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DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 337 409

SO 021 577

AUTHOR

Starr, Jerold M., Ed.

TITLEThe Ussons of the Vietnam War.

INSTITUTIONCenter for Social Studies Education, Pittsburgh, PA.

REPORT NOISBN-0-945919-15-8

PUB DATE

91
NOTE 361p.

AVAILABLE FROM

Center for Social Studies Education, 3857 Willow

Averae, Pittsburgh, PA 15234 ($19.95).PUB TYPEBooks (010) -- Guides - Classroom Use- Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052) -- Guides- Classroom Use - Instructional Materials (For Learner) (051)

EDRS PRICE

MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available fromEDRS.DESCRIPTORSCurriculum Guides; High Schools; Instructional

Materials; Learning Activities; *LearniLg Modules;

Secondary Education; Social Studies; Teaching

Guides;

Teaching Methods; *United States History;*VietnamWar

ABSTRACT

This text book on the Vietnam War is to be used

inteaching high students. Each of the volume's12 chapters is a

self-contained unit on an aspect of the War.The chipters are:(1)Introduction to Vietnam: land, history, andculture; (2) America atwar in Vietnam: decisions and consequences;(3) Was the Vietnam War

legal? (4) who fought for the Uaited States;(5) How the UnitedStates fought the war; (6) When var becomesa crime: the case of MyLai; (7) Taking sides: the war at home;(8) How the war was reported;(9) Women's perspectiveon the Vietnam War; (10) The wounds ofwarand the process of healing; (11) Boat people andVietnamese refugeesin the United States; and (12) The VietnamWar: lessons from

yesterday for today. (Approximately 240 references) (DB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the bestthat can be made from the original document.

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HAIU.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

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EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

This docurnionl has been reproduced asOceived from tne Person or organization2matmgit O Minor changes nave bean made to improvecoproduction Quality

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dccv-mCnI do not necessarily represent officialOERI position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS

MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY

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TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

INTRODUCTION

The U.S. ivar in Vietnam was the longest and second most costly in U.S. history. More than two million American boys were sent to fight. More than 58,000 were killed, more than

300,000 wounded, &Aid almost 14,000 completely disabled. According to the U.S. Veteran's

Administration, up to 800,000 Vietnam veterans have been diagnosed as having "significant" to "severe" problems of readjustment. The war cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and these costs will clntinue for decades in the form of veterans' benefits and interest on past loans. In Vietnam today over two million dead are mourned. Four million were wounded and ten million displaced from their homes. More than five million acres of forest and croplands were laid waste by 18 million gallons of poisonous chemical herbicides. The present government has not been able to develop the economy to meet the needs of its people. Public, opinion polls over the years consistently show that two of three Americans judge the Vietnam War to have been a "mistake." Unfortunately, few claim to know what the U.S. should have done differently. Over half do not have "a clear idea" what the war was about; a third can't even remember which side we supported. The problem is even worse for American youthfuture citizens and leaderswho have no experience of the war and little or no knowledge of it. Many knowledgeable adults cannot talk to youth about the war. They served in Vietnam and memories of that experience still are too painful. A veteran from California confided to me that he cannot "read about Vietnam without the nightmares returning." Another from Texas shared, "My daughter asked me to speak to her high school class on the war. I could not do it for fear of losing my composure." The schools, entrusted with passing on our heritage, have all but ignored Vietnam. Coverage in the standard textbooks ranges from a few paragraphs to a few pages. Perhaps the most common objection to teaching the war is that it is "controversial." We cannot allow educators to censor a subject for being controversial in a nation that has gone to war in the name of freedom. Moreover, such deliberate ignorance of America's longest war constitutes a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrificed there. We owe them and ourselves the whole truth about our national experience. The Vietnam War was passionately debated precisely because it raised fundamental questions about what we as a nation stand for in the world. To censor such controversy is to tell our students that they will not learn in school what people care most about in life. To be sure, controversy can be fueled by extremist propaganda. In a democracy, however, the best defense is to give our youth the strength of mind and character to defend themselves. This curriculum shows h hers, parnits and youth how to ask the important questions in ways that Copyrighted 0 1991 by the Center for Social Studies Education All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means,

or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher except

in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Making copies of any part of this book for any purpose is a violation of the United States copyright law. For information, contact the Center for Social Studies Education, 3857 Willow Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15234, (412) 341-1967.

ISBN 0-945919-15-8

First Edition

Printed in the United States of America

4

INTRODUCTION

The U.S. -,var in Vietnam was the longest and second most costly in U.S. history. More than two million American boys were sent to fight. More than 58,000 were killed, more than

300,000 wounded, traid almost 14,000 completely disabled. According to the U.S. Veteran's

Administration, up to 800,000 Vietnam veterans have been diagnosed as having "significant" to "severe" problems of readjustment. The war cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and these costs will cnntinue for decades in the form of veterans' benefits and interest on past loans. In Vietnam today over two million dead are mourned. Four million were wounded and ten million displaced from their homes. More than five million acres of forest and croplands were laid waste by 18 million gallons of poisonous chemical herbicides. The present government has not been able to develop the economy to meet the needs of its people. Public opinion polls over the years consistently show that two of three Americans judge the Vietnam War to have been a "mistake." Unfortunately, few claim to know what the U.S. should have done differently. Over half do not have "a clear idea" what the war was about; a third can't even remember which side we supported. The problem is even worse for American youthfuture citizens and leaderswho have no experience of the war and little or no knowledge of it. Many knowledgeable adults cannot talk to youth about the war. They served in Vietnam and memories of that experience still are too painful. A veteran from California confided to me that he cannot "read about Vietnam without the nightmares returning." Another from Texas shared, "My daughter asked me to speak to her high school class on the war. I could not do it for fear of losing my composure." The schools, entrusted with passing on our heritage, have all but ignored Vietnam. Coverage in the standard textbooks ranges from a few paragraphs to a few pages. Perhaps the most common objection to teaching the war is that it is "controversial." We cannot allow educators to censor a subject for being controversial in a nation that has gone to war in the name of freedom. Moreover, such deliberate ignorance of America's longest war constitutes a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrificed there. We owe them and ourselves the whole truth about our national experience. The Vietnam War was passionately debated precisely because it raised fundamental questions about what we as a nation stand for in the world. To censor such controversy is to tell our students that they will not learn in school what people care most about in life. To be sure, controversy can be fueled by extremist propaganda. In a democracy, however, the best defense is to give our youth the strength of mind and character to defend themselves. This curriculum shows ti hers, parmts and youth how to ask the important questions in ways that ivlead to deeper understanding rather than division. Those of us who have been willing to teach about the Vietnam War have found it to be a most eniting and fulfilling experience. This is one subject for which student motivation is not a problem. Young people already are intensely interested in learning about the war. Movies, TV shows, paperback novels, magazines, and even comic books on the war have been enormously popular. Many students have deep personal motives for searching out this history. They are the sons and daughters, nephews and nieces of those who served in Vietnam. I introduced a course on the war at West Virginia University in the fall of 1987. Half of the thirty students in the class had a close family member who was a Vietnam veteran. Eight of those fifteen relatives had refused to ever discuss it. One of my students told the school paper, "Both my dad and my uncles were glad that someone was teaching a class in the war because they didn't want to talk about their experience, but they wanted me to know." Two of my students later told me they used this textbook to open up discussion of the war with their fathers for the very first time. The Vietnam War is important not only because of its prominent place in U.S. histoiy, but because Vietnam is a clear case of the emerging pattern of modern warfare. Within weeks of the historic developments signalling the end of the Cold War, spokespersons for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force announced new missions to combat "instability" in Third World "trnble spots" though "low-intensity conflict" (eg, guerrilla warfare, counterinsurgency, pacification, etc.), rapid deployment forces (eg, the invasion of Panama), and surprise bombing raids (eg, Libya). Months later, half a million U.S. troops were preparing for battle in the Persian Gulf. For several years, each new U.S. military intervention has been held up against the standard of Vietnam. In 1985, Secretary of State George Shultz said that Vietnam was an appropriate "analogy" for Reagan administration policy in Central America: "Our goals in Central America are like those we had in Vietnam: democracy, economic progress and security against aggression. Broken promises. Communist dictatorship. Refugees. Widened Soviet influence, this time near our very borders. Here is your parallel between Vietnam and Central

America."

