The Forgotten Effects of the Vietnam Conflict:
The Environmental Consequences of War

A Webquest for High School US History

By Jeremy Henderson

INTRODUCTION    TASK    SOURCES    PROCESS     GUIDANCE    CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

The U.S. war in Vietnam was the longest and second most costly in U.S. history. More than two million Americans fought at some point during the conflict. More than 58,000 were killed, more than 300,000 wounded, and almost 14,000 completely disabled. The war cost  hundreds of billions of dollars for the United States. In Vietnam, over two million people died due to U.S. action in the region. Four million people were wounded and 10 million displaced from their homes. Though the costs in dollars and lives were enormous, an often forgotten legacy of the Vietnam conflict (and all other armed conflicts throughout history) is the environmental devastation created immediately and that may continue for years after hostilities have ended. More than five million acres of forest and croplands were laid waste by 18 million gallons of poisonous chemical herbicides.

This activity will look at the consequences of wartime, particularly the environmental consequences that are often disregarded.

TASK

Tennessee Social Studies Curriculum Standards, Era 10, Standard 5.1: "Understand the causes, the course, and the effects of the Vietnam War at home and abroad."

Tennessee Social Studies Curriculum Standards, Era 10, Standard 5.2: "Investigate domestic and foreign policy trends since 1968."

In addition to a lecture on the topic by the instructor, the student will use the internet to search out information regarding the aftermath of the Vietnam War.  This task will involve both writing and verbal components.

SOURCES

Chemical warfare. Retrieved March 21, 2004 from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNchemical.htm

Clemons, S. The war prayer. Retrieved March 20, 2004 from http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html

Critical thinking rubric. Washington State University. Retrieved April 4, 2004 from http://wsuctproject.wsu.edu/ctr.htm

Neiman, D. Battlefield Vietnam. Retrieved March 31, 2004 from http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/index.html

Swensson, J. K. The Vietnam conflict: an academic information portal for education and research. Retrieved March 20, 2004 from http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/faculty/swensson/ewrt2vn.html

Zwerdling, D. The legacy of agent orange. From Revisiting Vietnam website. Retrieved March 31, 2004 from http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/vietnam/vnation/legacy.html

PROCESS

1. To get a general treatment of the major developments in the Vietnam conflict, visit the following website. We will use this information as a review of the knowledge we have been gaining in the unit on the Cold War.

2. Read about the effects of agent orange and other chemical warfare agents. What did agent orange and other defoliants do to the vegetation? Write a paragraph on how you can see that such changes to the environment of a nation may effect the people.  Think in terms of what such changes would mean for food production, child rearing, health, making money to support a family, et cetera.

3. Read personal accounts of chemical warfare and Vietnam through the following link.  Students will be placed into groups to discuss their personal reactions to the stories. 

4. Air Force General Curtis Le May said,  “Tell the Vietnamese to draw in their horns or we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age.”  The problem was that Vietnam had been living in the Stone Age due to years of fighting with the French (and before that with the Japanese).  Authors have written a great deal about the consequences of war and been driven to speak out against it.  Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" was his comment on the Philippine-American War (1899-1902).  The short narrative was his way of speaking out against the atrocities of war. Use the link below to read "The War Prayer."  Afterwards, write your personal response to it and write a response to the following questions:  Do you agree with the sentiments expressed by Twain? Can war be justified regardless of the consequences? What effects of the Vietnam conflict did you think about when reading "The War Prayer?" Or, if you wish, write your own "war prayer" from your own perspectives and feeling on war.

GUIDANCE

Reflection

The purpose of this webquest is to expose U.S. history students to a often disregarded aspect of human interaction, that is, environmental change.  Environmental history is a recently emerging area of the history profession, and is quickly becoming the most relevant of all areas to be studied in history. 

This lesson is part of a larger unit on the Cold War and Vietnam.  Students study the events and ideologies that led to U.S. involvement in Vietnam.  Students critically analyze the sentiments that drove Cold War policies of key individuals.   Ensuing events of instruction include lessons on other consequences of Vietnam: shifts in post-war foreign policy, the rapprochement of China, and the Vietnam syndrome.

This product gives students who are obviously more computer savvy than students from even 10 years ago the opportunity to use the internet to find information in an historical context.  The availability of interactive timelines, images, and sounds on the internet make a usually "book and lecture" subject more enticing to the high school student. Quicker, student-driven access of information, rather than teacher-driven styles (lectures), allows students more time for peer discussion and use of critical thinking skills.

This activity has almost unlimited potential for expansion.  Lessons on general environmental history could be tied into this lesson, as well as comparisons with previous and ensuing American military involvement. Vietnam is one of the most often used historical analogies when talking of modern foreign policy.  Discussions and readings on the validity of such analogies in history would be beneficial for the high school student.

CONCLUSION

Students have investigated the environmental consequences of war, and they have begun to establish opinions of such consequences with reasons to support their particular stance.  Analytical skills and critical thinking have been incorporated into the activity through reading primary sources.  The following is a rubric to be used loosely for determining the students level of critical thinking skills in this particular activity.  Such assessments will be made during class/group discussions and writing completed by the student.

Critical Thinking Rubric from Washington State University