Teaching the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese Perspective

Abstract

The Vietnamese struggle for independence began with the French colonization of Indochina in the late nineteenth century and gained steam with the rapid development of nationalist movements from the 1920s onward. This effort became a war in August 1945 when the Viet Minh overthrew French and Japanese occupation forces and declared independence. Vietnamese independence was only fully achieved, though, after another thirty years of fighting against the French (1946–1954) and then the Americans (1954–1973). The country was finally unified in 1975 when the northern army rolled into Saigon and toppled the southern regime. The Vietnam War was, at its core, a civil war greatly exacerbated by foreign intervention. It was a struggle to determine the future of a post-colonial nation; a battle between several factions of Vietnamese nationalists over what type of governmental ideology would best bring about and serve a unified independent Vietnam. The most important of these factions were the Viet Minh (the Communist Party centered in the North), the National Liberation Front (southern allies of the Viet Minh), and the Republic of Vietnam (the American-sponsored non-communist govern ment in the South). This lesson plan asks students to analyze the local context of the Vietnam War, and to consider the impact of American and French policies on the country's struggle for independence and political unity.