Oral+History

__Oral History__ Wynn Culver

Topic: What life was like for someone living in the U.S. during Vietnam. Interview Subject: Wells Culver (My Dad)

The Vietnam War was a war that spanned more than a decade and caused massive disruption in Southeast Asia and on the American home front. Although U.S. leaders were often ambiguous about American involvement in Vietnam, they nevertheless pursued a fairly unbroken policy of interference in the country in an effort to halt the spread of communism during the cold war. In the end, the U.S. defeat in Vietnam proved costly; both financially and in terms of the number of lives lost, and diminished America’s reputation as the defender of democracy and freedom throughout the world.

During the War, The U.S. soldiers fought the Viet Cong. This fighting was nothing like the fighting in the Trenches like the U.S. did in World War I, or the Guerrilla warfare of World War II. The U.S. had to fight a elusive enemy, because the Viet cong had dug tunnels underground and they would fight from underground. The Viet Cong also outnumbered the U.S.

Somehow, someone came up with the name “grunts” for these infantrymen. The U.S. soldiers had to fight in the jungles in Vietnam, which made it even more challenging for the soldiers. The Jungles were hot and humid and fighting in them was hard. When the U.S. returned home after, many years of fighting, they weren’t welcomed home by the U.S. like soldiers returning from World War II, not very many people celebrated the Vietnam soldiers returning from war.

"Vietnam War." //American History//. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 June 2010. .

MacFarlane, Philip J. "A Historical Look at Veterans in America ." //American History//. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 June 2010. .

Here is a picture of U.S. Vietnam soldiers fighting in Vietnam.

Wynn Culver Wells Culver W: So How old where you when U.S. Soldiers firsted started fighting in Vietnam? W: I was 6 W: Overall, over the years the war was fought what are the things you can most remember W: I remember marching in a anti-war protest in 1968, It was on the UWM campus. W: So do you remember talking about the war in School? W: Yeah I remember debating the War in 6th grade, we would argue whether or not we should be involved. W: So do you remember you parents talking about the war at all? W: I remember my parents were also against the war, they didn’t protest because they were too old but they still were against it. W: So besides the newspaper how were you kept in touch with the latest events in Vietnam? W: It was all over the TV every night, and the news reporters would talk about the current events and how soldiers were doing in Vietnam. W: Just a estimate, how many protest do you think you saw around where you lived? W: About 15 W: Where were you when JFK was shot and what do you remember? W: I was in school, and they made our parents come pick us up, and for three days we didn’t go to school and we watched the funeral W; When you saw the stuff on TV, what did you think? W: I felt sad; it felt like a era was coming to end, it felt like everything was changing. W; so how did you feel when the war was finally over? W: I felt like it was about it, It seemed like it was years past when it should have happened. W: What do you remember on how Vietnam Soldiers were treated after returning from the War. W: It wasn’t like how soldiers were treated after World War II, they were treated with disrespect. W: Thank you for your time W: Your welcome