Embers of War: The Fall of a French Empire and the Making of Our Vietnam

We will study the period in Vietnam’s history as it fought to be free of colonialism and some of the key decisions that were made by the governments of Vietnam, France and the United States that figure so heavily in our own history. We begin at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference, where a young Ho Chi Minh tries to meet Woodrow Wilson to deliver a petition for Vietnamese independence, and we conclude with the death of the first American soldiers whose names are inscribed in the Vietnam War Memorial. We evaluate several questions that shaped not only Vietnam’s history but also America’s. Should America have taken the hand of friendship that was extended by Ho Chi Minh? Were we wrong to support France as strongly as we did? How could the Viet Minh, starting with an army that had a total of 31 men and 3 women ultimately defeat the French? Our core book, which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for History, traces the path that led two Western nations to lose their way in Vietnam. It is "An epic story of wasted opportunities and tragic miscalculations...and larger than life characters". The author, Fredrik Logevall, is Professor of History in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. We will also have elective supplementary readings including a timeline of events, and excerpts from various experts as well as you tube videos from the National Archives.