An American History Unit on the War in Vietnam

This unit will offer a view of how historical, diplomatic, military, and political incidents transpired through the war in Vietnam.

Unit Rationale

Why do we need to teach our students about the Vietnam War? Many educators of that era were involved either directly or indirectly with the implications of the conflict that ended officially in 1975. Today, most teachers would rather not drudge up the past, considering the number of people who are still dealing with the infliction of physical and psychological wounds. As a consequence, the study of the Vietnam War has not been given ample time in the classroom. Despite our reasons for resistance, students need to be educated in relation to this period of contemporary history. Teaching students about the Vietnam War can help them understand the present and make informed choices in the future.

Unit Goals

The students will be able to explain the reasons why the United States became involved in the conflict in Vietnam. They will also gain historic empathy for the soldiers, their families, politicians, military leaders, domestic coalition organizers, and others who experienced the war by analyzing primary source documents and observing dramatic reenactments of combat situations in Vietnam. They will be able to identify and label countries, cities, and waterways on various maps, explaining the features’ significance. The students will be able to recognize key persons and events, describing how they shaped or determined the direction of the conflict. The students will make value judgments on the U.S. leaders’ decisions to engage in the conflict in Vietnam and the Presidents’ strategic resolutions to assert and escalate America’s involvement. They will evaluate key events and decisions on both sides of the conflict, defending and supporting their beliefs.

Unit Description

The students will develop an in depth understanding of the historical, diplomatic, military, and political events that transpired well before U.S. Marines landed near Danang in March of 1965. In addition, we will offer an overview of major domestic developments and various causes and effects of escalated U.S. troop commitments throughout the late 1960s. This unit will allow the students to achieve a deeper understanding for and build a historical framework of the events that led up to the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. People, incidents, and decisions will be examined to determine who and what was responsible for the course of America’s active engagement in Vietnam, and what could have been averted to prevent this era of American history from becoming the scarred legacy we face today.

Unit Activities

The ambitious activities planned for the unit will challenge the students with many hands-on, creative, and thought provoking projects. Students will conduct research via the Internet to find political party and campaign platform activity data, and to find materials (and veterans on-line) to support a paper requiring several sources; they will also engage in role playing activities, compose a series of papers separate from the Internet-related assignment mentioned above, and set up and run a “Good Morning Vietnam” radio station. They will also read primary source and magazine articles, and observe Hollywood’s take on the war by watching and responding to several popular films on the subject.

Unit Evaluation

Students will be evaluated on participation in the activities and on written assignments. This work will constitute fifty percent of their final unit grade. Thirty percent of the students’ grade will be determined through the assessment of a unit portfolio, judged by assessing the quality and completion of the organized work submitted. The final day of the unit will be dedicated to student presentations of projects created by groups of three or four students. There are at least two major purposes for having students: compose and sing a war protest song, act out a dialogue, conduct mock interviews of soldiers, design a reflective piece of artwork, or write a creative poem about the war. One purpose is to enable the teachers to determine the overall enrichment the unit provided, offering a cumulative means of assessing the students’ multifaceted knowledge or understanding of America’s involvement in Vietnam. For the students, the project allows them to personalize their appreciation for the unit and the content they enjoyed the most. Projects will make up twenty percent of the final unit grade.