Understanding and Teaching the Vietnam War

Hearts, Minds, and Voices: The Vietnam War and Oral History

150 Hearts, Minds, and ­ Voices The Viet­ nam War and Oral His­ tory an­ drew ­ darien The prom­ ise of oral his­ tory re­ sides in the po­ tency of ­ voices from the past, and fewer col­ lec­ tions of oral his­ to­ ries are more pro­ dig­ ious than those on the Viet­ nam War. Teach­ ers and stu­ dents can tap into audio, video, print, and the web to mine thou­ sands of local, re­ gional, na­ tional, and inter­ na­ tional oral his­ to­ ries of the Viet­ nam War. For non­ tra­ di­ tional learn­ ers, read­ ing, lis­ ten­ ing to, and con­ duct­ ing oral his­ to­ ries pro­ vides a ­ unique path­ way to the past. The per­ sonal di­ men­ sions of oral his­ tory ap­ peal to ­ students’ emo­ tional in­ tel­ li­ gence and sen­ si­ tiv­ ity and can en­ rap­ ture the most reluctant of learn­ ers. Stu­ dents can down­ load tran­ scripts, read bound col­ lec­ tions of inter­ views, lis­ ten to audio clips, and watch inter­ views with vet­ e­ rans, pol­ i­ ti­ cians, ac­ ti­ vists, ci­ vil­ ians, and other “au­ then­ tic” wit­ nesses of the war. Many of these his­ tor­ i­ cal ac­ tors have made them­ selves per­ son­ ally avail­ able to sec­ on­ dary ­ schools, col­ leges, and uni­ ver­ sities, al­ low­ ing stu­ dents to be the ben­ e­ fi­ ci­ ar­ ies of ­ face-to-face con­ ver­ sa­ tions with liv­ ing his­ tory. The re­ wards of oral his­ tory are plen­ ti­ ful, but in­ struc­ tors ­ should be mind­ ful of its me­ thod­ o­ log­ i­ cal chal­ lenges. His­ tor­ i­ cal ac­ tors, while in­ val­ u­ able re­ sources, are not ob­ jec­ tive re­ pos­ i­ to­ ries of truth. Stu­ dents who work with oral his­ to­ ries must grap­ ple with ­ voices from the past as prod­ ucts of time, set­ ting, con­ text, and ­ speaker sub­ jec­ tiv­ ity. ­ Voices need be re­ spected but also ­ framed in mem­ ory, per­ spec­ tive, and pol­ i­ tics. Like other pri­ mary ­ sources, oral his­ to­ ries ­ should be sub­ jected to ver­ ifi­ ca­ tion, cor­ rob­ o­ ra­ tion, and con­ tex­ tu­ al­ iza­ tion. Stu­ dents who are to ben­ e­ fit from 151 Darien / Hearts, Minds, and Voices work­ ing with oral his­ to­ ries ­ should con­ sider which ­ voices get priv­ i­ leged in the tell­ ing of this con­ flict and the ways in which those sto­ ries are con­ nected to spe­ cific po­ lit­ i­ cal nar­ ra­ tives. The strug­ gle for the ­ hearts and minds of lis­ ten­ ers can be as poig­ nant as the con­ flict it­ self. His­ tory in­ struc­ tors work­ ing with oral his­ to­ ries of the Viet­ nam War can pro­ duce mean­ ing­ ful learn­ ing ex­ pe­ ri­ ences if they equip stu­ dents with ap­ pro­ pri­ ate his­ tor­ i­ cal back­ ground and pro­ vide the tools for me­ thod­ o­ log­ i­ cal scru­ tiny and anal­ y­ sis. Oral his­ tory will be of ­ greater value to those stu­ dents who crit­ i­ cally an­ a­ lyze inter­ views ­ rather than con­ sum­ ing them as a pas­ sive ex­ pe­ ri­ ence. In order to fa­ cil­ i­ tate that pro­ cess, in­ struc­ tors can teach stu­ dents how to iden­ tify major inter­ pre­ ta­ tions of the Viet­ nam War and sug­ gest how spe­ cific oral his­ tory re­ sources might be eval­ u­ ated in order to ad­ dress them. The rec­ om­ mended as­ sign­ ments (avail­ able at the end of this essay) ask stu­ dents to grap­ ple with the com­ plex­ ities of lis­ ten­ ing to ­ voices from the Viet­ nam War and fur­ nish in­ struc­ tors with strat­ e­ gies for using oral his­ tory as a ve­ hi­ cle for stu­ dent learn­ ing. This essay con­ cludes with a best prac­ tices ­ primer on con­ duct­ ing a Viet­ nam War oral his­ tory pro­ ject with at­ ten­ tion to legal, eth­ i­ cal, ped­ a­ gog­ i­ cal, and me­ thod­ o­ log­ i­ cal con­ cerns. Whose Minds? Historiog­ ra­ phy ­ Driven Les­ son Plans When de...