The American Experience in Vietnam: 1945-1975

The overriding reason for America's involvement in the Vietnam War was to contain communism and its threat to the American way of life. Each subsequent step deepened American engagement and made it harder to admit failure and reverse direction. This course will explore the American ethos using the Vietnam War as a case study. By examining the events that led to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, we hope to gain an introspective on how America behaves on the world stage. We will cover how America entered the war, the subsequent escalation, and the eventual disengagement. The focus will be on the key events and resultant choices that America made. The descent into the struggle for Vietnam is a direct reflection of what it is to be American.