Task 3. Vietnam Folio   

A folio describing the contrasting strategies of the Americans and the Vietnamese.

Your folio must include the following:

  • A clear description of the overall strategy of both sides.

  • Analysis of the tactics employed by both sides.

  • Evaluation of the effectiveness of the tactics employed by both sides.

  • Use primary and secondary sources to elaborate on different perspectives of the conduct of war by both sides in the conflict.

  • Use suitable images to support your analysis.

The Americans and the North Vietnamese used very different strategies and tactics in the conflict.

To do: Compare and contrast the strategy and tactics of the two sides in the Vietnam War

1. Strategy analysis

Compare and contrast the strategy of the two sides

2. Tactic analysis

Describe the tactics of the two sides

  • Clearly describe each tactic using sources / quotes to elaborate

  • Use examples to support your analysis. EG What does Rolling Thunder look like on the ground?

  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the tactic. EG How effective was search and destroy at ‘bringing the them to battle’.

3. Impacts case studies

  • Describe the impacts of a US tactic using an example.

  • Describe the impacts of a NVA tactic using an example.

Strategy analysis - a four step fail safe plan 

  1. Topic: Begin EACH tactic analysis with a clear and precise topic sentence that clearly describes the tactic.

  2. Explain: Explain what you mean in greater detail.

  3. Evidence: Provide evidence to support your idea or claim. To do this, refer to your research. This may include: case studies, statistics, documentary evidence, academic books or journal articles. Remember that all evidence will require appropriate citation.

  4. Evaluate: How effective was the tactic?

Essay Guide: Referencing Guidelines

When do you need an endnote/ footnote?

  • Quotes

  • Paraphrasing

  • Facts and figures

  • Images 

How to footnote

  1. The first time you footnote a book, article or document you need to list it in full as follows:

  2. Jones, E., A collection of inappropriate remarks made in the History classroom, Penguin, 2024, p.34

  3. If you quote from Inappropriate Remarks as your next quote you don’t write out the whole author/title again you simply use the abbreviation ibid., p#

  4. If you quote from the same source, same page it is simply ibid.

  5. If your next quote is from a different source, you need to write out full reference: author surname, initials, title in italics, publisher, year of publication, page number.

  6. If your next quote is again from Inappropriate Remarks, you simply put the author’s name and initials and the abbreviation op.cit., p#

Footnote samples

  1. Jones, E., A collection of inappropriate remarks made in the History classroom, Penguin, 2024, p.34

  2. ibid.

  3. ibid., p.38

  4. McKenzie, C.M., Please don't make me go back in there. A classroom memoir, Featherhead, 2019, p.11

  5. Jones, E., op.cit., p.59

Example reference list

Bibliography:

Aub.edu.lb.libguides.com. (2020). LibGuides: Lebanese Civil War: 1975-1991: Home. [online] Available at: https://aub.edu.lb.libguides.com/LebaneseCivilWar.

Badran, T., 2008. The Lebanese Civil War. MERIA: Middle East Review of International Affairs, 12(2), pp.MERIA: Middle East Review of International Affairs, June 2008, Vol.12(2).

Crawford, M. & Army Command General Staff Coll Fort Leavenworth KS School Of Advanced Military Studies, 2010. Civil War and Intervention: Lessons Remembered From the Lebanese Civil War and the U.S. Response.

Resources