How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees

April 7, 2022
(10 min.)
Has lesson plan

What obligation does the United States have toward people who are uprooted by war?

Ukrainians have fled their country by the millions to escape the Russian invasion, a mass exodus a U.N. official called “the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.”

This video asks what obligation countries have to refugees. It’s a question as important today as it was in 1975, when the United States evacuated 130,000 South Vietnamese allies during the fall of Saigon and brought them to this country to start new lives. But some Vietnamese refugees, like Carolee Tran, faced significant hardship and racism, despite the fact that then-President Ford said the U.S. had a “profound moral obligation” to families like hers.

Today, as Afghan and Ukrainian migrants settle in the United States, this video asks whether refugee resettlement is better now than it was for the Vietnamese 50 years ago. And it asks what is owed to people fleeing war, destruction and despair across the globe. As Kenneth Quinn, a former ambassador and foreign service officer told us, “All societies are determined by answering that question: To whom do I have an obligation?”

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For teachers
  • Read transcript
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  • Producer: Joseph Hogan
  • Editor: Pilar Rico
  • Additional Editor: Cullen Golden
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For Educators

Subjects
English Language Arts Ethnic Studies Geography U.S. History
Topics
1970s 2000s Asian American History Communism Criminal Justice Foreign Policy Immigration U.S. Presidents Vietnam War
Introduction

This ten-minute video examines what obligation countries have to refugees. It’s a question as important today as it was in 1975, when the United States evacuated 130,000 South Vietnamese allies during the fall of Saigon and brought them to this country to start new lives. Today, as Afghan and Ukrainian migrants settle in the United States, students will explore whether refugee resettlement is better now than it was for the Vietnamese 50 years ago, and what is owed to people fleeing war, destruction and despair across the globe.

Lesson Plan 1: How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees
How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees
How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees
Teaching About Immigration and Migration
Overview
▼

Students will examine the question of what obligation countries have to refugees. As Afghan and Ukrainian migrants settle in the U.S., this video asks whether refugee resettlement is better now than it was for the Vietnamese 50 years ago.

Objectives
▼

Students will:

  • Examine U.S. immigration policy at several points in history.
  • Analyze the change in immigration policy over time, and evaluate the effects of policy changes.
  • Compare and contrast patterns of immigration and make generalizations from available data.
  • Formulate an argument about U.S. immigration policy.
Essential questions
▼
  • How has U.S. immigration policy changed over time?
  • What factors have led to policy changes? What effects have come from those changes?
  • What obligation does the United States have to refugees fleeing war-torn countries?
Additional resources
▼
Standards
▼

Common Core Standards:

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8: Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9: Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

C-3 Framework Standards for Social Studies:

  • D1.4.9-12. Explain how supporting questions contribute to an inquiry and how, through engaging source work, new compelling and supporting questions emerge. 
  • D2.Civ.1.9-12. Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and international civic and political institutions.
  • D2.Civ.5.9-12. Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
  • D2.Civ.13.9-12. Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences. 
  • D2.Geo.2.9-12. Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their political, cultural, and economic dynamics.
  • D2.Geo.7.9-12. Analyze the reciprocal nature of how historical events and the spatial diffusion of ideas, technologies, and cultural practices have influenced migration patterns and the distribution of human population.
  • D2.Geo.12.9-12. Evaluate the consequences of human-made and natural catastrophes on global trade, politics, and human migration.
  • D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
  • D2.His.2.9-12. Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.
  • D2.His.5.9-12. Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives.
  • D2.His.12.9-12. Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.
  • D2.His.16.9-12. Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.
Lesson Plan 2: Refugees and the Power of Words – Using Their Stories to Create Found Poems
Refugees and the Power of Words – Using Their Stories to Create Found Poems
Refugees and the Power of Words – Using Their Stories to Create Found Poems
Refugee Stories – Found Together
Teaching About Immigration and Migration
Overview
▼

This video asks what obligation countries have to refugees. It’s a question as important today as it was in 1975, when the United States evacuated 130,000 South Vietnamese allies during the fall of Saigon and brought them to this country to start new lives. But some Vietnamese refugees, like Carolee Tran, faced significant hardship and racism, despite the fact that then-President Ford said the U.S. had a “profound moral obligation” to families like hers. Today, as Afghan and Ukrainian migrants settle in the United States, this video asks whether refugee resettlement is better now than it was for the Vietnamese 50 years ago. As Kenneth Quinn, a former ambassador and foreign service officer told us, “All societies are determined by answering that question: To whom do I have an obligation?”

Objectives
▼

Students will:

  • Compare and contrast the experiences of refugees across different time periods. 
  • Complete a found poem to synthesize their understanding of the theme and main idea of the video, and practice skills related to the structure of language and use of words to convey meaning.
Essential questions
▼
  • How are the experiences of refugees from Vietnam in the 1970s  similar or different from those of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine today? 
  • Has the United States improved its treatment of refugees over the past 50 years?
  • What can we learn about the needs of refugees by reading about and learning from their experiences?
Additional resources
▼
Standards
▼

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies: 

6-8th Grade

  • D2.Civ.1.6-8. Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of citizens, political parties, interest groups, and the media in a variety of governmental and nongovernmental contexts.
  • D2.Civ.13.6-8. Analyze the purposes, implementation, and consequences of public policies in multiple settings.
  • D2.Geo.4.6-8. Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places. 
  • D4.1.6-8. Construct arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources, while acknowledging the strengths and limitations of the arguments.
  • D4.7.6-8. Assess their individual and collective capacities to take action to address local, regional, and global problems, taking into account a range of possible levers of power, strategies, and potential outcomes.

9th-12th Grade

  • D2.Civ.1.9-12. Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and international civic and political institutions.
  • D2.Civ.5.9-12. Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
  • D2.Civ.8.9-12. Evaluate social and political systems in different contexts, times, and places, that promote civic virtues and enact democratic principles. 
  • D2.Geo.12.9-12. Evaluate the consequences of human-made and natural catastrophes on global trade, politics, and human migration.
  • D4.7.9-12. Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.

Common Core Literacy Standards:

6-8th Grade

Literature

  • RL.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
  • RL.5: Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

Information Text

  • RI.1: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
  • RI.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

Writing

  • W.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
  • W.5: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed
  • W.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Speaking and Listening

  • SL.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 6-8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly

Conventions of English

  • L.5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

9th-12th Grade

Literature

  • RL.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
  • RL.5: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. 

Information Text

  • RI.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper).

Writing

  • W.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
  • W.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 

Speaking and Listening

  • SL.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Conventions of English

  • L.3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening