The Vietnam War

1. Break the students into groups of four or five.
   
2. Have each person in the group write an article as a response to one of these questions (students will use the Web resources listed above or print material available to them):
   • Who fought against whom in the Vietnam War?
   • What were the causes of the conflict?
   • What was the public sentiment about the war?
   • How did the war change when President Nixon came into office?

   Students need to remember that a newspaper article is factual. They are to give information to their audience. They are to cite specific examples, individuals or facts.

3. As a group, students are to write two letters to the editor. One letter should give support for the war and the second should be in opposition to the war.
   
4. Students may include other items in their newspaper, such as political cartoons, editorials, etc.
   
5. Students may present their newspapers either using a computer (using Microsoft Publisher, PageMaker, etc.) or mounting their articles on poster board. Newspapers should have a name.

Do both an individual and a group evaluation for this project.

Your team will be given a group grade on your project from 0 to 100 points. (Bonus points will be given for submissions beyond the five articles.) Your total score will then be multiplied by the number of people in your group. Your group can then divide the total score in whatever way you would like. For example, your group of three people gets 86% for the total project. This will be multiplied by 3 for a total of 258 points. You could give each person 86 points or you could give one person that worked really hard 100 point and the other two each 79 points. You can divide your 258 points in any way your group would like so long as the total is 258 points. There must be consensus among the group members.

Criteria for Newspaper

Do both an individual and a group evaluation for this project.

Your individual grade is worth 50 points. This is based on the following:

• the accuracy of the information in your article
• the quality of the writing in your article
• whether the directions were carefully followed
• the grammar and spelling
• the citing of your sources

1. Students will work in pairs.
   

2. The pair will pick one person who played a significant role in the Vietnam War and will do research on this person.
   

3. Students will make a poster citing key facts about this person. Facts can be found using the Web sites below or available print materials. At least five facts should be cited. The top of the poster will be labeled WHO AM I? The name of the person will be identified on the back of the poster.
   

4. Posters will be numbered and displayed around the classroom.
   

5. Students will number their papers and go around the room and try to identify the person described in each poster.
   

6. A prize could be awarded to the pair that correctly names the most people on the posters. (The teacher could give a list of people who are named on the posters and the students could match the names with the posters.)

Key People:

Henry Kissinger http://www.who2.com/henrykissinger.html

Spiro Agnew http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=A000059

Richard Nixon http://k2nesoft.com/esoteric/nixon.html

Gerald Ford http://www.americanpresident.org/KoTrain/Courses/GF/GF_In_Brief.htm

General Creighton Abrams http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com/abrams.htm

Nguyen Van Their http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/t/thieu-n1g.asp

Prince Sihanouk http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/history/sihanouk.html

Pol Pot http://archive.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/polpot618

Ho Chi Minh http://caribou.cc.trincoll.edu/classes_hist300/hochi.htm