August 26, 2011
U. S. Counterinsurgency Wars: Vietnam and Afghanistan
BTAN 3010
MA 03
Room 106
Fall 2011
Professor Johanna Granville (Fulbright Lecturer)
North American Department, IEAS,
University of Debrecen
E-mail:
Tel. 06 70 508 2169
Course meeting time: Thursday, 12-1:40 p.m.
Office Hours (Room 108/2): Tues, 5:45-6:45 p.m., Thurs. 2:30-3:30 pm, or by appt.
Course Description
The U.S. war in Vietnam greatly influenced the American people and the course of American foreign policy. By the time U.S. soldiers left South Vietnam in 1973, over 58,000 men and women had been killed, the economy seriously damaged, and political unity shattered. Not only did the war rip the Democratic party apart, leading to a Republican victory under Richard Nixon in the 1968 election, but it destroyed the bipartisan foreign policy consensus of the previous thirty years. To this day, the debate continues about the true meaning of the failure in Vietnam and whether it could have been avoided.
Just six years later, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. By the time the last Soviet soldier left in February 1989, over 13,000 of his comrades had lost their lives, and another 40,000 were wounded. Well over a million Afghans also perished. This ten-year counterinsurgency war, like Vietnam for Americans, was a major turning point in Soviet foreign policy, forcing Moscow leaders to reevaluate military intervention as a tool of foreign policy. The ghost of Vietnam hovered over the shoulders of Carter and Reagan Administration officials, motivating them to fund the Afghan insurgents (mujahideen) covertly and thus teach the Kremlin a lesson about the limits of military power.
One month after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States invaded Afghanistan (October 7, 2001). This war has now supplanted Vietnam as the longest war in American history, and it has been one of the most pressing issues facing the Barack Obama Administration today. How exactly did the United States get involved in a country dubbed the "graveyard of empires"? Did Washington policymakers forget the lessons of Vietnam? How does this war compare and contrast with the earlier U.S. and Soviet counterinsurgency wars? What new obstacles did Americans encounter in Afghanistan? Has this war increased or decreased the threat of terrorism against the United States?
This is an innovative course focusing on the abovementioned three case studies of military intervention and modern counterinsurgency war. In each case we will examine the causes, the decision-making processes, political and social consequences, and military strategies of the combatants. We will then carefully compare and contrast these cases and extract important political and strategic lessons.
Course Objectives
1. Learn and practice the methodology of comparative case studies.
2. Become familiar with theoretical perspectives on the conduct
of U.S. national security policy and apply them to the historical and current events discussed in the course.
3. Recognize patterns in counterinsurgency wars and generate creative alternative solutions to problems
4. Develop written and oral skills in English.
Course Requirements
Class participation and oral presentations: 15%
Quiz(zes) and reading questions: 10%
Paper #1 (10-20 pp): 15%
Paper #2 (10-20 pp): 15%
Paper #3 (10-20 pp): 15%
Final exam: 30%
Grading Criteria
A (5): 91-100% = excellent
B (4): 81-90% = good
C (3): 71-80% = average
D (2): 61-70% = poor
F (1): 0-60% = failing
Attendance Policy
I expect you to attend all classes and to arrive on time. (Three absences are not acceptable). If you miss a class, it may affect your grade for participation. Please notify me if you must miss a class due to illness or emergency. Attendance is mandatory when you are scheduled to give a presentation. Please be sure to turn off the ringers on your cell phones. Thank you.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. (It's easily detected, and you will fail the whole course). Taking the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own not only cheats you in the process of learning, but also violates the University of Debrecen’s Code of Academic Integrity. Please cite your sources.
Course Materials
All reading assignments are available on reserve in the North American Department Library, room 101. It is open Monday through Thursday, 9:00-18:00, and Friday, 9:00-15:00. Outlines and sometimes chronologies for the lectures are also posted online. Please print each one out in advance and bring it with you to the class in question.
Class Schedule and Reading Assignments
Session 1 (Thursday, September 15): Introduction and Orientation. Origins of the Cold War.
