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Asian American and Pacific Islander studies resources for the classroom
All chapters of Foundations and Futures include lesson plans and curricular tools that are designed for high school students and grounded in ethnic studies pedagogy. Feel free to search our repository of primary sources and material that helps bring Asian American and Pacific Islander histories and experiences into the classroom.
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Chapters
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Muhammad Speaks
This cartoon highlights the contradiction of Black soldiers sent overseas to fight for a country that continued to deny their civil rights back home. The term “Negro” was commonly used in the 1960s. It is not an acceptable term today.
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 2
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Le Ly Hayslip
Le Ly Hayslip (left), humanitarian and author of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (1989) and Child of War, Woman of Peace (1992) Her writings re-center narratives about the Vietnam-American War with stories by and about Vietnamese people.
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 2
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Fall of Saigon
On April 29, 1975, South Vietnamese civilians scale the fourteen-foot wall of the US embassy in Saigon in a rush to reach evacuation helicopters. These civilians would become part of the first wave of refugees.
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
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Vietnamese Refugee Housing
Refugees from Vietnam were housed in temporary resettlement homes, such as these homes pictured at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas (c. 1970s).
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
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Operation New Life
Operation New Life (April 23–November 1, 1975) was a US government operation that processed over 111,000 refugees on Guam (Guåhan) before and after South Vietnam’s collapse.
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
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Operation Babylift
Operation Babylift was the evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and other Western countries. An estimated 3,000+ children were airlifted through this program in April 1975 and adopted by families around the world.
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
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Quynh-Trang Nguyen
Quynh-Trang Nguyen was thirteen years old in 1975 when she and her family were temporarily housed at Camp Pendleton. This photo was taken in 2012 by Brandon Nguyen as part of the Vietnamese American Oral History Project.
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
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Huy Tran on a boat
In the years following the Fall of Saigon, many refugees left Vietnam secretly in unseaworthy and overcrowded boats. This second wave of refugees became known as the “boat people.”
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
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Pocket diary of a Vietnamese Refugee (Pages 1-2)
These dairy pages are excerpts from Pocket Diary of a Vietnamese Boat Person Refugee, housed at the University of California, Irvine Libraries Southeast Asian Archive. The diary details an anonymous refugee’s boat journey beginning at 8:00 p.m. on June 17, 1979, from Cà Mau. This rare primary source object captures the experiences and feelings of an individual, but also sheds light on some of the first asylum countries’ roles in the refugee exodus.
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
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Pocket diary of a Vietnamese Refugee (Pages 3-4)
These dairy pages are excerpts from Pocket Diary of a Vietnamese Boat Person Refugee, housed at the University of California, Irvine Libraries Southeast Asian Archive. The diary details an anonymous refugee’s boat journey beginning at 8:00 p.m. on June 17, 1979, from Cà Mau. This rare primary source object captures the experiences and feelings of an individual, but also sheds light on some of the first asylum countries’ roles in the refugee exodus.
Featured in:
Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
