Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War? lesson plan

The Vietnam War is a hard one to teach kids about, especially if you want to present an unbiased viewpoint.  I searched long and hard to find out “why did the United States enter the Vietnam War?” history lesson but wasn’t finding a good lesson on that. So I created my own Vietnam War US history lesson.

 Goals of the Vietnam War lesson plan

Hi, Future Ticia 2026 here, and I’m updating this post, to put a better picture, in put some sunglasses over the kids to give them some privacy. I’m trying to decide if I’ll keep the videos…

But, let’s talk goals for this lesson. I wanted the kids to think critically. I had a wide age range.

If I only had early elementary age, or even upper elementary, I would not have taught the lesson in this way. This lesson needs some kids who are getting more into critical thinking skills.

 I gave them a lot of facts and timelines, and let them start drawing conclusions.

Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War lesson plan

Materials required: posterboard, handout, markers

Time required: about an hour

Age range: we did this with elementary to high school age (I wouldn’t do it with just young elementary)

 

Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War procedures

First, they were split into two groups, just like in our Korean War lesson, a pro-war group, and an anti-war group.

 Then each group had 30 minutes to go through the information, figure out each person’s part, and prepare their information.

 

This time I cautioned them about using real names, so I could show the videos of each presentation on my blog, want to protect their privacy and names after all.

Since, I’m going to make these videos private. Let me summarize how the first group did:

Anti-Vietnam War group:

• This group had more younger kids and only one older kid, so the younger kids did not do well in their presentations and were distracting.
• One of the younger kids forgot what his reason was, and just gave a silly answer. The second younger kid gave the correct one, but in such a way that it confused the older kid.
• For some reason, Superman interpreted be passionate as talk in a strange falsetto voice
• But, this was a vast improvement over their first presentation.

 

Pro-Vietnam War group:

• This group did much better over-all despite having younger kids, but I think the personality of the kids contributed to that. Their leader is more organizationally inclined.
• They felt more practiced.
• They quoted President Kennedy himself
• They gave specific reasons and brought up specific items President Kennedy ran on.

 

I could see real growth in the kids from the two different attempts at convincing us.  In this instance I think the pro-war group did a much better job in their presentation of material and in their arguments.  I personally still haven’t figured out how I feel about the Vietnam War, on the one hand why are we in a war in Asia, but on the other hand if we want to support democracies in the world, we need to stand behind our words.  There was a slaughter when we finally did withdraw, so I don’t know what is the right decision.

And that would be why we don’t tend to teach on recent history because it’s still so tinged with current events.

 

Vietnam War lessons I found:

• Using primary sources Vietnam War lesson
• Vietnam War lesson using maps

 

For more US history lessons:

• American Revolution Unit
• Declaration of Independence Lesson
• Transcontintental railroad
• Fredrick Douglass lesson
• Trail of Tears lesson