Ken Burns’ Vietnam War : episode 8/10, ‘A Sea of Fire’

Start 3mins in. These questions = the first 30min

1. How did Nixon think he would be successful where Johnson had failed?
Nixon thought as he was an anti-communist, really against communist, so Ho Chi Minh
would be afraid of the nuclear button and beg for peace.
2. How many different strands of protest came together in the Peace movement?
There were strands of protest for racial equality, female empowerment, environmental protest,
innovation of rock and roll music.
3. Why did Nixon highlight the plight of US POWs?
It is because the North Vietnamese were treating the US POWs as war criminals, and tortured
them, questioning them for confessions. Nixon tried to highlight this plight to get the
American demonstrators to feel sympathetic to the Airmen who did the bombing, not the
North Vietnamese civilians that were bombed.
4. How many people were held captive in the camps of America’s South Vietnamese ally?
40,000 Viet Cong and 200,000
5. April 1969: how many US troops present at the high point? And the death toll? And the $$$
spent?
543,482 US troops present and more than $70 billion spent.
6. What did ‘Vietnamisation’ mean?
The gradual handing responsibility for the war to South Vietnamese forces and withdrawing
US troops.
7. Nixon called it ‘peace with honour’: at min 15, a former marine defines Nixon’s strategy in a
slightly different way:
Nixon’s strategy was to surrender and not to say they surrender.
8. Go back to the meaning of Vietnamisation and add the point about supplies / M16s etc
The US tried to Vietnamise the South Vietnam army by supplying them with arms.
 9. What did the Communists make of the newly equipped South Vietnamese army?
As if the puppet army had been strengthened, but they won’t win.
10. African-Americans in the war: how were they treated differently?
They suffered a disproportionate number of casualties, and were treated differently to white
counterparts.
11. After the domino effect no longer persuaded, what was the new rationale used to explain US
involvement?
To maintain US’s credibility of its allies in the world stage.
12. Why was there no progress at the Paris ‘peace’ talks?
It is because Hanoi refused to admit that there were troops in South Vietnam, and wouldn’t
withdraw their troops.
13. Why did Nixon introduce a lottery system of conscription? Why is it described as a ‘brilliant
political manoeuvre’? [BTW, one Donald J. Trump benefitted from ‘unfair deferment’ –
google it and find out how]
Nixon introduce a lottery system of conscription to maintain that recruitment was fair, rich or
poor alike. It was a brilliant political manoeuvre to emphasise that conscription was fair.
14. The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam’ took place on Oct 15th 1969: why was it more
influential than the protests of the ‘Weathermen’?
It is because it was peaceful, middle class and uniquely focusing on ending the war.
[From 34-40mins: The My Lai massacre – just watch; no questions]
[From 41min: the effects on the mental health of soldiers – just watch, no questions]
[From 45mins: ‘draft-dodging’, Canada & conscience – just watch; no questions]
15. [From 47min]: Why did Nixon expand the war to Cambodia?
It was because it was to destroy Viet Cong bases and supply lines to buy time for the South
Vietnamese army to get ready.
16. 4 May 1970: Kent State University, Ohio – the casualties?
2 young women and 2 young men, 9 more students wounded, one paralyzed.
17. And note the public response…
58% of killings was justified, 4 million college student campaigned against war and what
happened in Kent state.