Crossroads: Middle School Unit XI Crossroads Middle School Curriculum

Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975

Question/Problem 4: How and why did the Vietnam War divide Americans?

Contents

Objectives

Description of lesson/activity

Resources


Objectives: The students will be able to:

  1. understand the origins and major events of the Vietnam War.

  2. understand key issues that divided Americans during the war.

  3. use information from primary and secondary resources to create political cartoons.

Description of lesson/activity:
  1. The teacher should provide background on the Vietnam War, referring to Question/Problem 1.

  2. Teachers should provide students with a brief outline of the major events of the Vietnam War. These might include but need not be limited to:

  3. Students should learn about the most controversial and longest war in American history through an investigation of seven of the most divisive issues of that war. The teacher should distribute the accompanying "Divisive Issues" chart. As individuals or in groups, students should gather information from the seven accompanying "Divisive Issue" readings to complete the chart. The teacher may wish to evaluate the research of the students paying particular attention to column three which asks students how each issue divided the country.

  4. The culminating activity for this assignment requires students to create political cartoons based on their knowledge of these issues. Students should select three of the issues from the chart, draw a political cartoon for each which shows ho w it divided the nation, and write a brief explanation of the message portrayed in each cartoon. The teacher may wish to create a bulletin board of political cartoons which best describe the divisive nature of the Vietnam War. An assignment handout ("Divisive Issues Political Cartoons") and a "Divisive Issues Political Cartoon: Assessment Criteria" accompany this lesson.

    Resources:

    Resource 1: Divisive Issues Chart

    Resource 2: Divisive Issue: The Draft

    Resource 3: Divisive Issue: Pentagon Papers

    Resource 4: Divisive Issue: Kent State

    Resource 5: Divisive Issue: Undeclared War

    Resource 6: Divisive Issue: Escalation

    Resource 7: Divisive Issue: Napalm

    Resource 8: Divisive Issue: My Lai

    Resource 9: Divisive: Political Cartoons

    Resource 10: Divisive Issues Political Cartoons: Assessment Criteria

    Many text, filmstrip, and videotape resources exist for this unit that are accessible to eighth graders. Teachers may also wish to consider using the following:

    1. Young adult novels about the war. One that deals specifically with the divisions in American society is The Best of Friends by Margaret I. Rostkowski. New York: Harper and Row, 1989.

    2. Music about the war. Refer to an article entitled "The Images of Vietnam: A Popular Music Approach" by George W. Chilcoat in the October 1985 issue of Social Education, pp. 601-603.

    3. Another interesting resource is the article "What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam" by Bill McCloud, in the May/June 1988 issue of American Heritage. McCloud, a junior high teacher, asked leaders of the '60s and '70s to respond to t hat question, and the article is a compilation of their answers.

    Back to Crossroads: Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975
    5. 1954 fall of French Indo-China; Geneva Conference
    1955-63 United States aid and military advisors sent by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy
    1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
    1965 President Johnson sends combat troops
    1965 United States bombing of North Vietnam
    1968 Tet Offensive by Viet Cong; President Johnson's decision not to run for a second term
    1969 President Nixon begins troop withdrawals and secret bombing of Laos and Cambodia
    1970 President Nixon sends troops to Cambodia
    1971 Pentagon papers case
    1972 Peace talks between United States and North Vietnam
    1972 Christmas bombing of North Vietnam
    1973 Withdrawal of U.S. troops completed
    1975 South Vietnam falls to North Vietnam