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The Coursework Task
Maximum 1500 words.
Vietnam was part of the French Empire in South East Asia. After the
Second World War France was unable to control the area and withdrew in
1954. Vietnam was divided into two parts. The North was communist, the
South was not.
The US government had become involved in Vietnam before the French left
in 1954, but in the following years US involvement became more and more
significant.
At
first US soldiers were there only as ‘advisers’, but increasingly they
began to take part in the fighting.
Why did the USA become so involved in Vietnam? What effects did the war
have upon the USA?
Why was the world’s most powerful army unable to defeat the Viet Cong?
These are some of the issues that you will be considering when you
tackle this assignment.
Assignment One: Objective 1
1. Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s?
(15)
2. Describe the military tactics used by both the USA and the Vietcong
forces in
Vietnam in the 1960s. (15)
3. Explain why there were such different reactions in the USA to the
country’s
involvement in the conflict in Vietnam in the 1960s. (20)
(Total: 50 marks)
Sources
SOURCE A: From a book written by John
F Kennedy, a US Senator, in 1956
Vietnam is the cornerstone of
the Free World in Southeast Asia. If the red tide of communism
overflowed into Vietnam, then Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the
Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia would be threatened.
The independence of Vietnam is crucial to the Free World. Vietnam’s
economy is essential to the economy of all Southeast Asia. Vietnam’s
political liberty is an inspiration in all parts of Asia.
SOURCE B: From a statement made by the US
State Department in 1956
The war in Vietnam is not a spontaneous and local rebellion against the
established government. In Vietnam a Communist government has set out to
conquer a sovereign people in a neighbouring state.
North Vietnam’s commitment to seize control of the south is no less
total than was the commitment of North Korea to take the South in 1950.
SOURCE C: From A Rumor of War, written by
Philip Caputo in 1977. Caputo volunteered to fight in Vietnam
War is always attractive to young men who know nothing about it. We were
persuaded to go into
uniform by Kennedy’s challenge to “ask what you can do for your
country.” The USA had never lost a war and it seemed that we were
ordained to play cop to the communist robber and spread our political
ideas around the world.
The rare occasion when the VC chose to fight a set-piece battle provided
the only excitement, but beyond adding a few more corpses to the body
count, these encounters achieved nothing.
Our mission was not to win terrain, but simply to kill. The pressure on
unit commanders to produce enemy corpses was intense. It is not
surprising that some men acquired a contempt for human life.
SOURCE D: From an article in Newsweek,
a US magazine; this was published in 1967
Television seems to have encouraged a majority of viewers to support the
war. 64% said television had made them feel like backing up the boys in
Vietnam. 26% felt moved to oppose the war.
SOURCE E: Results of opinion polls in the
USA in the 1960s
SOURCE F: From a letter written by a US
soldier fighting in Vietnam in 1969
Christmas came and went, marked only by tragedy. I’m tired of going to
sleep and listening to
rockets and mortars and artillery. I’m sick of facing every day a new
bunch of kids ripped to pieces.
They’re just kids – 18, 19, their whole lives ahead of them, cut off.
I’m sick to death of it.
SOURCE G: From an article published in
Time Magazine in January 1970. This described a massacre of Vietnamese
civilians in My Lai in March 1968. It was written by a US army reporter
who was present at the time
Troops accosted a group of women, including a teenage girl. A GI grabbed
the girl and started
stripping her. A photographer jumped in to take a picture of the group.
The picture shows the
thirteen year old girl trying to hide behind her mother.
Then a soldier asked, “Well what’ll we do with them?” “Kill them,” said
another soldier.
I heard a light machine-gun go off and when we turned around, all of
them and the kids were dead.
SOURCE H: A photograph taken in My Lai
in March 1968. This was taken by a US army photographer.
SOURCE I: From an article about the
war in Vietnam published in The Spectator, a British magazine, July 1972
What television really wanted was
action in which men died cleanly and not too bloodily. When the viewers
get a film which shows what a mortar does to a man, really shows the
flesh torn and the blood flowing, the get squeamish. They want it to be
like the cinema.
Edexcel designed GCSE History
coursework assignments (first examination 2003)
Coursework Assignments Mark Scheme
Vietnam
Assignment One
1. (a) Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam in the 1950s and
1960s? (15)
Target: Causation/recall of knowledge
Level 1: Simple statements supported by some knowledge,
e.g. French withdrawal, fear of communism, division of North
and South etc. (1-5)
Level 2: Developed statements supported by relevant knowledge,
e.g. the USA was supporting France financially before
withdrawal, the example of Korea, fear of communism,
spreading to other countries in south east Asia, the Domino
theory etc.
(6-10)
Level 3: Developed explanation supported by appropriately selected
knowledge, which sets Vietnam in the wider context of the
Cold War and considers the reasons for the stages of
involvement from the early 1950s to the late 1960s, e.g.
financial, advisory, military etc. (11-15)
2. Describe the military tactics used by both the USA and the Viet Cong
forces in Vietnam in the
1960s? (15)
Target: Key features/recall of knowledge
NB answers should cover both sides in
equal depth, coverage of only one side will gain
half marks and no more.
Level 1: Simple statements supported by some knowledge, e.g. guerrilla
tactics, sniping, mines; bombing, defoliation etc. (1-5)
Level 2: Developed statements supported by relevant knowledge, which
show understanding of the contrast between two sides,
e.g. control of the countryside, use of forests, winning the
peasantry, surprise attacks, against military force, terror,
heaving bombing of the north, examples of major offensives
etc. (6-10)
Level 3: Developed explanations supported by appropriately selected
knowledge, which show understanding of the changes in tactics
from the early 60s to the early 70s,
e.g. VC becoming better armed and more adventurous, the TET
offensive, Da Nang, the USA relying more and more on
heaving bombing and terror tactics etc. (11-15)
3. Explain why there were such different reactions in the USA to the
country’s
involvement in the conflict in Vietnam in the 1960s. (20)
Target: Key features/recall of knowledge
Level 1: Simple statements giving some reactions supported by some
knowledge,
e.g. some in US were in favour because they feared Communism, they
thought it would be easy etc; others opposed because they did not want
to fight, they did not want the USA to be involved etc. (1-5)
Level 2: Developed statements giving reactions supported by relevant
knowledge,
e.g. many young people opposed the war, it was an internal problem
and the USA had no right to interfere etc; they were encouraged by
Kennedy and Johnson to believe that they were fighting for democracy,
it was seen as a test of US will and military might etc. (6-10)
Level 3: Developed explanation supported by appropriately selected
knowledge
showing understanding of the range of reactions and the different
reasons for them, OR the changes in opinion that took place in the
1960s and the 1970s, e.g. many Americans were heavily influenced by
the media which presented communism as evil and portrayed South
Vietnam in a deliberately unrealistic light, this changed by 1970 (My
Lai); many young people opposed the war because the draft
compulsory and when the details of the nature of the fighting and its
results began to become known; they were influenced by pop music
and flower power etc. (11-15)
Level 4: Sustained argument supported by precisely selected knowledge,
showing understanding of the nature, extent and range of reactions and
setting these in the wider context, AND the reasons for the changes in
opinion that took place, e.g. the late 1960s was a time of widespread
social upheaval, especially amongst the young and reactions to the war
were part of this, many in USA, however, supported the war for
patriotic reasons, but were horrified when it was revealed that the
details of My Lai had been concealed etc.
(16-20)
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