Wednesdays 1-3 PM
January 14 through February 18, 2004
D.O.C. House
From 1963 to 1975, Americans read about or watched through various forms of media a losing war in Vietnam. It ended in 1975 with U.S. Embassy personnel fleeing by helicopter as South Vietnamese attempted to climb the Embassy's walls in Saigon. Twenty-eight years later, North Vietnam has consolidated the country and started down a path where free enterprise is accepted and personal freedom is partially allowed even under a communist-driven political system. The question to be explored in this class is whether this country of 80 million people with all its “baggage” can become a substantial player in Asia - still the fastest growing economic region in the World.
During this course, time will be spent on the history of this country, including the Vietnam War; its relationships with other South-Asia countries, China, Japan, and the United States; its communist-controlled political system; its economy; and its social, cultural and religious challenges.
Each week there will be fifteen to twenty-five pages of assigned reading. Some class members will be asked to make 4-5 minute reports during a session. The course will consist of 65% discussion and reports, and 35% lecture by the study leader.
Class is limited to 25 members.
Joe Davis is a graduate of Middlebury College and Cornell Law School. For over thirty-five years, he was an attorney for the IBM Corporation, 20 years of which were spent on international legal matters. He traveled extensively to Japan, Australia, South Korea, India, and South East Asia but never Vietnam. In the late 1980s, he and his wife, Ann, lived in Japan for over three years. Starting in 1994, he has led courses at ILEAD on Japan, Korea, Siberia, China, India and Indonesia. He and Ann have lived in Orford, NH for eleven years.
