Interviews Part 2

Charlene LaClaire:

l.  I had just moved to California - living in the San Fernando Valley.

2. & 3. Yes, I did see much of the war on TV. I didn’t think of it as the first war on TV because I had seen films of other wars, but it was horrible. I remember the Napalm being dropped from planes and pictures of kids being burned. Seeing people executed, casualties, and streams of endless refugees walking along the muddy roads.  I remember spraying of the vegetation with “agent orange” which defoliated the jungle and the fields. Agent Orange later turned out to be very toxic to the soldiers and others who were there. The horrible pictures of the wounded, helicopters going down, hand grenades being thrown into the tunnels that the North Vietnamese had dug. People being blown to bits. There were stories of our soldiers being tortured and how the medics were absolute heroes in the war.  Rescues of men by helicopter and evacuations. We saw the reality of war. That war was covered much better than the Iraq war and others. I think the govt. found out that if people really saw what happens they will not support the war, so they don’t show this anymore.  They wouldn’t even show the coffins coming back in the Iraq war. That changed when President Obama was elected.

4.  My cousin was a pilot in that war, but I didn’t know it at the time, but since I was about the age of the young men who went to Viet Nam, I felt a closeness to them.

5.  I was absolutely against the war. At my college, we wrote letters against the war. We had sit-downs, signed petitions, called our representatives, etc. In college I had a black classmate who had been a medic in Viet Nam and had just gotten back. We talked about some of the things that went on.  He was absolutely an emotionally wounded person, (PTSD now). I remember thinking of how he tried too hard to laugh, as though it hurt him to laugh. I was absolutely against the war in every way. I read Nixon’s notes on China and how he thought we had to deal with China. North Vietnam was much controlled/influenced by China, just as it is today. The USA was afraid they would enter the war but they didn’t.

David LaClaire:

1. Where were you in the 1960's?  I was living in Orlando, Florida. During the war I was in Junior High School and High School in Orlando. The war continued into the early seventies when I was in college in New Orleans.

2. Did you watch the Vietnam War on TV? Yes. There were frequent spots on the nightly news explaining the progress in the war. 

3. What was that like, watching the first televised war? It was the first war of my lifetime, so it didn't seem that unusual to see it televised. As a young person it was surreal to see people my age in an offensive war in a  country where it was not clear who the enemy was. Television brought the violence of the war into our otherwise peaceful homes.

4. Did you know anybody in the war?  No family or close friends, but some acquaintances. The people I met that came back from the war were messed up. One young man had lost his legs and was very angry. Another young man had gotten heavily into drugs and was also very angry and confused. None of them were greeted as heroes and were often looked down upon by my peer group unfortunately.

5. Were you for or against the war?  Strongly against. Students in my generation were almost entirely against the war; many of them left the country rather than fight in a war they did not believe in. There was a draft that gave you a number;  If they picked your number you went to war. My number was not picked.  Many students protested; there were bloody protests;  Some students lost their lives.