US Foreign Policy Archives

Pentagon Papers collage | Zinn Education Project

Camouflaging the Vietnam War: How Textbooks Continue to Keep the Pentagon Papers a Secret

Article. By Bill Bigelow. 2013. If We Knew Our History Series. While new U.S. history textbooks mention the Pentagon Papers, none grapples with the actual import of the Pentagon Papers.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom

Book — Fiction. By Margarita Engle. 2010. 384 pages.
Bilingual book of historical fiction in verse about Cuba's long fight for independence in the 19th century.

Noam Chomsky

Profile. Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is a political activist, professor, linguist, and author.

Rethinking What We Know About the Vietnam War

Teaching Activity. Zinn Education Project. 21 pages.
Two lessons to introduce key facts about the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers, documents that provide essential history that is often ignored by textbooks.

Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela

Book — Non-fiction. Danny Schechter. 2013. 272 pages.
Companion book to the 2013 film about Nelson Mandela, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

Have You Heard From Johannesburg

Film. Directed by Connie Field. 2007. 89 minutes.
Episode that covers the anti-apartheid movement in the U.S. to overturn apartheid in South Africa.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives

Digital collection. Resources and programs on the history and legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades.

Voices From the Plain of Jars: Life Under an Air War

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Fred Branfman. 2013 (original edition, 1972). 196 pages.
Essays, drawings, and poems by Laotian villagers who survived almost 10 years of widespread, persistent, and devastating bombing during the Vietnam War in a covert operation in Laos.

Painting by Robert Shetterly from Americans Who Tell the Truth

July 30, 1881: Major Smedley Darlington Butler Born

Anti-war activist Major Smedley Darlington Butler was born.

Greed as a Weapon: Teaching the Other Iraq War

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools. 14 pages.
A role play investigating the economic consequences of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Teaching Activity by Adam Sanchez

Tè Tremblé: An Unnatural Disaster: A Trial Role Play Probes the Roots of Devastation in Haiti

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools. 12 pages.
A trial role play asks students to question the role played by the U.S. government and other international actors in the 2010 earthquake.

Teaching Activity by Adam Sanchez

Some Truths Are Not Self-Evident: Essays in The Nation on Civil Rights, Vietnam, and “The War on Terror”

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, edited by Richard Kreitner. 2014. 215 pages.
A collection of articles spanning 50 years, by and about Howard Zinn, originally published in The Nation magazine.

African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement

Book — Non-fiction. By Vincent Intondi. 2015. 224 pages.
History of Black activists who fought for nuclear disarmament.

Teaching Activity by Vincent Intondi

Catonsville Nine Website | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Catonsville Nine Files

Digital collection. Features documents, photos, and audio and video accounts about the Catonsville Nine who burned Vietnam war draft files.

Teaching Central America

Website. An online collection of lessons, book lists, biographies of noted historical figures, and readings for free use by classroom teachers.

Fred Korematsu Speaks Up

Book — Non-fiction. By Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi. Illustrated by Yutaka Houlette. 2017. 112 pages.
Story of Fred Koretmatsu, jailed for resisting internment by the U.S. government during WWII. He took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court twice.

Eduardo Relero Apple Store in Madrid | Zinn Education Project

Congo, Coltan, and Cell Phones: A People’s History

Teaching Activity. By Alison Kysia. 28 pages.
In this lesson, students learn about the colonial history of Congo, debate responsibility for crimes against humanity, and investigate the connection, past and present, between the exploitation of natural resources and violence.

Teaching Activity by Alison Kysia

Coretta Scott King (R) with Women Strike for Peace founder Dagmar Wilson, 1963 | Zinn Education Project

W. E. B. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb

By Vincent Intondi

When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. announced his strong opposition to the war in Vietnam, the media attacked him for straying outside of his civil rights mandate. In so many words, powerful interests told him: “Mind your own business.” In fact, African American leaders have long been concerned with broad issues of peace and justice — and have especially opposed nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, this activism is left out of mainstream corporate-produced history textbooks.

Teaching Untold Stories During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

By Moé Yonamine

“They’re Latinos . . . I think they’re some kind of farm workers.”

“No, they’re Asians with name tags.”

And then a student in a quiet voice walked by me slowly and muttered, “I think something really bad is happening to them.”

My students at Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon — one of the state’s most racially diverse schools — studied each black and white photo posted around the room, inspecting the background and the facial expressions; confused, anxious, frustrated. They began a journey to uncover the hidden story of the Japanese Latin American removal, internment, and deportation during World War II.