Fall | Winter 2017 OKLAHOMA HUMANITIES Culture | Issues | Ideas VIETNAM VIETNAMWAR AND OTHER STORIES Making a Difference We’re pleased to be addressing opportunity to be lifelong learners in this issue the important topic of and informed citizens. the Vietnam War, the impact of which Our Board of Trustees and staff continues to resonate in today’s society. embarked on a strategic planning We’re hopeful that the content will process recently that includes an online help us remember, learn, and reflect, survey to our stakeholders asking all fundamental goals of Oklahoma them to weigh in on the programs we Humanities’ mission. currently provide. I invite you to go to the This magazine is just one of the home page of our website to participate ANN THOMPSON ways we bring humanities content to the (okhumanities.org). In addition to Executive Director general public. We administer several evaluating our programs, we ask that statewide programs with varying you use your imagination on how formats, but they all have one thing in we might expand our programming. common: they rely on the scholarship Consider the needs of our state, those found in history, literature, philosophy, problems that sharing humanities art history, jurisprudence, and ethics. content might help alleviate. Our grants program to other nonprofits The concerns we have in areas of may help fund programs like museum equality, education, poverty, health care, exhibits, lecture series, film festivals, and justice can seem overwhelming. Our oral history projects, websites, historical organization is just one of many trying first-person portrayals, or teacher to make a difference and the needs institutes. Each year our reading can sometimes seem insurmountable, and discussion program, Let’s Talk but we have seen how our work has About It, Oklahoma, reaches twenty- changed lives. Help us continue to make five communities and up to six prisons. a difference by participating in our Our Smithsonian Institution traveling program survey, checking our online exhibit program, Museum on Main calendar and attending programs in Street, will finish its 2017 five-city your community, and donating. We tour of Oklahoma later this fall. The appreciate your input and enthusiasm common objective of these programs in helping to share the history of our is that Oklahomans have the human experience. ON THE COVER: Soldier of the 25th Infantry Division, c. 1969, by Charles O. Haughey, who was drafted in 1967. After serving a few months as a U.S. Army combat patrol rifleman, a commander learned that Haughey had photography experience. Haughey was reassigned to photograph morale-boosting images for the Army and American newspapers, 1968-1969, and shot close to 2,000 images. Courtesy PBS 2 FALL | WINTER 2017 | VIETNAM OKLAHOMA CONTENTS VIETNAM HUMANITIES FALL | WINTER 2017 | VOL. 10, NO. 2 Culture | Issues | Ideas 7 DOCUMENTING THE VIETNAM WAR A conversation with Lynn Novick. Interview by Carla Walker 12 ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM WAR A history of foreign intervention. By Mark Atwood Lawrence 15 PRIVATE DOUBTS, PUBLIC RESOLVE, AND PERSONAL AMBITIONS How Vietnam became America’s war. By Fredrik Logevall 22 A DISCONNECTED DIALOGUE American military strategy, 1964-1968. By Gregory Daddis 28 TRIANGLE OF ALLIES Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union. By Xiao-Bing Li 31 INFOGRAPHIC & TIMELINE Dates and facts. Assembled by Jason A. Higgins 36 DONUT DOLLIES, WACs, AND WAFCs Women’s service in the war. By Heather Marie Stur 41 PROTESTING VIETNAM Student voices in a time of war. By Sarah Eppler Janda 46 ON TRUE WAR STORIES There’s no such thing as a good war story. By Viet Thanh Nguyen 50 VIETNAM REDUX— RETRIEVING TRUTHS, REVISING WAR The pitfalls of American exceptionalism. By Christian G. Appy 56 TELLING STORIES, REMEMBERING WAR Making sense of war. By Mia Martini 60 THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL AT 35 By Gordon O. Taylor IN EVERY ISSUE 2 From the Executive Director 4 Post: Mail | Social Media | Messages 6 The Editor’s Desk 62 Noteworthy: 2016 Annual Report President Lyndon B. Johnson listens to a tape sent by his son-in-law, Captain Charles Robb, who was serving in Vietnam, July 31, 1968. Photo by Jack Kightlinger, courtesy LBJ Library OKLAHOMA HUMANITIES 3 POST Mail | Social Media | Messages Reader Feedback I cannot put down the Spring/Summer “I don’t always agree with what is in 2017 issue of Oklahoma Humanities. the magazine, but at least it makes me Thanks to all for the beauty this brings to think about the things I disagree with. my day. I will keep the Oklahoma poets Sometimes I change my perspective section to read each spring. or position.” —Judy Cawthon, Oklahoma City The Spring/Summer 2017 Oklahoma 2017 Magazine Awards Humanities magazine was fantastic. Poetry allows ideas to be expressed in extraordinary ways that I find appealing. —Kyle Dahlem, via Facebook 2016 Readers' Survey Results Readers tell us that Oklahoma Humanities magazine is making a big impact. An overwhelming number of those surveyed (97%) say they value the magazine as a forum for differing viewpoints. Readers share the content with others (88%) and feel better informed to engage in civic life 2017 Great Plains Journalism Awards (96%). Their written comments positively Finalist | Great Plains Magazine of Your Spring/Summer 2017 Poetry issue inspire us. Following are just a few. Read the Year has gotten me thinking about some of the what others say about Oklahoma Human- poems that are important to me. This one ities, then give us your feedback. 