View Episode 1 “Deja Vu” of The Vietnam War streaming through the MU library Kanopy service (Links to an
external site.) (Links to an external site.)
Episode viewing guide is available here.
Write a two page (500 word) response paper that links the course material on the geopolitics of the Cold War to
world systems theory to explain or answer one of the connecting themes provided below, as it applies to the
Vietnam War. Draw from readings, lecture, and the Vietnam War documentary to frame a general explanation
that is supported with details about the Vietnam War.
Connecting themes:
Leslie Gelb’s statement: “He [Diem] became our ally, or rather our master… the tail wags the dog.” Why did it
become the role of the United States to engage in postcolonial countries that were transitioning from colonial
status to independence? Using world systems theory, explain was the United States drawn into supporting the
French and then Diem.
Donald Gregg’s statement: “We should have seen it as the end of the colonial era in Southeast Asia, which it
really was. But instead we saw it in Cold War terms, and we saw it as a defeat for the free world that was
related to the rise of China.” The wars in Vietnam (French and then American) highlighted the tensions
between imperial geopolitics and then principles of international (Wilsonian) liberalism and again, later, the
tension between international liberalism and the ideological geopolitics of the Cold War. What contradictions
did this produce and what explains why, from a world systems perspective, did the United States choose the
path that it did?
Here is the video website
https://miamioh.kanopy.com/product/deja-vu-1858-1961