The generation of current preteens and teens do not know enough about the Vietnam war. More frighteningly, the topic isn’t being taught - and it isn’t looking to be, either.

Think about it. Ask any person between the ages of 12 and 15 about the Vietnam War. Most students in this age group have little to no knowledge of the time period, even though it left around 58,000 Americans dead and a sharp divide among the people of America and of Vietnam. So why don’t students have any idea about what happened? Because it’s not taught, and it’s not supported.

So, why don’t we talk about Vietnam? America made mistakes, and it is as if the pride of the country is holding back the truth about what happened.

Things were done the wrong way. American involvement was not backed up and probably shouldn’t have occurred. People on both sides were used and manipulated. Innocents were killed. An entire country was brutally divided, contributing to the fear of the supposed spread of communism. Nothing was done to stop injustices committed against the Vietnamese people. But most of all, America lost the war. We choose not to spread the word to do new generations in a sort of “protection of pride”. And in doing this, we are allowing for injustice like this to happen again in the future.

There were tons of Americans who went to Vietnam and put their lives on the line, whether it was by choice or by draft. They were ordered to do things against their consciences. They were fighting a war 8,000 miles from home, only to protect democracy from communism, which posed no threat to the U.S. They endured unimaginable brutality, and in the end, they were the ones who paid for the choices of leaders.

The leaders of our country and of Vietnam executed the entire operation wrong, and in doing so, they allowed for massacres of young men and women to occur on both sides.

Countless died in the war, and we choose to put those lives behind us, just because we made mistakes. And it’s not just Vietnam - Korea and WWI have also become distant to the 12-15 age group.

World War II, however, is fiercely studied in schools, therefore sparking interest in many students. Students then only focus on reading, writing, and researching WWII, which is obviously vital as this is an incredibly important time period, but that doesn’t mean it is the only time in history that should be of interest to students. At one school, WWII was studied for four weeks, whereas Vietnam was studied for only two days. How can interest be sparked in such a short period of time compared to such a long one?

If schools were to teach more about the war, students might just want to learn more about it, and in doing so, they will learn how to protect the world from the mistakes both sides made. In the end, this generation is our future, and if we don’t teach lessons about our mistakes, they will be repeated again and again.