The Vietnam War
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- Start Date: 23 Jun 2025End Date: 21 Jul 2025Mon (Evening): 19:00 - 21:00OnlineFull fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00
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What is the course about?
Examine why the United States became involved in Vietnam’s war of independence; how it conducted its military operations in Vietnam; and why the US population’s support for US military activities declined. We will also consider how American politics became a divisive issue in American politics and society, and how the support and opposition to the war emerged in American popular culture.
What will we cover?
Session 1 – Prelude to war
The Domino Theory and anticommunist thought in US politics
French Indochina
The United States and early Vietnamese efforts at independence
Session 2 – Avoiding conflict
Military observers in the Eisenhower administration
Kennedy and Diem
The CIA and Vietnam
Session 3 – The war in Vietnam
Search and destroy
Rolling Thunder
The Air Cav
Session 4 – Opposition to the war
The Anti-Vietnam War movement
The 1968 presidential election
Suppressing dissent
Session 5 - Vietnamisation
Richard Nixon’s Peace with honour
The truth will out
The Fall of Saigon.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
Evaluate how and why the United States became involved in the Vietnam conflict
Assess the impact of the conflict on American politics, society and culture
Explain different American national security Cold War policies.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This is an outline course, so no previous knowledge is required. A willingness to engage with the topic/contribute constructively to class discussions are the only requirements.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
The course will be delivered through a mixture of formal tutor input and discussion with student participation encouraged.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Pen and paper for any voluntary note taking.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Please see the Caribbean & Americas section of the website for further courses on US History.
Dafydd Townley is a lecturer in American History at the University of Reading where he teaches courses to undergraduates and graduates on the FBI, protest groups in 1960s America, and race and ethnicity in the United States, as well as broad survey modules on US history. His research interests include American national security policy, the US intelligence community, cybersecurity policy, US grand strategy and US domestic counterintelligence operations. His research has been supported by University of Oxford’s Rothermere American Institute, Columbia University, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, the Institute for Historical Research and the Royal Historical Society. His work has been published in History, the Journal of Intelligence History and his monograph, The Year of Intelligence in the United States: Public Opinion, National Security and the 1975 Church Committee will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in June, 2021. His current research focuses on the long-term development of US cybersecurity policy.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.