Shifting Depictions of the Vietnam War in Victorian Government Education Policies, Curriculum Documents, Textbooks and Education Resources, 1975-2005

This study investigated how the Vietnam War was depicted in Victorian Government education policies, curriculum documents, textbooks and education resources, 1975-2005. A study of 520 documents found that the primary drivers of these shifts were History and Humanities textbook authors, many of whom were teachers, and wider socio-political contexts and changes across the period. The shifts had little to do with Government policy or curriculum documents. Other drivers influencing these changes were the time since the war’s end and emerging public discourse, and an increasing rise of oral histories of the Vietnam War, that included veterans’ voices.