Life-long impact of “Re-education” Camp for Prisoners

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Life-long impact of “Re-education” Camp for Prisoners

A political re-education class for Generals and senior military officers of the former South Vietnamese Army, a North Vietnamese Communist officer gives them political indoctrination classes as they sit quietly like schoolchildren. Second from left is one time Defense Minister, General Nguyễn Hữu Có. Có was imprisoned for 12 years, decided not to emigrate after being released and lived in Vietnam until his death in 2012.

Author: Duyên Tống
Grades: 11-12

Suggested Amount of Time: 85 - 100 Minutes
Area of Study: Vietnamese Departures and Transit

Compelling Question

  • How did Vietnamese build communities as they attempted to survive and traverse the hardships of life in transit?

Lesson Questions
  • What is the history, specific policies, and implementation of “re-education” camps for soon-to-be Vietnamese refugees after the war?
  • What can the “re-education” camp experience tell us about the Vietnamese refugee community in America and the diaspora?
Lesson Objective

Students will be able to describe the challenges and hardships experienced by the Vietnamese people from life at the “re-education” camps by participating in a World Cafe discussion and completing a fictional journal entry. 

Lesson Background

After the Fall of Sài Gòn 1975, the Communist government of Vietnam rounded up supporters of the South Vietnamese government and placed them in what was called in Vietnamese Trại cải tạo, or “re-education” camps, in English. “Re-education” camps were prison camps operated to ‘re-educate’ the South supporters on the new regime and way of thinking. It was reported that up to 300,000 supporters of the South Vietnam government including government officials and former military officers were imprisoned anywhere between weeks to 18 years. Research shows that thousands were tortured, abused, and even murdered during the time. It was seen as a means of revenge and a way to repress and indoctrinate people. 

The primary sources in this lesson cover multiple perspectives on the effects of “re-education” camps on the prisoners and their families. Understanding this part of history will broaden student’s knowledge about the strong anti-Communist sentiment that many refugees have in their community. 

Image Citation: Vietnamese Heritage Museum. (2021b, January 13). 1976 - A political re-education class for Generals and senior military officers of the former South Vietnamese Army - Vietnamese Heritage Museum. https://vietnamesemuseum.org/details/1975-re-education-session-for-26-generals-of-former-south-vietnamese-army/

Ethnic Studies Themes

This lesson connects to the ethnic studies theme of community and solidarity from the Asian American Studies Curriculum Framework (Asian American Research Initiative, 2022). Students analyze community resistance and alliances between communities, as well as the complexities within these experiences. Students will navigate the complexities of re-education camps.

For additional guidance around ethnic studies implementation, refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (2021)  https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp.

Historical Thinking Skills

This lesson will facilitate student proficiency in historical significance, one of Seixas’ historical thinking skills (Seixas & Morton, 2013). Students make personal decisions about what is historically significant, and then consider the criteria they use to make those decisions. Students consider how events, people, or developments have historical significance if they resulted in change. That is, they had deep consequences, for many people, over a long period of time.

