Arches 7/8 History: Vietnam Lesson

Monday, ⅙

Discuss these words, written on a protest chart: ACTIVE, ACTIVIST, ACTIVISM

What

Who

Why

How

When

Where

Movie Clip of Vietnam War Protests (11 min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTMv2FmSXWg

Why are they protesting? List reasons.

Who decides if you go to war? What would you do with your life if you didn’t have to go to war? Who should decide what you do with your life? What moral questions arise?

Hand out lyrics sheets and highlight text that refers to the war.

Listen to Vietnam Songs:

Ask questions about how to protest. Fill in What is an Activist Protest Chart above

Hand out timeline:

http://sheg.stanford.edu/upload/Lessons/Unit%2012_Cold%20War%20Culture%20and%20Civil%20Rights/Anti-Vietnam%20War%20Movement%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf

Ask: When did the war end?

The Vietnam War (Vietnamese: Chiến tranh Việt Nam, in Vietnam also known as the American War, Vietnamese: Chiến tranh Mỹ, Kháng chiến chống Mỹ), also known as the Second Indochina War,[32] was a Cold War-era proxy war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from December 1956[A 1] to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam—supported by China and other communist allies—and the government of South Vietnam—supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries.[37] The Viet Cong (also known as the National Liberation Front, or NLF), a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist common front directed by the North, fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The People's Army of Vietnam (a.k.a. the North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involvingground forces, artillery, and airstrikes.

The U.S. government viewed American involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of their wider strategy of containment, which aimed to stop the spread of communism. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. They viewed the conflict as a colonial war, fought initially against France, then against America as France was backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state.[38] Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962.[39] Regular U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations crossed international borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed by the U.S. American involvement in the war peaked in 1968, at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this, U.S. ground forces were gradually withdrawn as part of a policy known as Vietnamization, which aimed to end American involvement in the war. Despite the Paris Peace Accords, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued.

Direct U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973 as a result of the Case–Church Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress.[40] The capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities (see Vietnam War casualties). Estimates of the number of Vietnamese service members and civilians killed vary from 800,000[41] to 3.1 million.[25][28] Some 200,000–300,000 Cambodians,[29][30][31] 20,000–200,000 Laotians,[42][43][44][45][46][47] and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict.[A 2]

Pete Seeger Lyrics

Bring 'Em Home Lyrics

If you love your Uncle Sam,