There was no war, but civil unrest in the South was intense.
Obviously you did not get much education at that school in 1963. The millions of Americans that died in Vietnam and served there thank you for forgetting about them
There was a little war in Vietnam at that time. It would certainly grow larger, but in 1963 it was only a few thousand men and a small pot of money. It took LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin to get many 8th graders attention.
As for the civil unrest in the South, It was certainly getting a lot of press, but as a child in Richmond, VA I can say it was in some faraway place like Mississippi or Alabama. I couldn't call it 'intense', but from the news reports it may have seemed that way to an 8th grader from New York.
I beg to differ with you. In February 1962, USS Princeton landed a squadron of Army helicopters in South Vietnam. In April 1962, Princeton returned with a squadron of Marine helicopters (all the Army helicopters had been shot down) and a BLT(Reinforced)as part of Operation Shufly.
I was aboard the Princeton in the Marine Detachment (Air Division).