Vietnam war. Primary sources

263 Pages·2000·5.048 MB·English

by  Kevin Hillstrom

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Vietnam War
Primary Sources
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Vietnam War
Primary Sources
Kevin Hillstrom
and Laurie Collier
Hillstrom
Diane Sawinski, Editor
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s Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom
e
c
r Staff
u
Diane Sawinski, U•X•L Senior Editor
o Gerda-Ann Raffaelle, U•X•L Editor
S Carol DeKane Nagel,U•X•L Managing Editor
Thomas L. Romig, U•X•L Publisher
y
Rita Wimberley, Senior Buyer
r
Dorothy Maki, Manufacturing Manager
a
Evi Seoud, Assistant Manager, Composition Purchasing and Electronic Prepress
m
Mary Beth Trimper, Manager, Composition and Electronic Prepress
i Sarah Tomasek, Permissions Specialist
r
Michelle DiMercurio, Senior Art Director
P
Kenn Zorn, Product Design Manager

: Dean Dauphinais, Senior Editor, Imaging and Multimedia Content
r Pamela A. Reed, Imaging Coordinator
a
Robert Duncan, Imaging Specialist
W Randy Bassett, Imaging Supervisor
Barbara J. Yarrow, Manager, Imaging and Multimedia Content

m Linda Mahoney, LM Design, Typesetting
Front cover photographs: Walter Cronkite reproduced by permission of
a
Archive Photos, Inc.; Kent State University shootings reproduced by permis-
n
sion of Corbis Corp. Back cover: Vietnamese woman with child reproduced by
t permission of AP/Wide World Photos.
e
i
V Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hillstrom, Kevin, 1963–
Vietnam War : primary sources / Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hill-
strom ; Diane Sawinski, editor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7876-4887-6
1. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961–1975—Sources—Juvenile literature. [1. Viet-
namese Conflict, 1961–1975—Sources.] I. Hillstrom, Laurie Collier, 1965– II.
Sawinski, Diane M. III. Title.
DS557.4 .H55 2001
959.704’3—dc21
00-056377
This publication is a creative work fully protected by all applicable copyright
laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and other
applicable laws. The editors of this work have added value to the underlying
factual material herein through one or more of the following: unique and orig-
inal selection, coordination, expression, arrangement, and classification of the
information. All rights to this publication will be vigorously defended.
Copyright © 2001 U•X•L, an imprint of The Gale Group
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in
any form.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Reader’s Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Vietnam War Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Words to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Research and Activity Ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi
Primary Sources
Prelude to War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Ho Chi Minh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Excerpt from a letter to the editor of the
American magazine Minority of One,1964 . . . . 13
The leader of Communist North Vietnam shares his
perspective on the war with the American people
The War at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Martin Luther King, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Excerpt from his antiwar speech
“Beyond Vietnam,” 1967 . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
An American civil rights leader explains his reasons
for opposing the war
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Robert F. Kennedy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Excerpt from a speech on the
Vietnam War, 1968. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
A powerful senator calls for an end to U.S. support
for unpopular South Vietnamese rulers
Tim O’Brien. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Excerpt from his story collection
The Things They Carried . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
A young man agonizes over whether to obey his
draft notice or flee to Canada
Robert F. Kennedy, U.S.
Senator and 1968 Richard M. Nixon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Democratic contender for Excerpt from the “Silent Majority”
the presidential nomination. speech, 1969. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Reproduced by permission of
The president outlines his plan for ending the war
AP/Wide World Photos.
and asks the American people for their support
Bill Rubenstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Excerpt from”Tragedy at Kent” in
Middle of the Country. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
A student at Kent State University describes the National
Guard shootings that killed four college students in 1970
The War in Vietnam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Walter Cronkite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Excerpt from an editorial following
the Tet Offensive, 1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
A well-known broadcaster calls the war a bloody stalemate
Le Ly Hayslip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Excerpt from her memoir When Heaven
and Earth Changed Places. . . . . . . . . . . . 137
A Vietnamese woman remembers how the war
divided her village
Philip Caputo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Excerpt from his memoir A Rumor of War . . . . 156
An American soldier talks about losing comrades
in Vietnam
Julie Forsythe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Excerpt from In the Combat Zone: An Oral
Tim O’Brien. History of American Women in Vietnam. . . . . . 172
Photograph by Jerry Bauer. An American relief worker remembers her service at
Reproduced by permission. a civilian rehabilitation center in Quang Ngai province
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James Stockdale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Excerpt from his memoir In Love and War . . . . 186
An American POW recalls the horror of captivity
in North Vietnam
Legacies of the War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Phuong Hoang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Excerpt from Hearts of Sorrow:
Vietnamese-American Lives . . . . . . . . . . . 208
An educated South Vietnamese citizen explains how Walter Cronkite reporting
and why he fled his homeland after the Communists from Vietnam in 1968.
took control of the government Reproduced by permission of
Archive Photos.
Linda Phillips Palo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Excerpt from Shrapnel in the Heart:
Letters and Remembrances from the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial . . . . . . . . . . . 229
An American woman mourns the loss of three school
friends who died in the Vietnam War
Where to Learn More. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Moving a wounded
comrade.
Reproduced by permission of
AP/Wide World Photos.
Contents vii
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Reader’s Guide
Vietnam War: Primary Sources presents thirteen full or
excerpted documents from the Vietnam War era. These doc-
uments range from notable speeches that mark important points
in the conflict to personal diaries and letters that reflect the
hopes, dreams, fears, and experiences of ordinary soldiers and
civilians. Some of the selections discuss highly personal issues,
such as a young American’s agonizing decision whether to report
for military service or a Vietnamese girl’s decision to join the Viet
Cong. Others chronicle major events associated with the Viet-
nam War, like the Tet Offensive and the 1970 killings of four stu-
dent protesters on the campus of Kent State University. Further,
the works included in this volume present a wide range of per-
spectives on the conflict. For example, some entries provide
insights into the feelings of Americans who served in Vietnam—
including soldiers, nurses, and prisoners of war—while others
provide a glimpse into the motivations of dedicated antiwar
activists. Included are excerpts from civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s 1967 antiwar speech at Riverside Church in
New York City; President Richard M. Nixon’s 1969 “Silent Major-
ity” speech; Le Ly Hayslip’s memoir about growing up in a war-
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torn Vietnamese village; and Admiral James Stockdale’s memoir
about his years in a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp.
The excerpts in Primary Sources are arranged in four
chapters. Each of the chapters centers on a different theme.
“Prelude to War” presents an overview of Vietnam’s struggle for
independence, the events that sparked the war, and the United
States’s early involvement in Vietnamese affairs. In this chapter,
North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh expresses his view of the
war as a war of aggression waged by the U.S. government in a
letter to the editor of the American magazine Minority of One.
Excerpts in “The War at Home” are examples of how differently
the war was regarded by individuals on the home front—from
politicians to draft resisters. “The War in Vietnam” chapter
looks at the range of personal experiences people in Vietnam
had during the war. The impact of the war on both Vietnam and
the United States is covered in “Legacies of the War.”
Each excerpt included in Vietnam War: Primary Sources
includes the following additional text:
• Introductory material places the document and its
author in historical context.
• “Things to remember while reading . . .” offers readers
important background information and directs them to
central ideas in the text.
• “What happened next . . .” discusses the impact of the
document and provides an account of subsequent histori-
cal events.
• “Did you know . . .” provides interesting facts about the
document and its author.
• “Sources”presents citations used to compile the entry.
Entries in Vietnam War: Primary Sourcesinclude numer-
ous sidebars, some focusing on the author of the featured doc-
ument, others highlighting interesting, related information.
Nearly seventy photos illustrate the text, and each excerpt has
a glossary that runs alongside the reprinted document defin-
ing unfamiliar terms and ideas contained in the material. The
volume begins with a timeline, “Words to Know” section, and
a “Research and Activity Ideas” section. It concludes with a
“Where to Learn More” section and a subject index so the
reader can easily find the people, places, and events disussed
throughout Vietnam War: Primary Sources.
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Vietnam War Reference Library
Vietnam War: Primary Sourcesis only one component of
the three-part U•X•L Vietnam War Reference Library. The
other two titles in this set are:
• Vietnam War: Almanac presents a comprehensive
overview of the Vietnam War. The volume’s sixteen chap-
ters cover all aspects of the conflict, from the reasons
behind American involvement, to the antiwar protests
that rocked the nation, to the fall of Saigon to Commu-
nist forces in 1975. The chapters are arranged chronolog-
ically and explore such topics as Vietnam’s struggles
under French colonial rule, the introduction of U.S. com-
bat troops in 1965, the Tet Offensive, and the lasting
impact of the war on both the United States and Vietnam.
Interspersed are four chapters that cover the growth of
the American antiwar movement, the experiences of U.S.
soldiers in Vietnam, Vietnam veterans in American soci-
ety, and the effect of the war on Vietnam’s land and peo-
ple. The Almanac also contains “Words to Know” and
“People to Know” sections, a timeline, research and activ-
ity ideas, and a subject index.
• Vietnam War: Biographiesis a two-volume set featuring pro-
files of sixty important figures from the Vietnam War era.
The essays cover such key people as politicians Ho Chi
Minh, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert S. McNamara, Ngo Dinh
Diem, and Richard M. Nixon; military leaders William
Westmoreland and Vo Nguyen Giap; antiwar activists Joan
Baez, David Dellinger, and Abbie Hoffman; journalists
Frances FitzGerald, David Halberstam, and Neil Sheehan;
and prominent veterans Ron Kovic, Tim O’Brien, John
McCain, and Oliver Stone. The volumes are filled with
photographs, sidebars, individual “Where to Learn More”
sections, and an index.
• A cumulative index of all three titles in the U•X•L Vietnam
War Reference Library is also available.
Acknowledgments
The authors extend thanks to U•X•L Senior Editor Diane
Sawinski and U•X•L Publisher Tom Romig at the Gale Group for
their assistance throughout the production of this series.
Reader’s Guide xi
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Comments and Suggestions
We welcome your comments on Vietnam War: Primary
Sourcesand suggestions for other topics in history to consider.
Please write: Editors, Vietnam War: Primary Sources, U•X•L,
27500 Drake Rd., Farmington Hills, Michigan 48331–3535;
call toll-free 800–877–4253; fax to 248–414–5043; or send e-
mail via http://www.galegroup.com.
xii Vietnam War:Primary Sources