|
Panel of
veterans address misconceptions about the Vietnam War
By Megan Armstrong '06
On Oct. 21 in Bartley Hall a panel of six Vietnam
War veterans held a panel discussion to dispel common misconceptions about
the war and provide first-hand perspectives of what really happened in
Vietnam.
The panel consisted of faculty members and invited
guests who fought in the Vietnam War, including Dr. Greg Bonner and Mr. Jim
Mullen, marketing department; Dr. Fred Dellva, finance department; Dr. James
Kirschke, English department; Mr. Jim McClosky, adjunct faculty member; and
Dr. Jack Krimm, invited guest.
Mullen welcomed a crowded atrium to the event and
introduced the panelists. Each veteran then provided a brief personal
history and synopsis of their service in the U.S. armed forces. Following
introductions, Mullen expressed that the discussion
had no political agenda and no intent to influence voting decisions in the
2004 election, despite the fact that the Vietnam War has dominated discourse
about the election. Instead, the panelists wished to clarify the
inaccuracies about both the war and the veterans themselves that are
perpetuated by both the media and Hollywood. Also, the panelists offered to
provide six different perspectives of serving in Vietnam, as the panel
represented all three branches of the armed forces – Army, Navy, and Marine
Corps – and included both officers and enlisted people. Furthermore, the
panelists could offer various insights on all peak periods of the war, as
they collectively spent time in Vietnam from mid-1966 through late 1971.
Mullen hoped guests of the discussion could balance the veterans’
perspectives with any predispositions they have about the war. “There are
many sides to the story of the Vietnam War; we’re here to tell you one of
them. We strongly believe that the purpose of higher education is to take
multiple viewpoints and then determine which are fact and which are
somebody’s own view of fact,” said Mullen.
The panelists shared their thoughts about the
Vietnam War, both during wartime and upon their returns home to the United
States. “In one of the boats we had a picture hanging on the side of the
boat of 100,000 people protesting the war in Boston Common…It reminded us
that was one of the reasons we were fighting over there, because in this
country we had a right to protest. There wasn’t a right to protest in North
Vietnam,” said Bonner. He momentarily addressed the current war in Iraq,
correlating the Vietnam protests with protests against the war in Iraq: “If
you want to protest the war in Iraq, protest the war in Iraq; don’t protest
the service people over there serving.”
The question of whether the South Vietnamese
appreciated America’s presence in Vietnam surfaced in the middle of the
discussion. A woman attending the discussion offered: “I am a young woman
who was born in South Vietnam, and my family in 1980 was part of the boat
people who left Vietnam, and we sailed over the Pacific Ocean in search of
freedom; in search of a life in America. It was after 12 days that we landed
in the Philippine Islands, and six months afterwards our family found
ourselves on the grounds of Philadelphia where we established a home. So on
behalf of my family, I thank each one of you for serving and for coming to
give hope and freedom to our people.” The veterans expressed their
appreciation of her gratitude, and McClosky noted that not enough American
soldiers in Vietnam have actually heard that thankfulness expressed.
McClosky then addressed patriotism and morality in the context of being
among the Vietnamese, saying, “I was blessed, like I think most of you were,
with a family that believes in something. We’re here and we’ve been blessed
with what we have as a country. Even if it means just putting an arm out to
someone, and saying ‘Hey, can we help?’ And there’s not one soldier that I
saw in Vietnam in 17 and one-half months who wouldn’t commit himself to
helping somebody get a little closer to freedom.”
The panelists also revealed a side of the war which
they indicated many U.S. civilians are unaware existed. “We prided ourselves
in terms of what we called civic action projects. At every unit level we
helped provide water, we provided our medics, we provided a lot of resources
and we would much rather do that then have to go fight them.” The panelists
also suggested other civic action projects executed in Vietnam, such as
constructing leprosariums and rebuilding bridges. They indicated that the
media, however, brought a different reality into the homes of Americans
during the war, that represented only one side of the story. “Technology
lands; all of a sudden the war is brought into your living room,” said
McClosky. “Every evening at six o’clock you turn it on, and what do you
hear? That 287 more had been killed, here, there. It’s there, every night.
It can’t but affect you. That’s the reality. The media was a big part of the
impression made. It was only one side, but that’s the side that literally
sold.”
At the conclusion of the discussion the veterans
addressed films such as “Hearts and Minds” that depict routine commission of
war crimes. The panelists agreed that war atrocities were committed during
the war, but such practices were not official U.S. military policy. Mullen
then presented a brief slide show of photographs of soldiers working closely
with the South Vietnamese during the war. He indicated that these pictures
represent the side of the war that the media and Hollywood neglect to
portray, but for the panelists their relationships with the South Vietnamese
ranked among their most significant service experiences. |
|