Many in Congress disagreed profoundly with Shultz's claims. That same month Texas high school seniot Lleth Bowels said to a Dallas Times Herald reporter: "I keep hearing people say Central America is just like Vietnam. How am I supposed to know if Nicaragua is liKe Vietnam if I don't know what Vietnam was like?" Throughout the months that President Bush iuilt up U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, he kept reassuring a worried public that the war against Iraq would "not be another Vietnam." Since all Americans, from the President down to the common people, agree that our nation cannot afford another Vietnam War, it clearly is time we examined that experience critically to learn what might be of value in making foreign policy decisions today. In 1984, I established the Center for Social Studies Education in order to promote more and better teaching of the Vietnam War, its lessons and legacies. Over time almost 200 Vietnam 0 War scholars, teachers, and veterans rallied to the challenge. Participants varied greatly in social background and political orientation. However, we were agreed that ignorance was the enemy and that the best protection against another military disaster was an informed and active citizenry. We set high standards for ourselves. All statements of fact had to be documented by official U.S. government sources or recognized works of scholarship in the field. We drew extensively on the Pentagon Papers study, commissioned in 1967 by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara who was seeking an "encyclopedic and objective" history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Written over

a year and a half by 36 experts from the Defense Department, State Department, and major institutes, the study totals 47 volumes of some 7,000 pages. As for opinions, we strove for the broadest possible diversity. In these pages you will hear the

voices of major political figures like Dean Rusk and William Fulbright, celebrity activists like Jane

Fonda and Bob Hope, and many political and military experts. You also will hear from not-so- famous Vietnam veterans, ordinary Vietnamese and American citizens, whose views usually are left out of official accounts. In addition to the many histoiical photographs, editorial cartoons, and instructional graphics, we also feature a variety of primary source materialsdiary entries, letters home, GI poltrywhose purpose it is to humanize the war in wa,s that go beyond conventional narrative accounts. We are interested in what if felt like to be in the war. While we consider the "grunt level" perspective important, our learning objectives are much

broader. We seek in this curriculum to teach students how to think critically about conflict resolution

in international relations, reason ethically about difficult moral choices and better understand people

from other social backgrounds and cultures. The Vietnam War is a powerful vehicle fcr teaching

those analytic skills youth need to become informed citizens. It is a vast, dramatic and complex event

that pivots on numerous critical decisions based on mixed evidence and featuring very different points of view. Students are encouraged to examine conflicting points of view fairly and to reach their own conclusions. All materials have been reviewed and field tested extensively to ensure that they are factually correct, politically balanced, and appropriate for young people. As you can see on the back cover, we are very proud of all the awards, endorsements, and adoptions this textbook has received. That is why we have taken the trouble to update it for 1991. This new edition includes extensive discussions of the Persian Gulf War, the U.N. peace plan for Cambodia, economic reforms in Vietnam, scientific and legal developments on veterans' issues like Agent

Orange and PTSD, as well as other matters.

We recognize that we still have a long way to go in our educational mission. Those now teaching the Vietnam War report that their students come in not even being able to find Vietnam on a world map. However, for those of us who would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, this mission is filled with hope.

Jerold M. Starr

West Virginia University

AUTHORS

LADY BORTON is the author

of Sensing the Enemy: an Americo. Woman Among the Boat

People of Viet-

nam (Dial/Doubleday, 1984). She has produced radio segments from Vietnam for National Public Radio and set up and accompanied the "60 Minutes" staff for

Morley Safer's double segment, "The Enemy." Lady

recently opened an office for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Hanoi. She is the only foreigner whom the Vietnamese allow to live with families in the countryside. Those experiences, coupled with stories from her twenty years' werit with Vietnam, form her new book, After Sorrow, due out in 1992.

MILLARD CLEMENTS is Professor of Curriculum

and Instruction at New York University and Co-Direc- tor of the program in Environmental Conservation

Education.He was educated at the University of

California at Berkeley, San Francisco State College and

Stanford University. He his written extensively

on social studies education and problems of public educa- tion in the United States and Japan.

STEVE COHEN is a Program Associate at Facing

History and Ourselves in Brookline, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. from Williams College and his Ph.D. in History from Brandeis University. He is the authnr of Vietnam Anthology and Guide to a Television History(1983). This book is used in schoolsacross the country in conjunction with the PBS-TV series on the Vietnam War. He also is author of a similar sourcebook used with the PBS-TV series, Eyes on the Prize. He recently completed a curriculum on covert action called

Secrecy and Democracy,published by Educators for

Social Responsibility.

CHARLES DIBENEDETTI (deceased)

was Profes- sor of History at the University of Toledo. An authority on the history of the peace movement, his book,quotesdbs_dbs46.pdfusesText_46

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