America at War: Vietnam and Today
A Historical Inquiry Project by Katie Coleman
Compelling Question
Supporting Question #1
Supporting Question #2
TEKS: 5th/ 6th Grade
5.24 Social Studies Skills
The student applies critical thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of valid sources, including electronic technology. The student is expected to:
c. organize and interpret information in outlines, reports, databases, and visuals, including graphs, charts, timelines, and maps
d. identify different points of view about an issue, topic, or current event
6.15 Culture
The student understands the similarities and differences within and among cultures in various world societies. The student is expected to:
f. identify and explain examples of conflict and cooperation between and amongBackground Information: The Vietnam War
Background Information: The War on Terror
In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States initiated an international military campaign known as the War on Terror (or the War on Terrorism). Led by the United States and the United Kingdom with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) support, the War on Terror was waged initially against al-Qaeda and other militant organizations but soon expanded to include Saddam Hussein and Iraq.
The attacks, carried out by 19 members of a fundamentalist Islamist group called al-Qaeda (“the base”), killed a total of about 3,000 people. On September 17, President Bush formally identified al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden as the mastermind behind the attacks. A wealthy member of a prominent Saudi Arabian family, bin-Laden had operated out of Afghanistan since the mid-1990s, under the protection of a group called the Taliban. The Taliban (which means “student”) followed an extreme version of Islamic law, and had seized control in Afghanistan in 1998.
In addition, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an advisor and financier of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was identified as a principal planner of the 9/11 attacks. Mohammed admitted his involvement in April 2002. Speaking to a joint session of Congress on September 20, Bush demanded the Taliban hand over bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders and dismantle terrorist training camps within Afghanistan. President Bush stated, “Our ‘war on terror’ begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”
The phrase “War on Terror “was first used by U.S. President George W. Bush and other high-ranking U.S. officials to denote the global military, political, legal and ideological struggle against organizations designated as terrorist and government regimes that providing them with support or posed a threat to the U.S. and its allies. The central aims of the War on Terror include:
Defeat terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and destroy their organizations
Identify, locate and destroy terrorists along with their organizations
Deny sponsorship, support and sanctuary to terrorists
Diminish the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit
Defend U.S. citizens and interests at home and abroad
Ensure an integrated incident management capability
Vietnam vs. Iraq/ Afghanistan
U.S. Soldiers in Vietnam
U.S Soldiers in Afghanistan
The Twin Towers Fall
Memorials
Visitors to the Wall
Honoring the men and women who served in the controversial Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial chronologically lists the names of more than 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in service to their countryhttp://www.everydaycitizen.com/2008/05/maya_lin_and_the_vietnam_war_m.html
Names on the Memorial
The Survivor Tree
Multiple Perspectives: Teaching the Vietnam War and the War on Terror to Students
Vietnam War-
1. The end of the draft
2. 18 year-olds granted the right to vote
3. Banding together of military families
4. War: Getting out is tougher than getting in
5. The rise of China and the toll of the Watergate scandal
War on Terror-
1. War Debt and the negative effect on the economy
2. Troops still in the Middle East
3. Department of Homeland Security- Immigration and Deportation
4. Air Travel
5. War in the "Cyberworld"
Together-
Primarily, there is the Vietnam (and now Iraq) lesson, which cautions that "getting out of a war is much more complicated than getting into conflict, especially for a democracy such as our own". During the Reagan years, the Pentagon offered a doctrine on military engagement requiring clear policy objectives, public support before engagement and a predesigned exit strategy. Indeed, President George H. W. Bush held to many of these principles during the 1991 Persian Gulf War by ceasing military operations and exiting once the core military objective of liberating Kuwait had been achieved. But a decade later, "the painful lessons of Vietnam surfaced again as U.S. forces went back to Iraq and found themselves locked into a ground war that lacked a clear political and diplomatic solution."
~http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/24/opinions/deleon-vietnam-war-effects/
Marine Perspective:
"Vietnam was an escalation in conflict, which was an attempt to follow a containment strategy, not a victory strategy." ~Daniel Bowers (former Marine)
Security Perspective:
"The World Trade Center attack on 9/11 not only changed the way we think, but from an organizational perspective how we are to function in the future. Law Enforcement, in my judgment, will at some point transform itself to meet the terrorist threat in ways that are not yet seen. [This requires] most importantly developing collaborative relationships." ~Andy Coleman (Security Executive)
(below is a Quizlet to help study and learn more about the general events, dates, and people involved in both the Vietnam War and the War on Terror)
Personal Reflection
References
Defining the War on Terror. (n.d.). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6416780
How 9/11 Changed America: Four Major Lasting Impacts. (n.d.). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/2014/09/10/13-years-later-four-major-lasting-impacts-of-911/
National September 11 Memorial & Museum | World Trade Center Memorial. (n.d.). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://www.911memorial.org/
Opinion: How Vietnam War changed America. (n.d.). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/24/opinions/deleon-vietnam-war-effects
United States. National Park Service. (n.d.). Vietnam Veterans Memorial (U.S. National Park Service). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://www.nps.gov/vive/index.htm
Vietnam War | HistoryNet. (n.d.). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://www.historynet.com/vietnam-war