hey writer,
Here is my research paper requirement.
I don’t write the topic because i don’t know how to decide my topic.
Can you help me to decide a topic?

Minimum 2000 words with at least six references from a variety of source types, e.g. Internet, books, magazines, course readings, etc. Posting your paper on a URL, hard copy, web page, or email acceptable. Suggest you include pictures within your paper. If you include pictures and appendices, hard copy or web page may be your medium of choice. The medium is not important; the quality of the research and the argument will decide the grade. Early on in the quarter you should decide on a topic that interests you, and your choice of topic will drive your selection of optional books and movies during the quarter.

Analyze a major work, again using outside references in addition to that work. Examples of major, outside works, are included in the Supplemental Reading List for the course, such as:

Neil Sheehan’s –A BRIGHT SHINING LIE
Phil Caputo’s– A RUMOR OF WAR
Loren Baritz’ –BACKFIRE
Prochnau’s –ONCE UPON A DISTANT WAR (The media in VN)
THE DEER HUNTER
APOCALYPSE NOW (REDUX)
GO TELL THE SPARTANS

Find a topic, do some research, narrow that topic from your evidence, research more narrowly and then organize an argument. Also see the research topics on the Vietnam Conflict Research Portal found on the Internet at: http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/ewrt2vn.html.

Dates of the Viet Nam Conflict are at: http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/vnhist.html

The Course Research Page is at: http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/ewrt2vn.html

Another GREAT Research Page is at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fac/Thomas.Pilsch/Vietnam.html
The TALE OF KIEU Webpage is at: http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/kieu.html

One example of Process

One morning I was reading a detailed chronology of the early years of American involvement in a book published in 1965. There I read that on 15 November, 1963, “a US military spokesman in Saigon reports that 1000 servicemen will be withdrawn from Viet Nam, beginning December 3” (Raskin and Fall 393). I had always thought that this decision was Top Secret and contained within National Security Memorandum 263, and would have been declassified after the off year election. Recall that Diem was assassinated on 1 November, Kennedy on 22 November. Kennedy, who was a Democrat, was in Texas campaigning and his decision to withdraw troops was classified so that he would not be accused of being soft on Communism. An examination of this critical period and decision would make an interesting research paper. Oliver Stone made a movie with his hypothesis (JFK). What is yours? Well, you would have to do some initial research. I would start with books on JFK’s involvement in Viet Nam. I would also go to the WEB. Note how small my area of focus is. There is great JOY in doing narrow research. It is how we generate new knowledge.

One quarter I had a student who did a research paper on what contributed to the American massacre at My Lai. She did original research, much of it by email, with historians, writers, Viet Nam Veterans, and others. Much of the research was open to the class, on the listserv. In her final paper she disagreed with a major author who had sent her his thoughts on why My Lai had happened. It was a splendid paper. Yours will be too-if you find a small topic that creates passion. I will certainly take papers on the antiwar movement in the US, or Japan; I will even take papers on ‘Hanoi Jane’ Fonda. In the last two quarters, one student published a Biography of Andrew Pham in WIKIPEDIA–it is good for some things, and another student is publishing a monograph written by a Viet Nam scholar who is no longer with us. Both students used these papers to attempt to get admitted to top schools.

And if you have a relative who served in the Vietnam Conflict (or lived in Vietnam during “The American War”) see me about doing a first person interview.

I AM PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN INTERVIEWS WITH FORMER ARVN MEMBERS. (Or Viet Cong or NVA)