Contested Territory: America’s Involvement in Vietnam, 1945-1975

FAIN: ES-267025-19

National Humanities Center (Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-0152)
Andrew Mink (Project Director: February 2019 to January 2023)
Matthew Booker (Project Director: January 2023 to July 2023)
Christian Lentz (Co Project Director: August 2019 to July 2023)

A two-week summer institute for 36 K-12 teachers on the post-World War II French-Vietnamese conflict and American involvement in the Vietnam War.

Contested Territory: America’s Involvement in Southeast Asia, 1945–1975 is a proposal by the National Humanities Center (NHC) to the NEH Summer Institutes Program that aims to provide thirty-six secondary school humanities educators with a deeper understanding of how and why America became involved in fighting in Vietnam in the 1960s. Although the fiftieth anniversary of the Vietnam War has passed, American classrooms are still grappling with the complexities of that conflict. This institute will combine fresh scholarship, hands-on visualization technology, and best practice humanities pedagogy with a targeted goal of addressing this need.

Associated Products

Contested Territory: America’s Involvement in Vietnam, 1945–75 (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Contested Territory: America’s Involvement in Vietnam, 1945–75
Author: Christian Lentz
Author: Andy Mink
Abstract: What do we think of when we think of Vietnam? For many, Vietnam was and remains a war that haunts veterans, families, and politicians. But to think only of the “Vietnam War” overlooks a country and its story. In fact, many Vietnamese wonder why Americans are so preoccupied with the “American War”! This NEH Summer Institute will explore modern Vietnam in order to situate the American War in broader spatial settings and longer historical contexts. Vietnam’s landscapes range from forests, over mountains, through fields, and downstream to river deltas. Vietnamese lives move from village to city, meander through cafes and rice paddies, cross oceans and land again. Many people called “Vietnamese” today did not even speak the national language until deep into the twentieth century. This institute aims to introduce a fascinating place rich in history and to animate a geographic and historical perspective among participants. Based on a course developed by Christian C. Lentz from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with assistance from the Carolina Asia Center, the institute offers teachers a chance to learn from Lentz and other scholar-experts about Vietnam and how to teach its history and geography.
Date Range: July 18–29, 2022
Location: National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC
Primary URL: https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-programs/contested-territory-2022/
Primary URL Description: Institute website

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