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The Vietnam War was fought basically to stop the spread of communisim in southeast Asia. The United States committed troops to Vietnam in 1964 and withdrew them nine years later in 1973.

Most of the fighting took place in South Vietnam between Vietnamese government soldiers aided by the United States and guerrilla soldiers aided by communist North Vietnam. The conflict began as a Vietnamese civil war and escalated into an international conflict. Almost 3 million US men and women were sent thousands of miles to fight for what became a questionable cause. In total, it is estimated that over 2 million people on both sides were killed.

The War in Vietnam divided our nation like no other war that our country has participated in except the Civil War. 

Sample some of the following activities to learn more about the Vietnam War.

Places To Go

The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out about the Vietnam War.

Vietnam - Yesterday and Today
Travel to Vietnam and explore its history, its literature and art, and learn about its efforts to rebuild after the war.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Travel to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was built in 1982 and is one of the most visited attractions in Washington, D.C. It was designed by Maya Ying Lin. The names are inscribed in the chronological order of their dates of casualty. There are more than 58,000 names inscribed on the wall. The memorial also contains a statue of three soldiers by Frederick E. Hart erected in 1984 and a statue of three nurses and a wounded soldier by Glenna Goodacre erected in 1993.

Hitchhiking Vietnam
Travel to modern-day Vietnam and learn about its ancient past and history of conflict.

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
Virtually spend time at the Gulf of Tonkin. This gulf is in the northern part of Vietnam in the South China Sea. A 1964 attack on U.S. naval forces stationed in the gulf by North Vietnamese gunboats led to increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh Trail
Virtually walk the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was a route where supplies from North Vietnam travelled to Vietcong soldiers fighting in South Vietnam. The route began in North Vietnam and went into the adjacent country of Laos and then wound south through Cambodia and entered South Vietnam from the west. The United States did not try and control this trail at first because it would mean possible expansion of the war into Laos and Cambodia. However, the U.S. eventually did bomb the trail. The bombings were not entirely successful, and the route remained open. It is thought that the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the ability to move troops and supplies from the north to the south played a major role in the victory of the communists in South Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh
Meet Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese Communist leader, and read a letter that he wrote to President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967.

A Life in Public Service : Robert McNamara
Get to know Robert McNamara. He was the Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He was one of the major "players" in forming U.S. policy about Vienam, and he supported the military involvement of the United States in the conflict. Later, as the war escalated but failed to bring about U.S. goals and as resistance to the war mounted in the U.S., he worked towards a negotiated solution. Read about the difficult decisions he had to make regarding the Vietnam War.

Vietnam : Stories Since the War
Meet the people of Vietnam and learn what their life has been like since the end of the Vietnam War.

The American Experience : Vietnam Online 
According to this site, "The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular war in which Americans ever fought. And there is no reckoning the cost. The toll in suffering, sorrow, in rancorous national turmoil can never be tabulated." Find out about the human toll this war took--both for Americans and Vietnamese.

Battlefield : Vietnam
Find a timeline of the war.

The History Place Presents the Vietnam War
Learn about the background of Vietnam, beginning in 1945, and the political upheavals which led to the war.

Investigating the Vietnam War
Read interviews with Vietnam War veterans.

History of Vietnam and the Vietnam War
Study the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive was a series of crucial battles by Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces against South Vietnamese and U.S. positions in South Vietnam, beginning on Jan. 31, 1968, the start of Tet. Tet is the celebration of the lunar new year, and is one of Vietnam's most important holidays.

The Wars for Vietnam: 1945 to 1975
From primary source documents, help students learn about both sides--the pros and the cons--of the intervention of the United States in southeast Asia.

CNN Interactive : Vietnam War
View original news reports of the war in Vietnam.

CNN : Echoes of War
Learn how a battle agains the French in 1954 changed the history of Vietnam.

The Fall of Saigon
From the New York Times, read articles relating to the last days of Saigon. And then read about Saigon 25 years later.

Agent Orange Website
Learn about the herbicide called Agent Orange. During the the Vietnam War, it was sprayed on densely forested areas to open the areas up for combat or surveillance. Find out about the results of the exposure of the troops to this toxic herbicide.

The Vietnam War
Examine this picture essay of the war, "illustrating some of the incredible conditions under which soldiers from both sides lived, fought, played and ultimately died." 

Lesson Plans/Webquests

• Vietnam: A Soldier's Perspective Webquest
• Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial

• Barr, Roger. The Vietnam War.San Diego, CA : Lucent Books, c1991.
• Devaney, John. The Vietnam War. New York : F. Watts, c1992.
• Gay, Kathlyn. Vietnam War. New York : Twenty-First Century Books, 1996.
• Gibson, Michael. The War in Vietnam. New York : Bookwright Press, 1992.
• Hoobler, Dorothy. Vietnam, Why We Fought : An Illustrated History. New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, c1990.
• Kent, Deborah. The Vietnam War : "What Are We Fighting For?". Hillside, N.J., U.S.A. : Enslow Publishers, c1994.
• Marrin, Albert. America and Vietnam : The Elephant and the Tiger. New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Viking, 1992.
• Nickelson, Harry. Vietnam. San Diego, CA : Lucent Books, c1989.
• Wormser, Richard. Three Faces of Vietnam. New York : F. Watts, c1993.
• Wright, David K. A Multicultural Portrait of the Vietnam War. Tarrytown, N.Y. : Benchmark Books, c1996.