Supplies
  • Access to laptop device
Readings
  • “Restlessness” Poem
  • “The Secret Diaries my Grandma Snuck out of a Communist Prison in Vietnam”
  • Interview with Thái Phạm
  • Oral History with Huy Trần 
 Videos
  • Tâm Nguyễn’s Escape
  1. Warm-Up (five minutes)
    1. Prompt students to consider: Describe at least three traits that make up your ideal “safe space”. Teachers can provide examples such as: physical safety, ability to express opinions, ability to learn, etc. 
      1. Students will share with a peer, and the teacher will solicit students' responses to the class.
    2. Teacher will introduce lesson objectives and lesson questions.
  2. Introduction (10–15 minutes)
    1. Begin this lesson by reading the poem “Thao Thức” or “Restlessness.” (Can be found on the website: https://www.kuow.org/stories/vietnam-war-journals) 
      1. Potential questions to ask: Who is the speaker? Where do you think he is? What is he yearning for? Why do you think he can’t sleep? How long do you think he’s been there? Ask students to jot down any notes or questions they may have as you’re discussing the poem with the whole class.
    2. Optional: If time permits, read the National Public Radio article to get the granddaughter’s perspective on the experiences that her grandfather went through in a “re-education” camp and the impact it had on his family. (“The secret diaries my grandma snuck out of a Communist prison in Vietnam”, https://www.kuow.org/stories/vietnam-war-journals)
      1. Audio is also available on the website. 
    3. Solicit several responses to share with the entire class.
    4. As you transition to the World Cafe activity, here are suggested talking pieces to provide class for context:
      1. After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 and the reunification of the country under the rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam, a large number of Vietnamese individuals were sent to “re-education” camps. The purpose of these camps, in theory, was to “re-educate” former military officers, government workers, and others associated with the previous South Vietnamese government or its American allies. The duration of the sentences varied significantly based on the perceived level of mis-education or mis-guidance. Lower-ranked officials, civil servants, and enlisted soldiers were typically sentenced to between three to five years of reeducation. Higher-ranked officials, officers, and anyone considered having committed serious transgressions could be sentenced to ten years or more. In practice, these sentences were often extended indefinitely without any clear process for review or appeal. The types of prisoners held in these camps were diverse, but generally they were individuals associated with the South Vietnamese government or military. These included military officers and enlisted soldiers, government officials and civil servants, intellectuals, teachers, and even religious leaders who were seen as having been supportive of the South Vietnamese regime or critical of the Communist Party. Some of these prisoners were high-ranking individuals, while others were ordinary soldiers or workers. They all shared the experience of having been on the losing side of the conflict. Conditions in the reeducation camps were harsh and often brutal. The camps were typically located in remote, harsh environments like jungles or mountains. Prisoners were subjected to hard physical labor, often in dangerous or unhealthy conditions. Food and medical care were inadequate, leading to malnutrition and disease. In addition, prisoners were subjected to political indoctrination sessions, where they were taught about the principles of socialism and the supposed evils of the old regime and its Western allies.
  3. Interactions with text (20 minutes)
    1. Directions for World Café Conversations:
      1. Students will be taking on different roles in this activity and this will enable them to understand past events through multiple lenses. This activity will assign students a different perspective to represent the different views of people affected during the “Re-education” Camp period. 
      2. The Café conversation strategy helps students practice perspective-taking by requiring them to represent a particular point of view in a small-group discussion. 
      3. First, assign roles to students in groups of four: 
        1. Child of the “re-education” camp prisoner
        2. Wife of a “re-education” camp prisoner
        3. “Re-education” camp prisoner
        4. Escapee of “re-education” camp
      4. Next, students will gather information and read about the camps.
        1. Give students the handout and ensure that students read through the sources carefully and take down notes as necessary. As they’re doing so, encourage them to visualize what life is like living in the “re-education” camp so that they could be more prepared for the assessment later. Remind students to synthesize the information and hypothesize how that person would feel about the situation. 
        2. Teacher note: Although this lesson calls for a variety of roles to take on as a point of view, please inform students that women also went through the re-education camp experience. 
        3. Suggested Handout Rows
          1. Source 1 “Re-education" camps https://ucdavis.box.com/s/d0lhxq7z1pqoiw7oob5e4jdndvty45ab 
            1. Original source: https://calisphere.org/item/a5ef65377b844042e48253c37b8f92ac/ 
          2. Source 2 Interview with Thái Phạm (https://anotherwarmemorial.com/thai-pham/) 
          3. Source 3 Oral History with Huy Trần (https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/81235/d8b548/?order=0) 
          4. Source 4 PBS video Tâm Nguyễn’s escape (https://www.pbs.org/video/tam-nguyen-escaping-re-education-camp-ktpzus/) 
        4. Suggested Handout Columns
          1. Observations and Understanding of Sources - Use this space below to jot down your initial impressions of the sources.
          2. Analysis Perspective - From whose perspective is this source from?
          3. Analysis Commonality - What are some common themes throughout the sources?
          4. Facts - What were some specific policies and implementation rules of these camps?
          5. Making Connections - What connections can you make to current events, what you’ve learned or your own experiences?
    2. Students are to interact with all sources so that they can build a comprehensive understanding of the “re-education” camps. It’s best for teachers to model the first two sources on how to extract information for the graphic organizer and to support the World Cafe discussion later.
    3. Questions to think about before the conversation (these can be made accessible to students with the particular roles).
      1. For the Child of the “re-education” camp prisoner:
        1. How did the absence of your father affect your day-to-day life?
        2. How did you feel about the reasons your father was sent to the camp?
        3. How was your relationship with your family affected by his time in the camp?
      2. For the Wife of a “re-education” camp prisoner:
        1. How did your husband's detention impact your family's economic situation?
        2. Did you feel safe or threatened without your husband?
        3. How did your relationship with your community change after your husband was sent to the camp?
      3. For the “re-education” camp prisoner:
        1. What were the daily conditions in the camp like?
        2. How did the experience change your views about the government?
        3. What was the hardest part of being a prisoner in the camp?
      4. For the Escapee of “re-education” camp:
        1. Can you describe the moment you decided to escape and what led to this decision?
        2. What dangers did you encounter during your escape and how did you overcome them?
        3. How did your time in camp affect how you live your life today?
  4. World Cafe Conversation (20 minutes)
    1. Students will be grouped together based on their assigned roles. Four students per group. 
    2. Set up any classroom norms during discussion and remind students to introduce themselves as their assigned character, and listen attentively when their peers are sharing. 
    3. Students can take notes in their handouts as students take turns sharing.
    4. Guidance for Students:
      1. Understand Your Role: Make sure you understand your assigned role, and what they might think and feel during the “re-education” camp period. Students are to utilize their findings from the sources to adopt an alignment with their respective roles.
      2. Engage in the Discussion: Participate actively in your small group discussion. Remember to respect other perspectives and take turns speaking.
    5. Students will take turns introducing their role, and their perspective or experiences at the “re-education” camps. Students can utilize the questions provided ahead of time to guide their sharing.
  5. Circle Time: After the activity, take some time to reflect on the experience. (10 minutes)
    1. Questions: What did you learn from embodying another person's perspective? How has this activity changed your understanding of the “re-education” camp period?
    2. Bring the class back together and facilitate a whole class discussion. Some questions are:
      1. What did you learn from this activity?
      2. What stood out to you? Why? 
      3. What did you find interesting about what your peers shared?
      4. How did it feel for you to participate in the Café Conversation? During what part of the conversation did you feel most comfortable? Least comfortable? Why do you think that is?
      5. What did you learn about this moment in history from participating in this activity?
      6. What did you learn about yourself or about human behavior from participating in this activity?
  6. Cultural Production/Assessment (15–20 minutes)
    1. Students can apply their learning through imagining if they were a prisoner of the “re-education” camp and writing a journal entry of what a day would look like. The imaginative journal entry should touch upon the following questions: 
      1. What happened, who was there, what did you do, why did you (they) do it, and when? 
      2. The writing will include sensory details to help create a more realistic piece.  Advise students that they do not have to stick to the same role from the World Cafe, and can switch to a different role that they were interested in.
    2. Possible journal prompts include:
      1. What do you think it might have felt like for your character to hear these different perspectives? How do you think this might have changed his/her point of view, if at all?
      2. What is the history, specific policies, and implementation of “re-education” camps for soon-to-be Vietnamese refugees after the war? Which did you find most impactful?
      3. What can the “re-education” camp experience tell us about the Vietnamese refugee community in America and the diaspora?
    3. Journal entries should be written from a first person point of view. The final product can be open to a written, visual, or audio narrative. 
    4. If time permits, have students revisit the lesson questions and reflect on how this lesson has added to their understanding of Vietnamese refugee communities in America and the diaspora. 
       

