This lesson begins after the United States withdrew forces from Vietnam after signing a peace agreement. In January 1973, representatives from the U.S., North and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement, ending the U.S. direct military involvement. 

Students should have already been exposed to the event of the Fall of Saigon as the final event of the Vietnam War. This lesson will focus on the effect of that event on the Vietnamese people.

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Procedural Notes: 

  • Students should note the dates on the images closely to understand the chaos and desperation felt on the days leading up to April 30.
  • The purpose of this lesson is for students to expand historical empathy. The Fall of Saigon is typically taught as a date in the sequence of events in the Vietnam War. Students that learn to humanize historical events by placing themselves inside participants will be more engaged in units and learn to view history from multiple perspectives. 
  • The sequence of this lesson prepares students to embrace the story of Little Saigon appropriately, understanding the perspective of newly evacuated refugees. 

This lesson can be used in one 90-minute block or two 60-minute blocks.

Materials Needed: 

What happens to people when they are displaced/evacuated from their homes/homelands?

  • Examine the collapse of the South Vietnamese government in Saigon in March 1975
  • Examine the immediate effect on the South Vietnamese people
  • Refugee- people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country
  • North Vietnamese Army (NVA): Army of North Vietnam fighting against South Vietnam
  • South Vietnamese Army: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was the main fighting force of the Republic of Vietnam, or South Vietnam, during the war. 
  • Evacuation: the act of moving people from a dangerous place to somewhere safe
  • Embassy: a group of people who represent their country in a foreign country and the building these people work in- example US embassy in Mexico is a group of Americans that work at the US Embassy located in Mexico- the base for a country’s diplomatic mission abroad-
  1. Warm-up: Instructional strategy “Picture It” from Discovery Education: 20 minutes
    1. Arrange students into groups of 3 or 4. Provide each group with a set of images without captions. 
    1. Prompt students to analyze each image with visual thinking questions, such as these(display on board or print for each group):
      1. What is going on in this picture?
      2.  How do you know?  
      3. When and where was the picture taken? •
      4. Why was this picture taken?
    2. Ask students to discuss each image and then determine a way to sort and classify them into different groups or categories. Students must be ready to defend their reasoning for each category and placement.
    3. Have students use sticky notes or index cards to label the category of each of their images.
    4. Debrief the classifications by having groups present their categories and reasoning to the class.
    5. After the debrief, provide more context to the images by providing the captions to their images
  2. At this point, instruct students that they are going to write a short narrative by examining the Fall of Saigon through one of four perspectives: American soldier, South Vietnamese soldier or civilian, and North Vietnamese soldier. (student choice or teacher choice)
  3. Students will view two videos. These can either be viewed whole class or inserted into LMS for independent viewing. Each video is between 3 and 4 minutes in length.
    1. The Fall of Saigon: 40 years later – CNN Video
    2.  Fall of Saigon 
  4. After viewing both videos from their chosen perspective and reviewing the images again, students write a narrative explaining what they see, hear, say, and feel/experience from that perspective. This can be written on paper or online
  5. To complete the lesson, group students in groups of one from each perspective. Students in each group share their stories with their group and compare/contrast details of their experience. 

Materials Needed:

  • What do displaced people that have survived a traumatic event, search for?
  • How do refugees maintain ties to their homelands and sustain cultural practices and identity?
  • Analyze the impact of the Fall of Saigon locally in Arlington, Virginia
  • Examine how culture can be preserved
  • Refugee- people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country
  • North Vietnamese Army (NVA): Army of North Vietnam fighting against South Vietnam
  • South Vietnamese Army: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was the main fighting force of the Republic of Vietnam, or South Vietnam, during the war. 
  • Evacuation: the act of moving people from a dangerous place to somewhere safe
  • Embassy: a group of people who represent their country in a foreign country and the building these people work in- example US embassy in Mexico is a group of Americans that work at the US Embassy located in Mexico- the base for a country’s diplomatic mission abroad-
  1. Students watch this short video to review Fall of Saigon and the response of the US government to refugee crisis  Resettling Vietnamese Refugees in the United States | National Geographic Society
  2. Show students the maps of Northern Virginia and the location of Arlington/Clarendon. Note the proximity to DC and other major cities: NoVa map and Arlington 
    1. Explain that thousands of Vietnamese refugees made their way to the DM(DC.Maryland, Virginia) area. Upon arriving in such a foreign place after traumatically leaving homeland, what might people search for other than just food and shelter?
  3. Print out the images found at the Little Saigon website, have students do a  silent gallery walk of the images posted around the room. Explain that the images represent a section of Arlington known as Little Saigon in the late 1970’s.
    1. Give students five minutes or so to tour the images silently. Give students a guiding question to consider while walking, such as “what impression do you get from the images of the significance of Little Saigon?”
    2. Once seated, have students write their impressions of what they saw in the images, either online or on paper. 
  4. Either whole class or individually online, have students watch four videos about Little Saigon, taking notes during viewing alongside their gallery impressions. Instruct students to cite which video alongside their notes for future use.
    1. Chapter 2: Making a Home in Clarendon
    2.  Chapter 3: Scenes from Little Saigon
    3.  Little Saigon: Arlington’s Vietnamese Community
    4. Little Saigon Walking Tour  
  5. Bringing it all together: Socratic Seminar – (please refer to this document for the procedures and expectations of a Socratic Seminar)
    1. Use the text from the pdf Echoes of Little Saigon: Vietnamese Immigration and the Changing Face of Arlington 
    2. Teachers may elect to have students read the entire booklet. For the purposes of the Seminar, pages 7-20 are recommended. Students should read and annotate the text carefully. Students should be prepared to discuss and provide evidence in an open discussion. 
    3. A good opening prompt is: What do you think this text means? Or What is the significance of culture?
    4. Students may also use notes from the images and videos. 
  6. Bringing it all together: Socratic Seminar – (please refer to this document for the procedures and expectations of a Socratic Seminar)
    • Use the text from the pdf Echoes of Little Saigon: Vietnamese Immigration and the Changing Face of Arlington 
    • Teachers may elect to have students read the entire booklet. For the purposes of the Seminar, pages 7-20 are recommended. Students should read and annotate the text carefully. Students should be prepared to discuss and provide evidence in an open discussion. 
    • A good opening prompt is: What do you think this text means? Or What is the significance of culture?
    • Students may also use notes from the images and videos. 
  7. Conclusion and Closure: students reflect independently on the significance of Little Saigon using videos highlighting the present community of Vietnamese in Arlington and the impact of Little Saigon.
    1. The rise of the metro
    2. Reflections on Little Saigon
      1. Teacher may want to create a digital or physical reflection activity such as Nearpod, with the videos and a probing question or two.
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/resettling-vietnamese-refugees-united-states
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