Viewing Vietnam War Documentaries: Biases and Multiple Perspectives

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Viewing Vietnam War Documentaries: Biases and Multiple Perspectives

In this April 28, 1965 file photo, U.S. Marine infantry stream into a suspected Viet Cong village near Da Nang in Vietnam during the Vietnamese war. Filmmaker Ken Burns said he hopes his 10-part documentary about the War, which begins Sept. 17, 2017 on PBS, could serve as sort of a vaccine against some problems that took root during the conflict, such as a lack of civil discourse in America

Author: Vincent P. Trần
Grades: 11-12

Suggested Amount of Time: 60 Minutes
Area of Study: Framing the Vietnamese American Experiences Model Curriculum

Compelling Question

  • Why is it important to learn about Vietnam, Vietnamese refugees, and Vietnamese American experiences?

Lesson Questions
  • What are the sources that historical documentaries use, how can they be biased, and how do the people filmmakers choose to interview create bias? How do the subjects and the descendants of the Vietnam War view and react to those popular depictions of their history?  
  • How have popular depictions of the Vietnam War through documentaries changed over time? How do people in Vietnam and Vietnamese refugees in America view these documentaries?
  • What perspectives are missing or needed to gain a better understanding of Vietnamese history in popular media?
  • How do Vietnamese Americans challenge their invisibility in official history by drawing from alternative sites of knowledge such as oral history, media, literature, and the arts?
Lesson Objective

Students will evaluate the depiction of American history regarding the Vietnamese in popular culture and media by completing a venn diagram and a reflection.

Lesson Background

In 1983, PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) released a 13-part series documentary titled “Vietnam: A Television History.” This documentary was one of the first documentaries to thoroughly examine the history of Vietnam, and the Vietnam War, and offered different perspectives of the history from individuals on multiple sides of the conflict. Upon its release, the documentary received overwhelming praise from the American press, however, a closer examination of Vietnamese ethnic media shows discontent and anger. The Vietnamese refugee community was dissatisfied with the lack of Republic of Vietnam perspectives and disputed the sources used by the filmmakers, stating that they were overall reliant on Communist sources. This lesson will engage students to critically examine how popular history is created, who has the power to write it, whose perspectives are left out in the creation of popular history, and how we should critically examine media depictions of history.   

This lesson contains content that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether the resources are suitable for their class and provide a content warning to their students at the beginning of the lesson.

Image Citation: Manhhai. (n.d.). Vietnam War images (18). Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/48480339952

Ethnic Studies Theme: This lesson connects to the ethnic studies theme of power and oppression from the Asian American Studies Curriculum Framework (Asian American Research Initiative, 2022). Students will consider war, migration and imperialism as contexts shaping citizenship and racialization. Students discuss how war and imperialism impact perceptions of Southeast Asian groups.

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 historical significance is constructed. That is, events, people, and developments meet the criteria for historical significance only when they are shown to occupy a meaningful place in a narrative.

