In the Beginning
Journal entry from Theo. Roffe

Feb. 3: The thing that shocks me the most about the Vietnam War is how much I have learned about it. On the first day of class we were asked for the dates of the war. No one could answer. It was, admittedly, almost a trick question (because of American involvement before the commitment of ground troops and after the signing of peace), but the complete lack of response is shocking. Why didn’t anyone even have a guess? At least when we are asked about the World Wars or the Civil War, we can make guesses. But when asked about this more recent, more controversial war, we have no clue.

View from the Other Side
Journal entry from Helen Cunningham

Jan. 26: What comes as surprising is that the Vietnamese in Nguyen Huy Thiep’s The General Retires are so American. If they were so American when the American GIs lived with them in Saigon, why would the point be made over and over again that Americans just couldn’t understand the Vietnamese people? If they are different now, how did they manage to become little Americans after we left and the communists overtook South Vietnam? . . .

The Vietnamese, as described by Thiep, are more American in our absence than they were in our presence. By losing the war we seem to have accomplished what we set out to do: to give them the American way.

 

The Burden of Knowing
Journal entry from Holly Vranicar

Jan. 30: Tuesday I interviewed my uncle, and it turned out that the Tet Offensive had just begun as he landed in Pleiku. I listened to him talk from 9 a.m. to almost 2 p.m., just listening and listening as stories poured out of him. He finally got an idea of what he wanted to say, and then we recorded, but afterward I felt like a large stone had been placed on my chest. I was mentally exhausted after poring over pictures, after being a silent bystander of his memories. . . .

The mystique surrounding Vietnam is what drew me to the class. I’d heard whispers of the horrors, I’d seen the glimmer of a haunted expression on the face of my mother as she spoke of it once, but I’d never really had the drive to sit down and learn, and I wanted to learn. I wanted a more thorough understanding. Now I find myself saddled with more information than I ever thought I’d receive. Interviewing my uncle made Vietnam something real, something tangible, and though I felt weighed down by it then, part of me feels like I have this duty now. I have his stories that I can tell to future generations when he’s gone, and if they ask me about Vietnam, I can tell them. It’s what he’d like, I think, to have his tale help others understand the why’s or the how’s as it did for me.

The Veterans’ Visit
Journal entry from Scott Homrighausen

March 1: Monday’s class session with the Vietnam veterans was one of the more interesting class sessions so far. After having interviewed Mike Kelley for the project, I found it interesting to see how his thoughts and opinions compared to those of the other veterans. I think that the three veterans there gave a broad range of opinions about a variety of war-related topics, such as whether we won the war or not. I was most struck by the responses the veterans gave to my question of whether they felt that young people today should have the same experience that they did. It seemed that they unanimously agreed that young people today should not have to fight in combat like they did. However, they all agreed that young people should participate in basic training and serve in the military. I have never really considered this notion of universal service. Clearly, there are good things to be learned from serving in the military, such as discipline. However, I think that having universal service would move our country in the wrong direction. I think we should be moving toward reducing the military, not expanding it.

Parting Thoughts
Journal entry from Chris Knight

March 14: This class is almost over, and I remember something that Dr. Schroeder was talking about at the beginning of the quarter. He said our university education here is disconnected—that we learn something in a class, and then it passes through us and we are an empty slate before the next quarter’s classes. It does not seem to me that what I’ve learned in this class will leave me. . . .

I learned so much about the relationship between men and war—two things intertwined in the most entrancing ways. I suppose the most effective method for me was the interactions with veterans. Hearing people talk about how the Vietnam War affected them and seeing them express themselves are great experiences in a classroom. To my mind, the veterans were more than teachers, they were treasures.

Read the excerpts from the oral histories of the Vietnam War veterans

Additional information about the veterans’ oral history project, including slide show

Return to introduction to the class