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"Spring Offensive" in the College Classroom

By Joe Miller

"My Dad never talks about it..."

"I think my folks were hippies, but I'm not sure what that means..."

"We just barely got through World War II in high school, let alone Vietnam..."

"I am in ROTC because I am interested in a military career, but what happened in Vietnam?"

Each Spring, since 1989, I teach an undergraduate political science course on "Politics and Policy in the Vietnam War" at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), which I call my "Spring Offensive." Above are samples of some of the statements I typically hear from the students in this class during our first self-introduction meeting. The course is offered in seminar style to increase student participation, though it is my impression that we could probably fill any size lecture hall, given the continued intensity of interest in the war and the era.

As a veteran of the war and a rank-and-file participant in the movement that helped to end it, I had long wished to teach a course on this topic. I always point out to the students at the start of the course that it is sort of a "mission" for me, my effort to convince young men and women not to blindly follow the direction of political and economic elites who may decide to take this country to war.

While the focus of the course is "political," or policy-oriented, and historical, I attempt to introduce a wide range of issues, such as the role of women, the war in literature and film, the historical role of the 1950s in producing the so-called "Vietnam Generation," and, certainly, the role of GIs and veterans in the movement against the war. Preparation for the course each year involves the unending search for that "perfect" set of textbooks or other materials that will get all my points across but will not break the students financially. So far, in the nine years I have taught the course, I have discovered very few books that cover it all effectively, except perhaps for Marilyn Young's "The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990" (1991). I also try to use memoirs when practicable, such as Bill Ehrhart's "Passing Time" (1995). Finally, a fine documentary collection is Marvin Gettleman, et al, "Vietnam and America" (1995). Such books, when used along with the wide range of videos available, can get the general points across, or at least be the basis of solid discussion in class. Discussion and debate are the key to developing a critical perspective on the war and the events surrounding it.

And the students? Who are they? Why do they join the course? What do they get from it? Further, what is the relevance of such a course to the work of VVAW?

Most of the students who have taken this course over the past nine years are the sons and daughters of those who lived through the Vietnam era, in and out of the war. What draws them to the course is the fact that, even now, high school history courses do not adequately cover this major period in their parents' lives. Furthermore, when Vietnam is "covered" in a day or a week, these students are still left with many unanswered questions about the war, the movement against it, and the era in general.

Many of these students have family members who served in the military during the war and who never talk about it with anyone. These young men and women have a deep desire to "connect" with this or that relative. You can see it in their eyes when they tell why they are in the class on the very first day. They know something is wrong, something has taken this relative's life in a certain direction, something having to do with the war. These young men and women want to know, want to understand, want to open a road to greater communication. They have an instinctual understanding that this will help in some significant way. And, as those of us who teach these courses already know, it does help - it may even save some lives. It helps everyone involved, including the teachers.

On a fairly regular basis I also get some ROTC students in this course, some looking for a military career, many more just looking for a way to finance today's rather expensive college education. It is interesting to watch how these particular students respond to the course content, which has included films such as "Hearts and Minds" and visiting speakers such as authors W.D. Ehrhart and Larry Heinemann, and Barry Romo of VVAW's National Office. For the most part, they just sit and listen, offering a comment now and then. There have been cases, however, where the course has completely turned some of them around. There was the Air Force ROTC senior cadet a few years back who actually quit the program as a direct result of what he learned in this course, information and analysis that was never presented to him by his "military science" teachers. This also opened up communication between him and his uncle, a Vietnam vet who was not happy about his nephew's possible military career, but who never felt comfortable about talking over Vietnam experiences. We in VVAW always talk about such instances as denying the war machine its cannon fodder, and this is certainly a part of my "mission" in teaching the course.

A final element that needs to be understood in relation to teaching about Vietnam has to do with a new sense of social activism that is apparent among young people today. The usual mythology about so-called "Generation X" - the apathetic, the uncaring - does not wash with the students I have been teaching over the past four or five years. We are witnessing, I believe, a new rise in activist sensibilities and impulses, and many of these young people are looking to lessons from the 1960s, good and bad, from which to take some direction. The students in my Vietnam class are always excited to learn of VVAW, its history and its continuing activism thirty years on. This has allowed VVAW to reach new pockets of young activists, to pass on our experiences and our skills, to continue our work alongside the social activism and the daily struggles of succeeding generations.

Thus, we all need to understand that "teaching the Vietnam War," whether through a formal course or the occasional class visit, should not be merely understood as an academic exercise, a review of historical "facts." Those of us who continue to be social justice activists in and through VVAW, and who have the opportunity to reach these young minds, also have the responsibility to refrain from feeding into cynicism and to present a positive and accurate picture of our own activist histories. In the classroom

Joe Miller is an adjunct assistant professor in political science at the University of Illinois.