Vietnam by Jim

 


Left: My dad and grandpa in his Navy uniform. In 1945, he returned from service in the Pacific during WWII. Havre, Montana.
Right: 1964. My grandpa, dad, grandma, and Uncle Bill. Bill would leave for Vietnam 6 years later. Thermopolis, Wyoming.
Below: My parents' wedding day, June 7th, 1969. My Uncle Bill is the second from the right. Jackson, Minnesota.















My brother and I received excellent educations growing up in Casper. My biggest criticism is that none of my history classes went past World War II, which ended about 30 years before my birth. That's a lot of missing history. A couple of years ago, I had to ask one of our social studies teachers to explain the background behind the conflicts in Israel. Lately, I was going through some high school and college papers in the basement as I tried to find all of my Friends DVDs for flower girl, now babysitter, Kacey. I had forgotten that I had one history class in college that actually covered parts of the last half of the 21st century. We were asked to interview someone about Vietnam so I sent an email to my parents to see if they had anything to share. As always, my dad delivered. Because my dad was an English major, I always enjoy reading his top notch writing. I thought maybe some of you out in the blogosphere would enjoy reading this as well.

At the top of the paper, the class TA wrote,
"This is wonderful, Keri. Thank your dad for me - and for yourself - for being so open. He sounds like a great dad. You should feel lucky."

I sure do.

Vietnam by Jim (April, 1997)
Back in the days of old there was something called "Selective Service" of the draft as it was known. There was a group of men- all service veterans- who were members of the Selective Service Board. It was the job of the "draft board" to determine a male's draft classification. If a young man was 1-A, he would be drafted and would report for a military physical some place in the United States. If a male was still in high school or college, he could obtain a 2-S deferment from the draft. Once the student finished school, he would become 1-A and would report for a physical. I had a 2-S deferment through college. When I graduated, there was a shortage of teachers, so teachers could apply for a 2-A deferment. This is what I kept doing. I would have the assistant superintendent, Mr. Kelly Walsh-the man, not the building, write to my draft board each spring and ask that I be deferred for another school year.

When I came out of college in 1964, Vietnam was just a small country in southeast Asia and was of little importance. It was French Indochina until the French decided it wasn't worth keeping control of and just left.

When the conflict in Vietnam stated, most people hadn't heard of Vietnam and very few knew anything about it. The United Stated got involved in this part of the world by sending in military advisors to help an anti-Communist military and government. By the mid sixties the US was sending troops to do the actual fighting. The political climate at that time was that we had to stop the communists in all parts of the world. The veterans organizations hailed our Vietnam interventions as a great patriotic battle to keep people free of Communism. It didn't matter that we were accidentally killing people from our side at the same time we were fighting the communist North Vietnamese.

We kept sending more and more troops. Many of my friends from high school and college were now in southeast Asia. As long as I was on a draft deferment that could end at any time, I kept my mouth shut. In the mid 60's sentiment began to grow that we weren't winning the war against a weaker foe and the argument raged as to whether we should step up the war and wipe out the North Vietnamese or just get out. The pride of some groups said that the United States would not be allowed to lose to a weaker foe. A second group argued that we needed the money to attack social problems in the US and quit worrying about people in Asia. The conservative element pushed for more military while a group of liberal "peaceniks" began to emerge. The peace movement grew on college campuses and among people of draft age.

I got my notice in the spring of 1965 to report for a physical. I had someone who wanted to buy my car (a blue 1964 Ford Falcon convertible) and someone who wanted my apartment. I went into see Kelly Walsh that spring to see if he would write a letter to my draft board and get me another exemption. I will never forget his reply. He said that he didn't want any young man to miss a chance to serve his country but this war stinks. It is useless and he would be happy to write for my deferment. He was the first person of any importance who ever told me that. I don't know what he wrote but I got a letter from my draft board telling me I did not have to report for a physical. I figured from that point on I was never going to have to go and I was right. At that time, if a man was married, he would be exempted. A lot of guys suddenly got married. They changed it to a man had to be a parent and a lot of wives suddenly became pregnant. It later showed up in the 70's and 80's when the schools became so crowded. I was neither married nor a father, but I was still deferred- bless teaching. A lot of draft age young men began going to Canada.

During the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, during a peaceful protest students rioted against the Chicago police who beat several of them. The students referred to the police as "pig" and several people were injured on both sides. Several "peace candidates" began to emerge. I remember watching the scenes on TV. Back in old conservative Wyoming several of my students were going to Vietnam and some of them were not coming back. In Wyoming military personnel were left alone- partly because of Fort Warren in Cheyenne- but this wasn't the case everywhere. Atrocities against Vietnamese people were being reported in the news and the military began to lose a lot of its support. A lot of kids were coming back to Casper who had no training and were just screwed up. A lot of veterans discovered drugs in the service and brought the habit home. The hippie movement started on college campuses and in college towns. It spread to a lot of cities such as Berkeley and Boulder. Wyoming even began to suspect we were in trouble.

