BEYOND VIETNAM
Introduction
–The Vietnam War marked the first major battle
where the United States Military was racially integrated among Caucasian and
African soldiers. Moreover, African Americans
were encouraged to participate in an effort to impede the flow of the “red
tide.” This implies that African America
played a particularly important role in this war. However, racial integration does not ensure
equality. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
stated that the Vietnam War was a racist, “White man’s war, a Black man’s
fight.”
Task
- It is 1973 and the Vietnam War has officially
ended. You are part of a panel
consisting of military personnel, civil rights leaders and parents of Black
Soldiers killed in combat. You have been
assigned to look into the fully integrated United States military and report
the level of racial equality back to the President. Your report can seriously impact the future
of race relations in the US military.
Your goal: to discuss the reasons behind
racial integration, the social climate, the US Government’s response and
possible recommendations.. Your group
will be preparing a PowerPoint presentation to an authentic audience that
identifies the problems you found and what new policies should be adopted.
Both you and your group will be responsible
for:
1. 3-5
paged typed (12 pt font, Times New Roman) research paper identifying the social
climate during the Vietnam War and “Project 100,000.” Most importantly point out
some of the problems with the new racially integrated military. You must present evidence that a problem
exists while identifying causes and effects.
You are also expected to propose possible solutions following the six
steps of the Public Policy Analysis (PPA).
*See links below.
2. Each
group will create and present a PowerPoint presentation for all the steps of your research according to the
steps of Public Policy Analysis. The
PowerPoint presentation must include a minimum of six slides; each slide will
discuss the information gathered in the PPA worksheets.
“If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If
it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black
babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us
violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us,
and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and
me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this
country.”
--Malcolm X
Process
1. You
will be assigned to groups of three and each will take on the role of a panel
member. Your group is expected to use the six-step PPA, perform the above tasks
and incorporate these findings in your essays and power-point presentations:
Each group member will use the text and the websites listed to complete the
information on each of the six worksheets. Your paper should incorporate images
from the Internet that represent the topic of your report. In addition, each
group will design a power point presentation of no less than ten slides and
present this power point to the class.
Each group oral presentation should be limited to 5- 8 minutes. You will
be graded by the rubrics below.
2. Each
group is responsible for completing and turning in the 6 PPA sheets linked
below (the sheets will act as an aid to setting up your PowerPoint
presentation):
Identify the Causes of the Problem
Evaluate Existing Public Policies
Select the Best Public Policy Solution
Resources
Your group will use the following sites along
with at least two more found
on your own. There are also a couple of search
engines hyperlinked.
Recommended Sites:
http://www.aavw.org/protest/draft_100000_abstract14.html
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14895
http://members.aol.com/warlibrary/vwc16.htm
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
Search Engines:
EVALUATION:
Your grade will be a compilation of both your
report and presentation. The rubric
below explains how you are to be graded.
Organization of Written and Visual Work
√+
Information is very organized with well-constructed paragraphs and
headings
√
Information is organized with well-constructed paragraphs
√–
Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well constructed
0 The information appears to be
disorganized
Quality of Information
√+
Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several
supporting details and/or examples
√
Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2
supporting details and/or examples
√–
Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or
examples are given
0
Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic
Internet Use
√+
Successfully uses suggested internet links to find information and
navigates within these sites easily without assistance
√
Usually able to use suggested internet links to find information and
navigates within these sites easily without assistance
√–
Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find information
and navigates within these sites easily without assistance
0
Needs assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links and/or
to navigate within these sites
Mechanics of Written Work
√+
No grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors
√
Almost no grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors
√–
A few grammatical spelling, or punctuation errors
0
You have not begun your internship
Learning Standards
This WebQuest addresses the following NYS
Learning Standards:
Language Arts:
Standard 1:
Language for Information and Understanding—Students will listen, speak,
read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers,
students will collect data, facts, and ideas.
Standard 3:
Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation—Students will listen,
speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation.
Standard 4:
Language for Social Interaction—Students will listen, speak, read, and
write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that
follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social
communication with a wide variety of people.
Social Studies:
Standard 1:
History of the United States and New York
Students will use a variety of intellectual
skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes,
developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New
York.
Standard 2:
World History
Students will use a variety of intellectual
skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes,
developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep
of history from a variety of perspectives.
Standard 4:
Economics
Students will use a variety of intellectual
skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other
societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate
scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States
and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem
through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
Standard 5:
Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Students will use a variety of intellectual
skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing
governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations;
the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American
constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of
citizenship, including avenues of participation.
Conclusion:
After much research and investigation, many of you have probably
concluded that there was much more to the Vietnam War than what our textbook
tells us. Racism in the military is an
issue that cannot be ignored and regardless of your position on this topic,
your group now has substantial evidence to support your argument.
*This WebQuest was enhanced by pictures and information from the
following websites:
http://members.aol.com/warlibrary/vwc16.htm
http://www.aavw.org/protest/draft_100000_abstract14.html
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14895
http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/washington-vietnam-veterans-memorial-washington-d-c-dcvien1.jpg
