UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 32, Page 2
May 20, 1993
Honors Program class visits D.C. to talk of Vietnam War

     Nineteen freshman and junior honors students in Kenneth J. Campbell's
class on the Vietnam conflict visited Washington, D.C., recently to talk
with lawmakers about that war.
     Campbell, assistant professor in the University Honors Program,
offered "The Lessons of Vietnam" for the first time this semester to give
students the opportunity to study and discuss what lessons have been
learned from the conflict and how those lessons can be applied to the
present and future.
     The trip to Washington included visits to the Pentagon, the State
Department and Sen. Joseph Biden's office, so that students could query the
military, the diplomats and a member of congress about Vietnam.
     "The students were anxious to find out what we learned from Vietnam
about the use of military force and how these lessons can be applied to
crises in the new world order such as Bosnia," Campbell said.
     The comparison between Vietnam and Bosnia came up at each meeting, he
said.
     Biden was especially interested in the issue and spent an hour and
twenty minutes talking with the students, Campbell said.
     "Sen. Biden said his own children are college-age and have asked him
many questions about Vietnam," Campbell said. Biden who had just returned
from a visit to Bosnia, shared a position paper on the country with the
students.
     At the Pentagon, the students were briefed by a Navy captain from the
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. At the State
Department, they met with a department assistant secretary of state for
East Asian Affairs. In-between appointments, the group visited the Vietnam
Memorial.
     Campbell said he offered the course for two reasons: "First of all,
the war has never been settled in the minds of most people. No consensus
was ever reached: it is just as if at some point in the mid '70s people
agreed to disagree and not talk about it any more.
     "Secondly, this next generation knows how deeply affected their
parents were by this issue, but most parents don't want to talk about it.
Students want to know what the big secret is. They are curious. Most of
them were born after the U.S. left Vietnam. Most of them were born in l974
and the Americans left in 1973. They want to know what the scoop is."
     Campbell is a former Marine who served in Vietnam from 1968-69. He
said he did draw upon his personal experiences in teaching the course and
was honest about where he stood on issues, but made sure students heard
conflicting views as well.
     "They were exposed to issues that had many different sides and they
had to make up their own minds," he said.
                                        -Beth Thomas