The Vietnam War can be a difficult topic to teach. HSP has recently developed an unit plan about the Vietnam War, American Views on the Vietnam War, that can help teach about this difficult subject.

Compared to wars such as World War I and World War II, the goal was not always apparent, the fighting was messy, and there was no clear winner.  As the War went on, it became increasingly unpopular, in part due to images from the War printed in papers and shown on the news. Men were drafted involuntarily, and because college students could defer, drafted soldiers were disproportionately poor and working-class, leading even more Americans to protest the War. Teaching about this war does not always cast the U.S. in a good light.

In the first lesson of HSP’s new unit plan, students will read letters written by soldiers from Pennsylvania serving in Vietnam. The letters reflect the harsh life of a soldier during this war and the many political issues that made the War so difficult. In the second lesson, students will read documents from five different authors about the Vietnam War. They will see differing arguments about the War and will begin to understand what a heated issue this was in the United States. This unit does not try to provide students with one opinion about the War, but rather exposes them to different views and shows them the complex issues that caused so much turmoil at home and abroad.  It makes the unit perfect for meeting standards that ask students to learn how to consider and weight multiple points-of-view.