Viet Nam in my mind

On TV as a kid, I remember watching Sesame Street, but I also remember watching news clips about the war in Viet Nam. The information I gathered from the news wasn’t much. The news casts raised many questions and gave me few answers. I remember the pictures and lists of names as they would flash them across the screen. It was troubling. Americans were dieing and so were the unfortunate people who chose to continue to live in this special section of the world.

I was familiar with WWII and my concept of the Viet Nam war was based on my perceptions of the rules on the playground. WWII to me was obviously a bad war. Millions of people were killed and in my mind the reason for this was because it was fought in the centers of civilization in Europe. Viet Nam, I thought was a section of the world that had been roped off for dangerous wars. In Viet Nam the United States was facing off against the communists. This part of the world was selected because it was remote. Most of the scenes I saw on the news took place in the jungles.

Back then I thought the war marked our progress as a nation and as a world. We had found a part of the world where we could settle our differences through combat. In my mind it made sense, but I never understood fully why we were fighting or why this place called Vietnam was selected as a place to hold a war.

I asked questions as a kid, but since I was young I probably didn't ask the right questions. It didn't occur to me that the adults didn't know the answers to the questions that I was asking.

As I progressed through school, I anxiously anticipated any discussion about the war in Viet Nam. In high school our history class ended with WWII. It seemed like the every class I took ended in 1945. Even in College during the 1990s information about the war never answered my questions. The best source of information that I had seen was the PBS series with its companion book by Steven Karnow, The Vietnam War. There are other series out there. This was the first television war and there is plenty of film documenting the actions of the war.

Now, as an adult after all of the reading I have done on the Viet Nam War and related subjects, I feel like I have a fair grip on what went on in that era of history. I also recognize that as a kid, the war had a deep impact on me. It created a desire to learn and a love of history. The war in Viet Nam is the reason I studied history in university. While my learning has branched into many different directions the war continues to give a direction to what I study.

I have long wanted to go to Viet Nam. I am anxious to see what it will reveal to me, what further questions it will give me to study.