Perhaps fittingly for a war as controversial as that in Vietnam, the last iconic images from the bitter conflict show the chaos, fear and confusion as helicopters evacuate Americans and South Vietnamese from the rooftop of the U.S. Embassy and other locations in Saigon.

Four hours after the last evacuees were lifted to safety offshore, the South Vietnamese government announced its unconditional surrender to the Viet Cong. The long, costly war had ended.

That was 30 years ago tomorrow, but it is understandable that such an ignominious end to such a divisive war won't be marked with large-scale remembrances.

Less comprehensible, some educators say, is why the lessons of a war that had profound political, societal and cultural effects on America aren't being examined enough, if at all, in the nation's schools.

And, they say, that lack of knowledge among America's young about the sacrifices, successes and mistakes in Vietnam could make them vulnerable.

That's Steve Jackson's fear.

Jackson, a professor of political science at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said students in his Introduction to American Politics course have little if any knowledge about the Vietnam War and its lessons. He finds that appalling, especially in light of the U.S.'s current involvement in Iraq.

"Oftentimes, in world history courses, high school teachers only get to World War II and then the school year's over," Jackson said. "Unfortunately, high school curriculums are taught in a fairly black-and-white manner, which is what school boards demand. They don't want want nuanced positions, they want right and wrong, and World War II is a great story of right and wrong.

"Vietnam is a much more complicated thing to teach, and high school teachers tend to shy away from it."

That's unfortunate, he said, because students "are losing potential relevance for today. It's the ability for critical analysis that's important ... [to see] that the U.S. can lose a war.

"In many ways, the Gulf War of '91 and the Kosovo intervention kind of restored that sense of World War II invulnerability," he said.

"There definitely needs to be questions. There are no super powers, and we're not omnipotent."

What Jackson has found in the courses he teaches is that young people who have little or no knowledge about Vietnam become fascinated by the conflict and all of its nuances.

That's the same reaction George Esper gets at West Virginia University, where the former Associated Press correspondent who covered the Vietnam War teaches a course in the History of Journalism.

A large segment of the course is coverage of all wars since World War I, but Esper said Vietnam by far provokes the most interest among students, who previously knew little about it.

He said students may choose any topic for an oral presentation and a research project, but most choose Vietnam.

"They're deeply interested in war coverage. The Vietnam War for them is something fresher. There's a huge interest in Vietnam if you lay it out for them. They're more interested in Vietnam than anything else," said Esper.

He was one of the last American journalists to leave the country, departing five weeks after the mass evacuation.

Esper augments his class with guest speakers such as his former war correspondent colleagues Peter Arnett, David Halberstam and Harold G. Moore, author of "We Were Soldiers Once and Young."

"What I teach is that the Vietnam War was the most open [for news media coverage] in world history, and if you had the energy, the stamina and the courage, you could go anywhere you wanted.

"What made us so successful in covering Vietnam was the access and the fact we were the first generation of reporters ... to hold the government accountable. There's been a big change and now it's gone in the opposite direction," said Esper.

Esper currently is in Vietnam for a reunion with other war correspondents. He's also there as a representative of WVU's journalism school in seeking to establish news media training programs in partnership with Vietnam.

While the United States and Vietnam continue to forge educational, economic and cultural ties, he said, the war "has left so many lingering pains and memories, more so than any other war ... that 30 years later it remains an ugly chapter in history and some people choose to forget it."

That, Esper said, is a mistake.

He won't get an argument about that from Ray McClain, Pittsburgh Public Schools' district program officer for citizenship, who said it's imperative students learn the lessons of Vietnam.

Juniors in the 20th century history courses are receiving the kind of analytical education about Vietnam and other milestones of the last 100 years advocated by Jackson and Esper.

"Vietnam is a tragic and sad event that we have to learn from," said McClain, an educator for 42 years. "We don't hide it or sweep it under the rug. We talk about successes and failures, so to speak. We try to learn lessons from Vietnam ... to show the scars and residue, the emotional and fiscal trade-offs.

"We try to get students into the heads of the people at the time, to see the perceptions people had then. It's one of the most important historical skills a student can have."

Moreover, McClain said, teachers take advantage of the resources of having Vietnam veterans come to class to provide oral histories as well as augmenting classes with veterans' diaries and other primary sources to "hook" students.

"You're talking about real people not that different from themselves," he said. "It's something you can do a good job with if you take the time to do it."

There are others taking the time, too. Tomorrow, the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation will launch an interactive online journal-- www.VietnamViews.org -- to capture the personal experiences of soldiers, families, friends and others who were involved in and affected by the war.

And the Smithsonian National Museum of American History has installed a new permanent exhibition, "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War," which was touted at a seminar earlier this month at the National Council for History Education meeting at the Hilton Pittsburgh, Downtown, which was attended by 700 delegates from 44 states.

The Vietnam section fittingly has televisions from the era broadcasting the actual images and words that reported the conflict to a divided America.

The Vietnam exhibit also includes a Huey helicopter, the workhorse that rescued the wounded from the battlefield.

And the Huey was there at the end, 30 years ago, evacuating Americans from a city about to be overrun, from a war that shouldn't be forgotten.