History 498
Devine
Fall 2010
Study Questions for Hayslip, When Heaven
and Earth Changed Places
- What was the Vietnam war
about? A war for independence, a civil war, a battle within the larger
Cold War, a battle for economic resources?
How would your answer depend upon time (1945 vs. 1965) or location
(North Vietnam, South Vietnam, or the U.S.)? How
does Hayslip’s memoir inform your answer?
- What were the objectives of the North Vietnamese
government and its supporters? What
were the South Vietnamese objectives? The Americans’ objectives?
- What does Hayslip’s
memoir suggest about the Americans’ understanding of Vietnamese culture? How does her first-person account
supplement, reinforce, or challenge Mark Bradley’s arguments about how the
Americans and Vietnamese “imagined” each other?
- Does the author portray the Americans
fairly? What does she think about America,
Americans, and their role in the war?
- What does Hayslip
admire in American culture? What
does she criticize?
- What new insights into Vietnamese culture did Hayslip’s account provide? In reading about her experiences, did
your perception of the Vietnamese conflict change in any way?
- How did the war affect society both during and
after the fighting? For example,
what were the effects on the Vietnamese people, their economy, cultural
values, gender relations, political arrangements, and relations with
neighboring countries?
- How did the war affect the author? How did her life change? How and why did her attitude toward the
Vietcong change?
- Who or what draws especially sharp criticism
from Hayslip?
Why do you think she is so critical?
- How did the Vietcong and the northern leaders
change over time? What explains this change?
- Why was the Vietcong
successful while the Americans had difficulty achieving success? What
anecdotes in Hayslip’s memoir are especially
effective at showing the contrast?
- Although all factions claimed to represent “the
people,” which, if any, came the closest? Who were “the people” or is this term
just an abstraction?
- The author is a woman. How does her gender shape
her point of view?
- In Hayslip’s account,
who are the “good guys” and who are the “bad guys?” What, if anything, do the answers to
these questions reveal about the author’s own biases?
- How does Hayslip
evaluate the Communist government that took control in Vietnam?
What kind of society does she find upon her return?
- Why do you think Hayslip
wrote this book? What does she want
to tell her readers?