Students can apply their learning through imagining if they were a prisoner of the “re-education” camp and writing a journal entry of what a day would look like. The imaginative journal entry should touch upon the following questions: What happened, who was there, what did you do, why did you (they) do it, and when? The writing will include sensory details to help create a more realistic piece.

  • Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:
    • Use advanced organizers (e.g., KWL methods, concept maps) 
  • Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:
    • Provide sentence frames for analysis:
      • The words __ could make the reader feel __ because…
      • When the speaker says __, I feel __ because..
      • The detail “___” is an example of __ which suggests …
  • Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:
    • Include activities that foster the use of imagination to solve novel and relevant problems, or make sense of complex ideas in creative ways
    • Provide tasks that allow for active participation, exploration and experimentation  

 

For additional ideas to support your students, check out the UDL Guidelines at CAST, 2018.  http://udlguidelines.cast.org 

  • Emerging: Consider the following method to support with emerging students:
    • Speaking: Provide sentence frames for pair interactions
      • In response to a prompt, the teacher offers a sentence frame orally and/or in writing to support expression of student thinking. Frames are adjusted based upon specific grammatical structure, key vocabulary, content learning, and language proficiency level descriptors, etc. Frames are a temporary scaffold that require modification.
  • Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:
    • Speaking: Prompt for academic language output
      • When posing a question for discussion and writing, the teacher offers a coordinated response frame to support the use of particular grammatical structures and vocabulary. 
      • In partner and group discussions, students use conversation moves to extend academic talk. Conversation moves help students add to or challenge what a partner says, question, clarify, paraphrase, support thinking with examples, synthesize conversation points, etc.
  • Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:
    • Speaking: Require the use of academic language 
      • In response to a prompt, the teacher offers a sentence frame orally and/or in writing to support expression of student thinking. Frames are adjusted based upon specific grammatical structure, key vocabulary, content learning, and language proficiency level descriptors, etc. Frames are a temporary scaffold that require modification.

