Histoire THE USA & CONFLICT 1941-2011

Introduction

2. Method: Commenting on 2 documents

Stage 1: introduction - Presenting the documents
Similarities: These documents show the evolution of US forces from their defeat in the Vietnam War to their victory in the Gulf War both fought by the USA during or just after the Cold War (1945/47-1989/91).
Differences: The report on Vietnam to US president Johnson by Undersecretary of State George Ball published on 1st July 1965 is assessing the impact of US intervention in Vietnam whereas the cartoon by Jeff published in February 1991 shows US preparation for the Gulf War .
Announce structure: In a first part I will use the report to analyse the decline of US forces in Vietnam and in a second part I'll focus on the cartoon and US forces' victory in the Gulf War.

Stage 2: Analysing the documents

 DESCRIBE THE DOCS - What you see
 structured (≠ parts) and detailed description		  INTERPRET THE DOCS - What you know (notions)
1. US decline: defeat in the Vietnam war (1965-1973/75): Report

Speech:
§P1 The impact of US involvement in Vietnam
- from a civil war: between North and South Vietnam if the US doesn't intervene, only advises South Vietnam
- to a cold war conflict: with US + South Vietnam against North Vietnam + the USSR + China if the USA sends troops
§P2 Intervention, a major decision
because this war will be terrible for the USA as its troops are not prepared to fight in Vietnam => many casualties

1. The Vietnam war:
- escalation (def)
- containment (def)
- cold war (def), proxy war (def)
- asymmetric warfare (def), guerrilla war (def)
2. As opposed to victory in the Gulf war (1990-1991): US revival Cartoon
Foreground : the weapons
5 huge dangerous missiles, represented as characters, pointing at, targetting
Background : the character
- Appearance : military instructor wearing camouflage fatigues, cap & sunglasses
- Expression : hard, shouting to insist on the fact that civilians are not supposed to get killed
- Action : pointing at a board with a civilian in suit and tie, slouching and unhappy whereas the other shows a determined soldier fully uniformed and armed
2. The Gulf war
- clean because high-tech war using smart weapons without causing any collateral damage / dirty war (def)
- dissymmetric warfare (def)

Stage 3: Concluding
Assess docs (reliable/biased justified): To conclude, the report is reliable (official) and unbiased/biased (realistic/doesn’t want the US to get involved) whereas the cartoon is unreliable (no source) and biased (mocks, ridicules the US military).
.
Sum-up ideas: To recap, in fact these documents show how the Gulf War was everything Vietnam was not, they perfectly illustrate the US shift from trauma to triumph.
Open (bonus) However, later US interventions in Afghanistan and Irak will unfortunately bring back the trauma of Vietnam.