  • Readings:
    • “Who Writes History?” 
    • “A Lost Opportunity for Opportunism in 1945 Vietnam?”
  • Videos:
    • Vietnam: A Television History (Ep.1) Roots of a War (1945–1953), timestamp 20:46–23:22, 26:1–26:31
  1. Engage (10 mins)
    1. Pose the question: Who creates and writes history?
      1. Supplemental material: 
        1. Friedlander, R. Who Writes History? 2019, September 17. KQED. https://www.kqed.org/perspectives/201601139073/who-writes-history
      2. Have students share their response with a classmate or group. Then, have a whole class discussion with students.
    2. Propose the question: What is bias? What is a documentary?
      1. Supplemental material:
        1. Bias is when someone has a preference or inclination towards a certain idea, person, group, or thing, often without considering all the facts fairly.
        2. Documentary definition: “Documentary film speaks about situations and events involving real people (social actors) who present themselves to us as themselves in stories that convey a plausible proposal about, or perspective on, the lives, situations, and events portrayed. The distinct point of view of the filmmaker shapes this story into a way of seeing the historical world directly rather than into a fictional allegory.” - Bill Nicols, Introduction to Documentary
    3. After posing the questions to students, have them note down the formal definition of bias and documentary. 
    4. Provide background information on “Vietnam: A Television History”
      1. In 1983, PBS (Public Broadcasting System) released a 13-part series documentary titled “Vietnam: A Television History.” This documentary was one of the first documentaries to thoroughly examine the history of Vietnam, and the Vietnam War, and offers different perspectives of the history from individuals on multiple sides of the conflict. Upon its release, the documentary received overwhelming praise from the American press, however, a closer examination of Vietnamese ethnic media shows discontent and anger. The Vietnamese refugee community was dissatisfied with the lack of Republic of Vietnam perspectives and disputed the sources used by the filmmakers, stating that they were overall reliant on Communist sources. 
      2. Disclaimer: Teachers should preview the video time stamps to decide if it is appropriate for their class.
  2. Interaction with first source: Watch Clip #1 “Vietnam: A Television History (Ep-1) Roots of a War (1945-1953)” (20:46 - 23:22) https://youtu.be/iAgIRtSEIm4?t=1246 (5–10 mins)
    1. Have students jot notes to the following questions:
      1. What is the clip asserting?
        1. Answer: Hồ Chí Minh was a nationalist first and a communist second. Hồ Chí Minh wanted to build a coalition government with the Vietnamese nationalists and did not play a role in the elimination of opposing Vietnamese nationalists. 
      2. Ask students whose perspectives are represented in this clip? Whose perspectives are missing? 
  3. Interaction with second source: Watch Clip #2 “Vietnam: A Television History (Ep-1) Roots of a War (1945-1953)” (26:12 - 26:31) https://youtu.be/iAgIRtSEIm4?t=1572 (5 mins)
    1. Have students jot notes to the following questions:
      1.  What is this clip asserting?
        1. Answer: The “Missed Opportunity” theory, which suggests that if Harry Truman responded to the request for support by Hồ Chí Minh, that the Vietnam War could have been avoided.
      2. Ask students whose perspectives are represented in this clip? Whose perspectives are missing?
  4. Interaction with third source: “A Lost Opportunity for Opportunism in 1945 Vietnam?” https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/a-lost-opportunity-or-opportunism-in-1945-vietnam/ (10–15 mins)
    1. Which point of view is the article taking on? 
    2. What does the article assert?
    3. How do the main ideas of the article oppose the viewpoints in the previous video clips? 
  5. Cultural Production: Venn Diagram Comparison (15–20 mins)
    1. Based on the sources, students will create a compare and contrast venn diagram to answer the following question: What are the differences between the same history told from an American perspective, or a Vietnamese from Vietnam perspective?
      1. Alternatively, students can illustrate two versions of Vietnamese history: one in the perspective of an American, and one in the perspective of a Vietnamese person. Students can draw from the point of view of both regarding the Vietnam War, and should be prepared to support their rationale for the details included in the illustration. 
      2. The final product can be open to a written, visual, or audio narrative. 
    2. Teacher discretion to assign this compare and contrast venn diagram independently or to be completed with a partner.
    3. Once venn diagrams are complete, allow for a partner or whole class share to find common responses and notes.
  6. Reflection and Exit Ticket (15 mins) 
    1. To wrap up the lesson, have students choose from one of the following prompts to address:
      1. What are the sources that historical documentaries use, how can they be biased, and how do the people filmmakers choose to interview create bias? How do the subjects and the descendants of the Vietnam War view and react to those popular depictions of their history?  
      2. How have popular depictions of the Vietnam War through documentaries changed over time? How do people in Vietnam and Vietnamese refugees in America view these documentaries? 
      3. What perspectives are missing or needed to gain a better understanding of Vietnamese history in popular media? 
      4. How do Vietnamese Americans challenge their invisibility in official history by drawing from alternative sites of knowledge such as oral history, media, literature, and the arts?
    2. Responses can be typed or hand-written. Responses should be at least four complete sentences. 
      1. Alternatively, students can dialogue their reflection responses with a peer and co-construct their answer. The final product can be open to a written, visual, or audio narrative.

Students will complete a venn diagram to compare and contrast the different perspectives of history about the Vietnam War. Alternatively, students can illustrate two versions of Vietnamese history: one in the perspective of an American, and one in the perspective of a Vietnamese person. Students can draw from the point of view of both regarding the Vietnam War, and should be prepared to support their rationale for the details included in the illustration.

  • Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:
    • Link key vocabulary words to definitions and pronunciations in both dominant and heritage languages
      • Phim: Film
      • Phim ảnh: Movie
      • Phim tài liệu: Documentary 
      • Ý kiến: Opinion
      • Perspective: Quan Điểm
  • Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:
    • Embed prompts to “stop and think” before acting as well as adequate space
  • Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:
    • Differentiate the degree of difficulty or complexity within which core activities can be completed

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:
    • Writing: Provide sentence frames with word and picture banks
      • 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:
    • Writing: Teach signal words (comparison, chronology, cause effect, listing) for academic writing
  • Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:
    • Writing: Require academic writing and the use of target academic vocabulary
      • Apply domain­-specific vocabulary and general Academic vocabulary in open sentence frames to perform functions, like describing or explaining, that target specific grammatical structures.

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

  1. Students can practice the skill of identifying bias in media sources and documents by analyzing current news coverage related to Vietnamese history, and/or other events. They can do a deep dive on evidence, source, context, audience, purpose, language, tone and framing of the stories and describe how the bias impacts the information and individual understanding of the event. 
  2. In small groups, teachers can have students discuss their own unconscious bias. Students can brainstorm and engage in dialogue regarding their everyday language and how some of their informal conversations may perpetuate stereotypes or biases. Students can also brainstorm action steps on ways they can challenge their unconscious bias and instead transform some unconscious language into a more inclusive culture. 

American Initiative. 2022. Asian American Studies K-12 Framework.  https://asianamericanresearchinitiative.org/asian-american-studies-curriculum-framework/ 

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

History Channel. 2017, May 2. Vietnam: A Television History (Ep-1) Roots of a War (1945-1953) [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved August 30, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgIRtSEIm4&t=1572s 

Kelley, L. 2014, April 30. A Lost Opportunity or Opportunism in 1945 Vietnam? Le Minh Khai. https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/a-lost-opportunity-or-opportunism-in-1945-vietnam/ 

Friedlander, R. 2019, September 17. Who Writes History? KQED. https://www.kqed.org/perspectives/201601139073/who-writes-history   

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.

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

Model Curriculum

Vietnamese American Experiences

Standard(s)

HSS 12.8 RI.11-12.6 W.11-12.9

Grade(s)

Grade 11 Grade 12