Candidate proposal

My initial resources will be...

I will start my initial research on 3 points I wish to structure my essay around; Napalm, Agent Orange and the My Lai Massacre. I will use resources like google scholar, books (literature and information), and online journals. I have already started my research on Napalm, and have mostly been using newspapers from both the time of the war (1955-1975) as well as modern newspapers, for example ‘Vietnam War 'girl in the picture' reunited with journalist who saved her life’ from The Telegraph by Nick Collins on 18 May 2010. Also, in January I plan to create an online survey inspired by a paper from The American Political Science Review, Volume 61 No. 2, June 1967. The paper was Public Opinion and the War in Vietnam, and it included a survey asking citizens across America various questions about their opinion on the government handling of the situation in Vietnam. I plan to reproduce this and adjust it for modern day to compare how opinion has changed as we have learned more about the war crimes committed in Vietnam. I could use surveymonkey.com and I plan to use forums to receive a representative sample; a range of genders, backgrounds and also, if possible nationalities. I hope to be able to speak to both American and Vietnamese people as well as British. Furthermore, I wish to do another survey asking people who lived through the Vietnam War about their opinions at the time and how they have, if they have, changed. Therefore, my sample will only include people from a particular age group. I will go to Chelmsford Library and my school library to collect more sources as most of the sources I have collected already are online, and I plan to use a range. By 2 months’ time I plan to have collected all my primary sources and also begun to analyse this information. I am also going to start researching historians who specialise in the Vietnam War, as I hope to have an opinion from a professional historian to use as a source as well. I also hope to have collected 10 specific sources I can include in my essay as evidence, and I will evaluate the reliability of these sources to ensure there is no bias.

The courses of study or area(s) of personal interest to which the topic relates...

This topic relates most closely to my A-Level History course as the content I study for ‘The Making of Modern Britain 1951-2008’ as it covers content on the fear of communism, why Britain did not join the Vietnam War, and other wars that America fought on the grounds of communism, for example the Korean War. However, the course does not go into much detail as it mainly focuses on the impact on Britain and I will be writing my essay on a completely different angle of the Vietnam War. Also because of my enjoyment in the study of Biology I will research and write about the medicine behind the War Crimes (In particular Agent Orange), and this also links to Chemistry as I also plan to research the motives and events behind the construction of the chemical and biological weapons used in the Vietnam War. I also plan to use the poem ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy so therefore I will use both knowledge and skills from English Literature in my essay. Also, by writing the extended essay I will be using skills from History and English Literature as they are both essay-based subjects.

My intended product...

In my 5000-word essay, I understand that in a topic as controversial as the war crimes of the Vietnam War it will be impossible for me to decide who is to blame. However, I plan to reach some level of justified conclusion of who is most to blame as a product of the evaluation of the part each guilty party played. Currently, this will include; the American government, the American President, the United Nations, the Vietnamese government and the American soldiers. However, I am aware that as my project and research is still in the early stage, this is open to change as I do more specific and detailed research. As I mentioned in my record of initial ideas, it is important to me that my final product is as accurate and unbiased as possible, therefore I will include research from both the American and Vietnamese point of view, like for example the War Remnants Museum in Vietnam which is extremely anti-American.