For additional guidance around scaffolding for multilingual learners, please consult the following resources:

  • Combatting the Model Minority Myth - Students can research the Asian Model Minority Myth and how it impacts the Vietnamese American community. In a discussion or presentation, students can share ways in which Vietnamese students are impacted by this theory and suggest action steps to mitigate the harmful effects on the Vietnamese community. Aside from facts and action steps, students can share statistics of impacts.
  • Vietnamese American Education - Have students look up data on current Vietnamese American schooling in the US Topics include but are not limited to: graduation rates, average GPAs, locations of densely populated districts/schools, average extracurricular involvement, mental health access, reflection of staff demographics, income levels, parental status, etc. 

Aurora Foundation. 1988. Map of reeducation camps and prisons in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam [Photo]. Hoover Institution Digital Collections. Hoover Institution. https://calisphere.org/item/a5ef65377b844042e48253c37b8f92ac/ 

Britt, K. 2020, May 11. English learner toolkit of strategies. California County Superintendents.  https://cacountysupts.org/english-learner-toolkit-of-strategies/

California Department of Education. 2021. Ethnic studies model curriculum. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp 

California Department of Education & English Learner Support Division. 2012. California English Language Development standards (Electronic Edition) kindergarten through grade 12 (F. Ong & J. McLean, Eds.). California Department of Education.  https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/documents/eldstndspublication14.pdf

California Educators Together. (n.d.). ELA / ELD framework. https://www.caeducatorstogether.org/resources/6537/ela-eld-framework

CAST. 2018. The UDL guidelines. http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Hoàng, T. 2016. From reeducation camps to little Saigons: Historicizing Vietnamese diasporic anticommunism. Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 11(2), 43-95.

PBS. 2017, September 7. Tâm Nguyễn – Escaping a Re-Education Camp. Chicago’s Vietnam War Stories, PBS.  https://www.pbs.org/video/tam-nguyen-escaping-re-education-camp-ktpzus/

Phạm, T. (n.d.). From ARVN to Reeducation to America. Another War Memorial, Memories of the American War in Viet Nam. https://anotherwarmemorial.com/thai-pham/

San Diego County Office of Education. (n.d.). Providing appropriate scaffolding.  https://www.sdcoe.net/educators/multilingual-education-and-global-achievement/oracy-toolkit/providing-appropriate-scaffolding#scaffolding

Sexias, P. & Morton, T. 2013. The big six: Historical thinking concepts. Nelson Education.

Tạ, H. 2019, November 12. “The secret diaries my grandma snuck out of a Communist prison in Vietnam.” National Public Radio. https://www.kuow.org/stories/vietnam-war-journals

Tulare County Office of Education. (n.d.). Strategies for ELD. https://commoncore.tcoe.org/Content/Public/doc/Alpha-CollectionofELDStrategies.pdf 

Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project (VAOHP). 2012, March 2. Oral history of Huy Trần [13:00-15:20]. UCI Southeast Asian Archive. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/81235/d8b548/?order=0. 

Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project (VAOHP). 2005-2007. Exit interview with Tùng Trịnh in Philippines, tape 10. UCI Southeast Asian Archive. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/81235/d80032/ 

 
Supplementary Sources

Terry, D. 1999, February 11. “Passions of Vietnam War Are Revived in Little Saigon.” The New York Times.  https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/11/us/passions-of-vietnam-war-are-revived-in-little-saigon.html

Trần, T.V. 1988. Lost Years: My 1,632 Days in Vietnamese Reeducation Camps (Vol. 3). University of California Institute of East Asian Studies. https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ieas/IRM_003.pdf

https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ieas/IRM_003.pdf

Lost Years My 1,632 Days in Vietnamese Reeducation Camps TRAN TRI VU

Vietnamese Heritage Museum. (n.d.). “Re-education” Camps. Vietnamese Heritage Museum.  https://vietnamesemuseum.org/our-roots/re-education-camps/ 

Model Curriculum

Vietnamese American Experiences

Standard(s)

HSS 11.9 RI.11-12.2 W.11-12.3

Grade(s)

Grade 11 Grade 12