Van Es photo (UPI) of helicopter atop building in U.S.
embassy compound, April 29, 1975
4. Recollections of Duyen Nguyen, "If I Die, Will Anybody Know?" in
Voices of Vietnamese Boat People: Nineteen Narratives of Escape and
Survival, ed. Mary Terrell Cargill and Jade Quang Huynh
4. Excerpt of Ronald Reagan's "noble cause" speech, August 18,
1980
5. Speech by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, "The Uses of
Military Power" (Weinberger Doctrine), November 28, 1984
6. Excerpt from Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War (1996)
7. Jack Ohman cartoon, "The Way Out of Afghanistan," Oregonian,
June 2011
Mark Atwood Lawrence is Associate Professor of History and
Distinguished Fellow at the Robert S. Strauss Center for
International Security and Law at the University of Texas at
Austin. He is the author of The Vietnam War: A Concise
International History (OUP, 2008) and Assuming the Burden: Europe
and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam (2005). He is also
coeditor of The First Indochina War: Colonial Conflict and Cold
War
Crisis (2007).
"This is simply the best collection of documents pertaining to the
long and difficult struggle for Vietnam. Mark Atwood Lawrence is
one of our leading scholars of the international history of the
war, and he shows it here, compiling a superb and wide-ranging
sourcebook that provides crucial insight into the aims and policies
of all sides in the conflict."--Fredrik Logevall, author of Embers
of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's
Vietnam
"A superb collection of documents representing a variety of
national and individual perspectives on the war in Vietnam. Highly
recommended for classroom use."--George C. Herring, author of
America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975
"From the writings of war leaders in Washington, Hanoi, and Saigon,
to the voices of men and women affected by the fighting on the
ground, and to noteworthy images of the conflict that traversed the
globe, Lawrence has captured the Vietnam War era through this
indispensable volume."--Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, author of Hanoi's War:
An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam
"This splendid new documentary collection makes an ideal
contribution to any course on the Vietnam War. It utilizes fresh
documents from a range of perspectives to introduce students and
general readers alike to the complexities of the Vietnam
War."--Robert McMahon, author of The Limits of Empire: The United
States and Southeast Asia Since World War II
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