U.S. WAR IN VIETNAM, 1964-1973
Session 2 (Thursday, September 22): Origins of the Cold War. Historical Outline of Vietnam. Comparative case study methodology.
To Do (Házi Feladat)
---Personal Background Questionnaire with photo.
---chap. 2 in Kevin Ruane, War and Revolution in Vietnam, pp. 19-36
---chap. 3 ("The Method of Structured, Focused Comparison") and chap 4 ("Designing Case Study Research") in Alexander George and Andrew Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences, pp. 67-72; 73-88 (21 pp.)
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Session 3 (Thursday, September 29): Recurrent Patterns and Dilemmas: FDR to Kennedy
To read:
----Leslie H. Gelb and Richard K. Betts, The Irony of Vietnam, chap. 2, pp. 27-68 (41 pp.)
----Recommended: David L. Anderson, chapter 2 ("Eisenhower, Dulles, Dominoes, and Dienbienphu, January 1953-May 1954") in Trapped by Success: The Eisenhower Administration and Vietnam, 1953-1961, pp. 17-39 (23 pp)
Session 4 (Thursday, October 6): The Johnson Administration: Crossing the Rubicon (1964-1965)
To read
---chap 4, "Johnson's Decisions for War," in George C. Herring, America's Longest War, pp. 108-143.
Session 5 (Thursday, October 13): Americanization of the War. Tet Offensive. The Turning Point (1968)
To read
---Taking Sidesin United States History Since 1945, 3rd ed., Larry Madaras, "Was the Americanization of the War in Vietnam Inevitable?" pp. 255-277
----Recommended: chap 5, "The U.S. at War, 1965-1967" in Herring, America's Longest War, pp. 144-185
Session 6 (Thursday, October 20): Lessons of Vietnam. The "Vietnam Syndrome"
To read:
---"Lessons of Vietnam," chap. 11 in Robert McNamara, In Retrospect, pp. 319-335.
---"Lessons of Vietnam," chap. 13 in Gelb and Betts, pp. 347-369.
---Recommended: chap 6, "The Tet Offensive and After," in Herring, America's Longest War, pp. 186-220.
SOVIET WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, 1979-1989
Session 7 (Thursday, October 27): CIA Funding of the Mujaheddin. The Soviet Decision to Intervene.
To read
----"The Reluctant Intervention" (chap. 1) in Artemy Kalinovsky, The Long Goodbye (2011), pp. 16-53.
Session 8 (Thursday, November 10): Gorbachev and the Bleeding Wound.
To read
---chap. 4 in Douglas Borer, Superpowers Defeated: Vietnam and Afghanistan Compared (pp. 155-197.
Recommended: "Gorbachev Confronts Afghanistan" (chap. 3) in Kalinovsky, Long Goodbye, pp. 74-91.
U.S. WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
Session 9 (Thursday, November 17): September 11 and the Launching of Operation Enduring Freedom
To read:
---chap. 5, "The Development of Terrorism" in Dan Caldwell, Vortex of Conflict (2011), pp. 71-90.
---chap. 5, "911" in Dov S. Zakheim, A Vulcan's Tale (2011), pp. 76-87.
Session 10 (Thursday, November 24): The Deepening Quagmire
To read:
----Dan Caldwell, Vortex of Conflict (2011) chap. 2 (pp. 9-29) and chap. 3 (pp. 30-52)
Session 11 (Thursday, December 1): Losing Focus, Gearing Up for War in Iraq. Quiz.
To read:
---chap. 6 "The Bush Doctrine" in Caldwell, Vortex of Conflict (2011), pp. 91-108 (17 pp)
---chap. 13 "Strategy" in Caldwell, pp. 225-243 (18 pp)
---chap. 10 in Zakheim, A Vulcan's Tale (2011), pp. 156-171 (15 pp)
Session 12 (Thursday, December 8): FINAL EXAM REVIEW
To Do:
---Review all lecture notes, lecture outlines, and reading questions. Prepare questions on anything that is unclear to you.
^Session 13 (Thursday, December 15): FINAL EXAM
Sok szerencsét!