OralHistoryInterview

**2. ****What did you feel like when you heard about the draft for the Vietnam War? ****  The lottery for the first draft was in 1969 - while I was still in high school and my brother was back from Vietnam. I didn't think too much about it since I was planning on going to college and as long as you were in college you were okay. However, the lottery for the draft for my year (people born in 1952) was in the summer of 1971 - that was really scary. ** **4. ****What is your opinion about Communism? Do you believe in the domino theory that if one country falls to Communism the other countries surrounding it will fall to Communism? **       At the time, communism and communist countries (especially the USSR, now called Russia) was the enemy. There were a lot of tense moments, in fifth or sixth grade I remember having air raid drills where you would sit under your desk. We were pretty sure that the USSR would launch missiles with nuclear weapons at us - especially after they put missiles in Cuba. We had missile silos in our town to shoot back if we were attacked. Also, the space race, trying to be the first country to put a man on the moon, made everyone aware of the competition between the capitalist and communist countries. The domino theory basically stated that if the good guys (us) let the bad guys (them) take over one country, then the bad guys would feel emboldened to take over another country, then another until they controlled everyone. Essentially, if the first country (domino) toppled, then they all would. This theory was widely believed, as Hitler and Germany used the technique of conquering one country at a time (and seeing if there was any reaction) to essentially take over all of Europe. Korea was the first battleground, with North Korea supported by China (who was in turn aided by the USSR) and South Korea supported by us. That war was essentially a draw, with the country divided into two parts. Vietnam was the next test, with North Vietnam supported by the Chinese and South Vietnam supported by us. **5. ****What was life on the home front? ****  There was quite a bit of unrest in the U.S. Starting in 1969 and 1970 there were many protests against the war. At Kent State a protest turned into a disaster with several students being killed by the national guard in May of 1970. The protests turned aggressive after than, with students turning over cars and burning buildings. Even at Lafayette College, there was an aggressive protest at the end of the school year in 1970, and again when I was a freshman in the fall of 1970. Those who were protesting the war were called hippies and communists. I did not participate in the protests since my brother had gone to Vietnam and I though that it would be disrespectful of his service (even thought he was not a fan of the war and thought it was a bad move). **  **6. ****What was the overall mood of the Vietnam War in your town? ****  Since I was in College, I know more about the mood in Easton, PA. There was a split, with the College and most younger people protesting against the war and most older people (over 30) supporting our government and the war. There was also another significant event at the time. During 1973 and 1974 the country experienced a severe recession, inflation was very high due to the Arab countries withholding oil and oil prices spiked. Nixon resigned and there was pretty much chaos with our economy, politics and war effort. Those that complain about how bad things are now with the recession obviously don't know how much worse it was then. I remember having to wait in line for hours for the chance to buy gasoline for the car. You could only buy gasoline on certain days, I believe there were odd and even days depending on the last number on your license plate. ** **8. ****Do you believe that America should have joined the Vietnam War? **       It is easy to look back and say that our involvement in the war was a mistake. With the benefit of knowing how it turned out (not well for us) we can say that we should not have gone to war. However, just because something doesn't turn out the right way does not necessarily mean it was a mistake. It turned out badly that time, if we could run an experiment where we could replay the Vietnam war over and over, maybe more times than not it would have turned out better. Perhaps in some weird way, our loss of the war there lead to a series of events that eventually allowed us to win the cold war. 9. In your opinion, when did the Vietnam War start? The chain of events that lead to the Vietnam war probably started during WWII. At the end of WWII, Russia (I don't think they were the USSR yet) and the U.S. were already fighting over who would control which part of the world. The Korean war was the first conflict, and Vietnam was a logical next step. So, you can probably give credit to Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Of course, no one would like to take the blame for a losing war, the old saying that success has many fathers but failure is an orphan definitely applies.
 * <span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">1. ****<span style="font-weight: normal; color: black; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">Can you describe yourself and your status in life in during the Vietnam War? ** <span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">       I graduated from High School in 1970, right in the middle of the Vietnam war. My brother, Mark, had gone to Penn State in 1965 but dropped out after one year and enlisted into the Air Force in 1966 and had been sent to Vietnam the summer of 1967, so I was quite aware of the war. I went to College in the fall of 1970.
 * <span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">3. ****<span style="font-weight: normal; color: black; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">Do you still remember your brother or your draft numbers? And if you could, do you know if you still have the copy of the draft card we could use in our project? ** <span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">       My brother didn't have a draft number since he had enlisted in 1966. My number was 133 (born March 24). The way the lottery worked was that they would randomly pick birth dates. If you were born on the first birth date picked you were first in line to be drafted. They went through all 365 days, with the last one's picked being assigned 365 (I'm not sure if 1952 was a leap year, if it was then the last number would have been 365). My year they were expecting to draft up to number 125, so I was over that number and felt safe. I don't have a copy of my draft card, not sure what I did with it. The first lottery was in 1969 for those born in 1950, the second lottery in 1970 for those born in 1951 and the third lottery (mine) was in 1971 for those born in 1952. Since my brother was born in 1947 he was covered by the old system, still a draft but not using the lottery.
 * <span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">7. ****<span style="font-weight: normal; color: black; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">What was the impact of the Vietnam War on either your brother or you?      ****<span style="font-weight: normal; color: black; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">   The biggest impact was on my brother and mother. My brother went to Vietnam during the worst of the war. There was something called the Tet offensive during 1968, when my brother was in Vietnam. The Tet offensive was a dramatic escalation of the war by the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong (those in the south that sympathized with the North). My brother would tell me that you couldn't sleep at night since the enemy was lobbing rockets into the U.S. bases in Vietnam. At least once, he had to get out of bed, put on his helmet and start firing his M16 machine gun to protect against attack. Much of the night was spent worrying about being attacked even during the periods of a lull in the shooting. My brother was in Air Force intelligence which meant that he was not in the front lines - he would often joke of the oxymoron "military intelligence". Air Force intelligence would send up planes to take pictures of the enemy territory which was then analyzed by experts on the ground (my brother was one of the land experts). Occasionally, he would fly with the pilots to help take pictures and he would also go out on patrol on the ground just to break up the boredom. The local Vietnamese would provide services to the soldiers, like cleaning their clothes and cooking extra meals. These Vietnamese (usually young girls) were allowed onto the base. My brother wondered if they brought back information about the base to their families who may have been the ones launching rockets into the base at night. You couldn't tell which of the Vietnamese were your friends and which were your enemies.    **<span style="font-weight: normal; color: black; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">      **<span style="font-weight: normal; color: black; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">   When my brother came back home he was not greeted as a hero, nor did he want to be treated like one. My brother fought in the war because that was what he was told to do. It was obvious that it was a complicated war and one where it was not easy to find the good guys. In many respects, the veterans of Vietnam had to hide their experience in order to not suffer the additional abuse of those in the U.S. who blamed the soldiers for the war. Rather than feeling pride for helping defend their country they were made to feel shame for participating in a bad war. Fortunately (for now), we have learned that you should appreciate the job done by the soldiers, you can support the soldiers even if you don't support the war.    **<span style="font-weight: normal; color: black; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">   <span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif';">       The next biggest impact was on my mother. She was worried all the time that she would be receiving a call that Mark had been killed or seriously injured. She essentially held her breath for the whole year and did not breath easy until he was safely home.      For me, I was pretty much oblivious to things while my brother was in Vietnam, other than to worry when I would hear my mother sobbing. And, once he was back, with no more family skin in the game, the war seemed more distant. Other than the night my draft number was picked, I was not preoccupied with the war.