During the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese students were some of the most vocal activists asserting multiple visions for Vietnam’s future. Students’ attitudes spanned the political spectrum from staunchly anti-Communist to supportive of the National Liberation Front. Like young people throughout the world in the 1960s, students in South Vietnam embodied the spirit of the global Sixties as a hopeful moment in which the possibility of freedom energized those demanding political change. South Vietnam’s university students staged protests, wrote letters, and drew up plans of action that tried to unite the disparate political interests among the nation’s young people as politicians and generals in Saigon attempted to establish a viable national government. South Vietnamese government officials and U.S. advisors paid close attention to student activism hoping to identify and cultivate sources of support for the Saigon regime. While some students were willing to work with Americans, others argued that foreign intervention of any kind was bad for Vietnam. The Saigon government’s repressive tactics for dealing with political protest drove away students who otherwise might have supported it.

在越南战争期间，南越学生是最有声调的激进主义者，他们对越南的未来抱有多种看法。学生们的态度涵盖了从坚定的反共主义到支持民族解放阵线的各个政治领域。像1960年代全世界的年轻人一样，南越的学生将全球60年代的精神体现为一个充满希望的时刻，在这一时刻，自由的可能性激发了那些要求政治变革的人们。随着西贡的政治人物和将军们试图建立一个可行的国民政府，南越的大学生进行抗议，写信并制定行动计划，试图团结该国年轻人中不同的政治利益。南越政府官员和美国 顾问密切关注学生的行动主义，希望能找到并培养对西贡政权的支持。尽管有些学生愿意与美国人合作，但其他人则认为，任何形式的外国干预对越南都是不利的。西贡政府对付政治抗议活动的镇压策略驱赶了原本可能会支持它的学生。