History 485A
Devine
Fall 2011
Study Questions Week #3
Stein Tonnesson, “Franklin
Roosevelt, Trusteeship, and Indochina: A
Reassessment”
- How
have historians’ explanations of FDR’s Indochinese policy changed over the
years? What pieces of evidence seem
to have been significant in supporting or undermining these historians’
interpretations?
- How
were FDR’s China and Indochina policies related? Why didn’t things work out the way FDR
had hoped?
- On
what grounds did the U.S.
military and the State Department oppose FDR’s desire to launch an
invasion of Indochina?
- On
March 9, 1945 the Japanese military overthrew the French colonial
administration in Indochina. Why did the Japanese carry out this
coup? Why does Tonnesson
believe the coup was significant in the shaping of US Indochinese policy?
- What
three kinds of territories did the proposed system of international
trusteeships apply to? (see p. 63)
In interpreting FDR’s Indochina
policy, why does Tonnesson play such close
attention to these conditions?
- According
to Tonnesson, how does the shift in US Indochina
policy between April and June 1945 demonstrate “how a bureaucracy can
exploit a change at the top to carry out its own subdued wishes”? (p 68)
- Why,
according to Tonnesson, did Wedemeyer
and Hurley continue to operate “in the shadow of FDR”? (p 70) What does he mean by this?
- Why
was there a shift in US Indochina policy from support for trusteeship to
support for French sovereignty?
- Consider
the various players in this drama – individuals, groups, and nations. What was in it for each of them? What factors helped and hurt them as
they each pursued their agenda?
Mark Atwood
Lawrence, “Explaining the Early Decisions: The United States and the French War,
1945-1954”
- What
three moments do scholars consider most important in the evolution of US
Vietnamese policy? Why are these
three moments significant?
- Tonnesson suggests bureaucratic manipulation of Truman
may explain the shift in US Indochinese policy. Why do other historians say economics
and cultural prejudices may be just as important?
- To
what extent did the Americans know what they were getting into when Washington decided to back the French in Indochina?
- According
to Lawrence, there are five lines
interpretation that explain why the United States came to support
the French against the Vietminh in 1950. Identify and briefly summarize
those five interpretations. Which
reason(s) do you find most persuasive and why?
- What
three “key assumptions” underpinned US
policy in Vietnam
after 1954? What was the connection
between these assumptions and the policies Washington pursued?
- How
have historians interpreted Eisenhower’s policies toward Vietnam? What factors have helped shape these
interpretations? How does Lawrence show that
one’s interpretation can be determined by the sources one chooses to
believe?
- According
to Lawrence, why did Eisenhower’s refusal
to intervene militarily at Dien Bien Phu mark only a “momentary flash of understanding” and
not a fundamental shift from the Vietnam policies of the
Roosevelt and Truman administrations?