PATRIOTS: THE VIETNAM WAR REMEMBERED FROM ALL SIDES
One format for approaching your Patriots essay would be to pick a mid-range theme that forces you to bring together a series of disparate interviews within a common analytical framework. Note, however, that such an approach is not mandatory and that you may wish to write a more comprehensive response to the book. Listed below are some themes I highlighted as I worked my way through the book and also some more general questions. Do not hesitate to design your own topic.
A. SOME POSSIBLE MINI-ESSAY TOPICS
The Aftereffects Of War
American Presidents
Americans In Vietnam -- "Walking Gods?"
Arrivals And Departures
The Art (Art, Music, Poetry, Photography, etc.) Of War
"Babes In Arms?": The Americans In Vietnam
Children and The Vietnam War
Communism
The Dirt Of Vietnam
The Draft
The Duality Of War
Encounters With The Enemy
Explaining The American Defeat In Vietnam
Fighting The Americans
Flags
Fire And The Vietnam War
The Food Of War
The Ivy League And The Vietnam War
Memories Of Past Wars (ie. How do personal or societal memories of earlier Vietnamese and/or American wars influence these interviews?)
Morale And The Soldiers
Of Father And Sons
Protesting The War
Race And The Vietnam War
Role Of The Media
The South Vietnamese Army And Government
The Tools Of The Trade
The Vietnam War As A Family Affair
Vietnam War: The View From The Air
Vietnamese Perceptions Of The Americans
The Village War
Visions Of Ho Chi Minh
Women And The Vietnam War (or Vietnamese Women or American Women or Comparing Vietnamese and American Women or Women As Caretakers And As Killers, etc.)
Wounds Of War
B. SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT PATRIOTS
How would you compare and contrast the American and Vietnamese interviews? To what extent do they differ both in perspective and in tone?
How do you respond to the title "Patriots?" Were the interviewees patriots? How did American and Vietnamese perceptions of patriotism differ? What is patriotism?
To what extent do these interviews begin to explain the origins of American involvement in Vietnam?
To what extent do these interviews begin to explain the reasons for the American defeat in Vietnam? Veteran Larry Heinemenn thinks that Americans lost the war "because we didn't understand that [the Vietnamese] were poets." Respond.
What is added through the inclusion of interviews with former South Vietnamese soldiers and government officials?
What did you learn about the protest movement from this book?
How would you compare and contrast the role of American and Vietnamese women in the Vietnam War?