30.1 & 30.1 Lesson Plans – Beginnings of Involvement and Escalation in the Vietnam War

Obj – sequence events that got the US involved in Vietnam ES – state implications and consequences

Hook – Show letter from Nguyen Tat Thanh to Truman (tell of earlier appeal to Wilson)

Act: 1. w/ ppt out, review concepts that would make most Americans believe the spread of communism in Vietnam must not be allowed 2. give out the 11 events randomly, THESE STUDENTS MAY NOT TALK 3. the remaining students must “move” the students w/ the event signs in proper order from earliest to most recent 4. the class can only ask the teacher ONCE if the order is correct. 5. if it is, the class receives 5 pts, 1 wrong, 4pts, 2 wrong 3pts and so on 6. review why the events go the way they do

Close – discuss how events got the US involved in Vietnam

Resources attached below: French imperialized Vietnam Japan took over Vietnam Vietnam declared free US aided France’s efforts to reclaim Vietnam Dien Bien Phu – France loses Vietnam Geneva Accords – establishes 17th Diem restricts Buddhism Ho Chi Minh Trail used to supply VC

Diem assassinated Gulf of Tonkin Incident & Resolution Operation Rolling Thunder 30.2 Matching Activity Obj – explain how, despite massive deployment of US troops, the Vietnam war became a stalemate

Hook - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/maps/, interactive map of Vietnam War

Activities: 1. hand out the following terms, and have students pair up if they think they’ve found a classmate who has the identification of their term 2. once in pairs, go around the room, and have the groups explain their matching term/s

Close: have 3 random students give specific evidence of how the Vietnam War became a stalemate Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara

William Westmoreland

Guerilla Tactics

Tunnels “Hearts and Minds”

Napalm

Agent Orange

Search and Destroy Missions Marijuana/alcohol/drugs

POW and MIA

Great Society

Credibility Gap Doves

Hawks Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense under LBJ; political advisors during Vietnam (govt; not military)

American commander in South Vietnam; thought that more troops deployed to Vietnam would end the war

Hit and run tactics used by forces who are familiar with the landscaped and outnumbered by their enemy

“The more the Americans tried to drive us away from our land, the more we burrowed into it.” Nguyen Quoc “Just remember this. Communist guerrillas hide among the people. If you win the people over to your side, the communist guerrillas have no place to hide.” Ed Lansdale, Green Beret

Gasoline-based bomb the set fire to the jungle

A leaf-killing toxic chemical (clear the jungle, and you can see your enemy)

“We had to destroy a village in order to save it” Ben Tre Coping mechanism for who often times had to kill/die for a war they did not support

Prisoner of War – some held for more than 8 years

Missing in Action – imagine if you’re the mom or dad

Casualty (that did not bleed) of the Vietnam War

Lack of faith that what the govt was telling us was true; result of Vietnam being the “living room war” (on TV)

Those who believed the US should withdraw from Vietnam Those who believed the US should unleash our greater military force to win the war (aka – nukes)