• Southeast Asia, 1900 A.D.-present [Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
"Most of Southeast Asia continues to be colonized during the first half of the twentieth century: Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos by the French; Malaysia and Myanmar (Burma) by the British; Indonesia by the Dutch; and the Philippines by the United States. Only Thailand remains independent." With a period overview, list of key events, and seven related artworks.

• History of Vietnam: The French-Indochina War (1945-1954) [Windows on Asia, Michigan State University]
"The French soon returned to renew their control over Vietnam. In order to do this, they immediately began appointing members of the Vietnamese upper class from the south who found communism unacceptable. Fighting began in the south in early 1946 and Ho Chi Minh found himself unable to maintain independence. In September of 1946, he was forced to sign control of Cochin China back to the French. Later that year, the French regained some power in the north but promised to set a date for the end of colonization."

• History of Vietnam: Civil War (1954-1975) [Windows on Asia, Michigan State University]
"The division of the country into a communist North, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the non-communist South, led by Ngo Dinh Diem, created a new dynamic. Diem, a Catholic, disliked the communists and rejected Ho Chi Minh's vision of one socialist republic of Vietnam. Thus, the conflict turned into a civil war with Vietnamese fighting Vietnamese. Ho Chi Minh had the support of the USSR, and initially the Chinese, Ngo Dinh Diem received U.S. support because the U.S. wanted to control the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia."

• Paper Trails: Connecting Viet Nam and World History Through Documents, Film, Literature and Photographs [World History Connected, University of Illinois]
"What follows is not an attempt to thoroughly explore this topic, but to offer some teaching approaches and resources connecting Viet Nam to world history via the classroom. It is divided into two parts. The first begins with an overview of Viet Nam's place in world history. This is intended only for those who wish to examine this subject in theoretical or analytical detail, with sources indicated in the notes as scholarly resources for teachers and advanced students. The second part will offer sets of documents with discussion-based questions, lesson plans, and other exercises for many of the topics raised in Part I."

See Michigan State University's Windows on Asia for more on the history of other Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

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• History of Vietnam: Vietnam since 1975 [Windows on Asia, Michigan State University]
"The reunification of Vietnam took place in the year following the fall of Saigon. The tremendous differences between the cultures of the North and South were revealed as the two were united after 20 years."

See Michigan State University's Windows on Asia for more on the history of other Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

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• Entrepreneurial Families in Viet Nam: Controversial Symbols of Moral Dilemmas in Changing Times [PDF] [Education About Asia, Association for Asian Studies]
"In late 1990s Viet Nam, urban areas such as Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Sai Gon) bustled with private entrepreneurship, and the ranks of conspicuously consuming middle classes swelled. As desirable as this development may have been, it made many urbanites, cultural critics, commentators, and government officials profoundly uneasy. Would markets, individualism, consumerism, and globalization wreak havoc with traditional moral values and family relationships? Would middle class parents give children lots of things, but neglect them in other ways? What would happen to family relationships as parents worked longer hours? Would unsupervised children get drawn into sex, drugs, and other aspects of urban street culture? Would the extended Vietnamese family disappear, taking with it values such as filial piety?" With study questions [.doc format].

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