The War in Vietnam – A Story in Photographs

This activity can be used during a unit on the Vietnam War and the Cold War. For grades 6-12. Approximate time needed is 90 minutes.

Begin the activity and display (or ask students to open) the first photograph. Students will be asked to study it for 2 minutes, then to answer:

1. List the people, objects, and activities you see.
2. Where is it?
3. What was happening when this photo was taken?
4. Why was it taken?

AND

• How might you categorize this photograph — what topic of the war does it cover? (For example: battle tactics, weapons, jungle warfare, or roles of women)
• Write a caption for the photograph (one or two sentences describing the image and how it relates to the topic).

After they have analyzed this first image, direct them to the remaining images in the activity. They can work individually or in small groups to do the following for each photo:

1. List the topic of the war that the photo covers.
2. Write a caption for it.

When they have worked through all of the photographs and clicked “When You’re Done,” they will be presented with the following assignment:

Military photographers took these pictures to document military operations, equipment, and personnel — but their photographs also tell a story. It is a story about America’s sons and daughters, young men and women who fulfilled their duty to their country by serving in the war in Vietnam.

 

You are a curator who has been asked to use these images to plan a photography exhibit. The exhibit should help people understand the impact of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

They will be instructed to:

1. Write one sentence summarizing the main message of their exhibit.
2. List the sections that the exhibit will be divided into (these should be based on the topics of the war that they already identified for the various photos).
3. Under each topic, list the names of the photographs that fit in that topic and the captions they wrote for them.
4. Think of other resources that they could use to learn more information about the war to provide more historical background in their exhibit.

After completion of the activity, ask students to share their lists of topics. As a class, discuss whether any topics of the war are missing, and brainstorm how they could find out more about those topics.

Ask students to share the main messages they came up with for their exhibits. In a class discussion, ask them to consider:

• Why do you think you came to those conclusions?
• Do you think you might feel differently about the war if you had only read about it instead of seeing photographs?
• What impact do you think photography had on the American public who saw these images during the war?

An optional extension activity is to print out the photographs from the activity (follow the links below) for students to create a physical exhibit for the classroom using the captions they wrote and additional research.

This activity was adapted from an article written by Linda Darus Clark, a teacher at Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio.