Evaluation –

My research into the Vietnam War focused on the American Involvement and the reasons for the US’ engagement in the country. This investigation aimed to develop a deeper understanding of what actions America took while it was involved in Vietnam. In addition this researched explored how successive US Presidents responded to the Vietnam War.

1. Why did the American government become involved in Vietnam?
2. What were the steps/stages of America’s involvement? What happened?
3. How did successive Presidents respond to the war in Vietnam?

The successes of my research into the Vietnam War included the abundance of primary sources relating to focus question three with the President’s actions of Johnson, Kennedy and Nixon specifically. I was able to find relevant speeches made by those US Presidents from the timeframe of the Vietnam War from sites such as http://vietnamvassar.edu/overview/doc14.html, http://lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches and http://www.vietnamwar.net/VWdocuments.html. Consequentially I was able to develop a comprehensive understanding of the actions of these three US Presidents and how they responded to the Vietnam War.

Further successes of my research into the war in Vietnam included the consistency of information. I found while annotating primary and secondary sources there was a similar answer for each of the focusing questions across each source. For example when conducting inquiries into focus question one, “Why did the American government become involved in Vietnam?” I found each source contained the same information; that America had become involved to prevent the “Domino Effect” spread of communism. Therefore I was assured of the reliability of the primary and secondary sources gathered.

Strengths of my research process into the US’ involvement in the Vietnam War came from my strong background knowledge of the Vietnam War topic. Having completed Level 2 History in 2011, I had extensive understanding of the Vietnam War; therefore I already knew what aspects of the Vietnam War I was interested in. This made deciding to research to American Involvement in the Vietnam War easy and I was able to complete this early on in the assessment, the day after we received the internal on the 19/02/13. Consequentially I was able to focus my research on the Vietnam War quickly and could begin researching primary and secondary sources such as http://asianhistory.about.com/od/asianhistoryfaqs/f/whyvietnamfaq.htm and write my focus questions right away.

Additional strengths of my research process into the Vietnam War and the American involvement included completing the list of six possible primary and secondary sources prior to gathering information on the Vietnam War. Because I completed the possible sources, I took note of the primary source sites I may have found useful during my research into the Vietnam War, http://vietnamvassar.edu/overview/doc14.html, http://lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/ and http://www.vietnamwar.net/vwdocuments.html and made sure I used the sources in my research. As a result I ensured that I had primary sources in my research into the American Involvement in the Vietnam War and was able to use these primary sources to cross-reference with the secondary sources I gathered, such as http://rationalrevolution.net/war/american_involvement_in_vietnam.htm, which ensured the reliability of the secondary sources.

Weaknesses of my research process into the Vietnam War included my inability to manage my time wisely. After failing to complete a Time Management Plan at the beginning of my research assessment into the Vietnam War, I frequently failed to meet deadlines to hand work into Mrs Broadley to have check marked. Due dates for parts of my research into the American Involvement in the Vietnam War such as 06/03/13 for an example of an annotated source and handing in the Time Management Plan itself on the 01/03/13. Had I completed a Time