When your Uncle Bill graduated from UW in May of 1969, he got his diploma in one hand and his draft notice in the other. He couldn't get a good job because he had received his draft notice and so he went to work in Laramie as a management trainee for Woolworth department stores which is something he had little interest in. He came to Minnesota  when mom and I got married in June and then went back to Laramie to wait to get called. He got called for induction that October and reported to Fort Lewis, Washington. We drove by there when we went to Seattle from Portland a couple of summers ago. He came home from basic training at Christmas and I didn't recognize him he had lost so much weight. I think he went from there to Fort Lee, Virginia, where he used to go into Washington to visit our Aunt Edith. He said the racial tension was so great that the black and whites lived on different floors. Coming from Wyoming, this was somewhat of a shock. From there he was transferred back to Fort Lewis, Washington.

In July 1970 mom and I drove out to Fort Lewis to visit Bill. He had just gotten his orders for Vietnam so it wasn't really a happy day. We spent some time in Seattle but things were sort of sad. In October of 1970, Bill, mom, and I went to the Arizona State-Wyoming football game in Laramie and then drove to Denver that night. Sunday morning we put him on a plane for Oakland. It was really a sad moment. He was there for a few days and then flew to Vietnam. We wrote letter to him and mom sent cookies. He was lucky and came back thirteen months later. I was giving the Stanford Achievement Tests that morning and couldn't go to the airport to meet him. He and grandpa came over to CY and visited me. He was healthy and had nothing good to say about the military . It looks good on a resume but that's about it.

In the meantime several students were shot at a protest at Kent State University in Ohio. The National Guard fired on them and from then on the support for Vietnam deteriorated. I remember the night on CBS news that I watched Walter Cronkite, who was like a god in network news, declare from the roof of a hotel in Saigon that the war stunk, the military was lying and young men were dying for nothing. The political battles increased. The US was negotiating with the Vietnamese in Paris. Henry Kissinger, the secretary of state, was our first negotiator and we all thought good things would happen. They didn't. All of a sudden people began to worry about prisoners of war and what would happen to them if we just pulled out. The concern died after the first group of prisoners came home and everyone went on his way. A few groups of POW-MIA's still exist but nothing happens.

In school, in the late 60's and early 70's drugs became accepted as a symbol of social protest. Too many felt they were safe and didn't have any lasting effects and they were just going to have to go to war or Canada anyway so it didn't matter. We had a terrible time convincing students they were wrong. The drug culture became a reality even in Casper. Drugs weren't as prevalent at Laramie as they were at other schools, but they were there. Students, led by some faculty members, protested not only the war but really got into social injustice and affirmative action and other laws came out of this.

I remember the bitterness of those who went toward those who didn't. I didn't have any problems because I didn't resist the draft and everyone said there was a need for teachers- especially English teachers who stood over six feet tall and weighed over two hundred pounds. I watched my dad become more and more critical of the war when Uncle Bill went into the service but I don't think he could have stood to have either of us go go to Canada or refuse military service. It was the most divisive issue of my lifetime. We are still feeling the effects of military spending, the acceptance of drugs and an overly social conscious populations that pushed for the enactment of laws that came back to bit many social protesters as they entered their 30's and 40's. The power of such groups at the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and the American Legion diminished as they became old and dying organizations.

One of the greatest things that came from Vietnam was the end of the draft. If a student took a year off to work or travel, when I was in college, he would have would up in the military. I realize that David will have to register for the selective service next year, but I would fight to ever see the draft reinstated. A bunch of old men ran the country in the 60's and 70's but the power brokers now are not interested in war. President Reagan was their last great hero. Even Desert Storm has lost its glitter.

I resented Vietnam because it divided too many of us. Colleges became refuges for students dodging the draft and several professors gave them passing grades to keep the students from being drafted. College standards dropped too far and too many people went into education who had no interest in being teachers. I was just lucky when I graduated.

I resent the toehold that drugs got on our society during the ward. The hippie life style ruined the lives of a lot of my former students. Friends and students didn't return. When we visited the Vietnam Memorial together, that was a very emotional time for me although I never served a day in the military. Vietnam was the time of my college and young adult life. Remember, I grew up in the 50's which are now considered the ideal time to grow up. I remember watching the war on TV news. Vietnam was once described as the first war carried on TV in  prime time. It couldn't be ignored and the atrocities and the ugly sides of wars could no longer be ignored. The Pentagon lost a lot of credibility.

One of the saddest parts of Vietnam is when I work with my students who have parents who do pot or other drugs. So often they say it's all right because their dad was in Vietnam. Doesn't make sense, does it?

Vietnam is the only war I can recall of have read about where there was no military hero. Even Desert Storm had a couple. It is one of the lowest points in US history. When people burn the flag of their own country, you know there is trouble.