I would like to share with the readers of this dialog strilng something about our second seminar evening activities.....

During the first hour we showed slides starting with photographs of the key "players" in Vietnamese and American politics of the "Vietnam Era." We began with photos of Ho Chi Minh in France, the events of September, 1945, as the Viet Minh marched into Ha Noi; United States Presidents Truman and Eisenhower; Secretary of State John Foster Dulles; Ho Chi Minh and V. Nguyen Giap, Emperor Bao Dai; and then we moved into the siege of Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Convention.

Next we considered the personalities representing a post-Geneva Convention South Viet Nam and the United States: Ngo Dinh Diem, "Madam" Nhu; Duong Van Minh; Nguyen Khanh; Phan Khae Suu; Nguyena Cao Ky, and Nguyen Van Thieu; Henry Cabbot Lodge; Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon; Robert McNamara; Dean Rusk; William Westmoreland; Creighton Abrams....

We examined recently available photographs from the Ho Chi Minh Trail, then turn our attention to scenes from the Gulf of Tonkin; we examined photographs from the Strategic Hamlet Program; the landing of the United States Marines near Da Nang; then turned our attention to U.S. ground troops in action; care and management of the wounded, and the Air War; we examined photographs of interrogation methods used on the VC; and the conditions of prisoners (South Viet Nam; North Viet Nam).

We then turned to photographs of the Tet Offensive; My Lai-4 (Song My); Buddhist protests (immolations); American protests (the "Mobilization march on Washington, D.C.), Chicago; counter-protests from Middle-America; and photographs of events at Kent State.

The final photographs shown included the Paris Peace Talks; former U.S. prisoners of war arriving at Travis Air Force Base; the last days in Sai Gon; and memorials -- memorials from Viet Nam, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.; finally, we examined the aftermath of war as revealed in photographs --- the search for MIAs, unexploded ordnance, bomb craters, defoliation, the mixed advertising signs of Viet Nam in 1996-1997, the blending of Communism and Capitalism in the new doi moi economy.

We concluded with photographs of rock-n-roll bands in Viet Nam, 1996, the geographic beauty of the nation of Viet Nam, and with a sunrise (not sunset) over the South China Sea.

We spent the remaining two hours of class in the library reviewing sources and types/kinds of information available through computerized data bases, newspaper files, and documents.

The students remain excited; they provide me with e-mail journal accounts on a weekly basis, and have begun the process of formulating questions for each of their study groups.

ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR READERS IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA.....

The Vietnamese community of greater Sacramento, California, will hold its TET celebration on the weekend of February 1st and 2nd; more than 30,000 are expected to attend. We view this as an opportunity to meet and interact with Vietnamese-Americans and Vietnam-era veterans.

California Assemblyman Dick Floyd has arranged for the "Wall That Heals" (the 250 food wide replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.) to be in Sacramento from Sunday, February 9th, through Tuesday, February 11th, 1997. Location: Capital Park adjacent to the Califoirnia Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The official program for the display will be held Sunday, February 9th, from 1:00 to 3:00 P.M.

-- legrivetti@ucdavis.edu (louis e. grivetti)