2017 Society of Professional was in a New Year’s card that my grand- —Carla Walker, Editor Journalists Awards father sent to friends in 1935. The poem Oklahoma Pro Chapter is by a good friend of my grandfather’s, a “This is the smartest magazine I get. Western artist named Joe De Yong, who It’s beautiful visually and intellectu- 1st Place | Best PR Publication grew up in Dewey and spent ten years as ally satisfying.” It’s a Mystery | Winter 2016 Charlie Russell’s only student. “I like the way each issue revolves around a specific theme.” 1st Place | General Writing Memories ride out of the night / “I know the writing is well reasoned. “Democracy, the Free Press, And dismount from the back of the I believe the only agenda within the and the Meaning of TRIBE” wind— / Gather in groups in front of pages of Oklahoma Humanities is one Interview with Sebastian Junger my house / When, silently opening of open thought on topics that require By Carla Walker the door, they troop in / Backward attention. It’s called credibility, and st at first—then crowding up close your journal has just that.” 1 Place | PR Publication Cover / With a touch of the hand and a “I always learn something.” Democracy | Fall/Winter 2016 smile / Some that I’ve missed for a “I look forward to each issue because 2nd Place | General Writing day, week or month / —Some from I use the articles as springboards for “The News Today: Seven the big After While, / Stirring my discussions. I am never disappointed Trends in Old and New Media” heart, as a stick does the fire, / Their in what I find within the pages of By Elaine Kamarck & Ashley Gabriele faces picked out in light, / And I’m Oklahoma Humanities.” glad that this group numbers you “The magazine features creative, well- nd old friend, / Among those I see here 2 Place | PR Publication Cover written articles that focus on topics It’s a Mystery | Winter 2016 tonight. © Joe De Yong, 1935 not covered by other Oklahoma Thank you for your wonderful magazines. publications. The photography and CORRECTION: The caption for the image on page —Bill Woodard, Bartlesville illustrations are works of art.” (cont.) 17 of the Spring/Summer 2017 issue should read: In From the Night Herd, Frederic Remington, 1907, SEND YOUR IDEAS, opinions, and suggestions. LET US HEAR FROM YOU. Participate in our 2017 oil on canvas; gift of Albert K. Mitchell, National Email the editor, [email protected], or survey, open for your responses October 1-31 at Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. We deeply comment via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. okhumanities.org. regret the error. 4 FALL | WINTER 2017 | VIETNAM OKLAHOMA HUMANITIES OKLAHOMA Culture | Issues | Ideas EXECUTIVEHUMANITIES DIRECTOR Ann Thompson [email protected] EDITOR Carla Walker [email protected] PROGRAM OFFICER Kelly Burns [email protected] PROGRAM OFFICER CHANGING LIVES Christopher Carroll ONE BOOK AT A TIME [email protected] DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Brandi Davis Let’s Talk About It, Oklahoma (LTAIO), that prepare inmates for the transition [email protected] the beloved reading and discussion from incarceration to release and give ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR program from Oklahoma Humanities them tools to reduce the likelihood of Robyn Arn (OH), has been enriching communities [email protected] reoffending are limited. LTAIO offers and changing lives for 32 years. More usable skills, possibility, and hope. How? Oklahoma Humanities magazine is than a book club, LTAIO programs are published biannually (March and September) Reading and discussing literature can facilitated by humanities scholars who by Oklahoma Humanities (OH), 424 Colcord help us analyze complex circumstances, Dr., Suite E, Oklahoma City, OK 73102, (405) relate layers of meaning, enhancing the understand and empathize with other 235-0280, [email protected]. See pages understanding and appreciation of the 62-63 for information on the OH organization, points of view, and communicate effec- text. board of trustees, grants, and programs. Our tively—benefits that foster personal privacy policy is posted on our website. Local host communities receive Oklahoma Humanities magazine is an growth and employability. a grant from OH to bring in scholars, award-winning collection of culture, issues, and “LTAIO outreach to incarcerated ideas—a rich mix of humanities scholarship, and books are borrowed from the OH insightful narratives, informed opinions, and library.