ISBN: 0-8061-2229-3

# What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam?

What should we tell our children about Vietnam? That was the question facing junior high school teacher and Vietnam veteran Bill McCloud as he prepared to teach his students about the war. To find his answer, McCloud went straight to the people who directed, fought, protested, and reported the war: politicians, military officers, protestors, soldiers, POWs, nurses, refugees, scholars, writers, and parents of soldiers who died in the war. He sent them all a handwritten letter: "I am a Vietnam veteran and junior high school teacher. . . . If you could find the time, please send me your response to the following question: 'What do you think are the most important things for today's junior high school students to understand about the Vietnam War?' Even a very brief reply would be most helpful. Thank you. Sincerely, Bill McCloud."

From all over the country and from all walks of life, responses poured in. "It was," says McCloud, "as if they were waiting to be asked the question." Some responses were embittered, some were rueful, some almost elegiac, but every one of them took the question with the highest seriousness. Collectively these 128 letters form a remarkable historical record, and they con-

*(Continued on back flap)*

Myra MacPherson

Ben Maddalena

Thomas H. Moorer

John D. Negroponte

Donald Oberdorfer,
Jr.

Lawrence F. O'Brien

Tim O'Brien

Charlton Ogburn, Jr.

George S. Patton

Tom Paxton

Jeff Perez

Ed Perkins

John Clark Pratt

Nicholas Proffitt

Thomas R. Pullen

Mr. and Mrs. Ed

Pulliam

Allen Repp

Elliot L. Richardson

William P. Rogers

Lionel Rosenblatt

Dean Rusk

Pierre Salinger

Harrison Salisbury

Neta Sanders

Arthur Schlesinger,
Jr.

R. L. Schreadley

Pete Seeger

Paul Shannon

Evelyn Sloat

Lillian M. Snyder

Theodore Sorensen

Shelby L. Stanton

Jerold Starr

James Stockdale

Oliver Stone

Mary Stout

Harry G. Summers,
Jr.

Sherry Svoboda

Howard N. Tanner

Telford Taylor

Garry Trudeau

William Tuohy

Kurt Vonnegut

John Waghelstein

Frank Walker

Paul C. Warnke

James H. Webb, Jr.

Caspar W.

Weinberger

Spencer Welch

William C.

Westmoreland

Robert Wilson

Ronald L. Ziegler

E. R. Zumwalt, Jr.

Afterword

Chronology

Suggested Readings

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Acknowledgments

Many people deserve thanks for the encouragement and assistance they gave me during the development of this project.

Charlton Ogburn was the first person to convince me that my letters were of national interest. Richard Snow proved that Mr. Ogburn was right. Tom Radko and Patricia Dornbusch, my editors at the University of Oklahoma Press, turned the letters into a book. My wife encouraged me during every phase.

I also would like to thank Larry Burdick, Ph.D., Superintendent of the Pryor, Oklahoma, Public Schools; Bud Osborne, Assistant Superintendent; Rick Elliott, Principal of Pryor Junior High School; and the faculty, staff, and students at Pryor Junior High.

A special thanks to my second hour American history class of the 1987-88 school year. We shared an incredible year. One I think we'll never forget.

Finally, a word about the letters. The 128 letters presented here are all reprinted with the permission of their writers. Editing was kept to a minimum; most are reprinted in their entirety, although extraneous material was deleted and some were shortened slightly. The biographical information about the contributors was obtained either from the contributors or from Who's Who in America. I offer my heartfelt thanks to all the people who were willing to answer my question. Their answers make up this book.

Bill McCloud

Pryor, Oklahoma

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Introduction

In February of 1987 my principal and friend, Rick Elliott, told me that he wanted the Vietnam War to be covered more thoroughly than it had been in the social studies classes at our junior high school in Pryor, Oklahoma. Although Vietnam was our nation's most recent war, America's combat role in it had ended before most of our students were born. When you consider that the war was the most divisive event in the past hundred years of our history, it becomes obvious that it is something that desperately needs to be taught in our schools.

I was especially interested in the subject because of my personal history. In 1967. I was attending my first year of college and living at home with my family, in Ponca City, Oklahoma. I rode to school each day in a car pool with four of my friends from high school. While on the way one day, someone in the car mentioned that he thought it would be exciting, maybe even fun, if we just dropped out of college and joined the army. The driver turned the car around in the middle of the highway. We drove back home and eventually stood together as a group to be inducted into the U.S. Army.

I enlisted in the army knowing that I would almost certainly end up in Vietnam. While I understood that we were fighting to keep Communists from taking over the government of South Vietnam, I had no sophisticated knowledge of the real causes of the war or how things had gotten to the point they were at in late 1967.

I served in Vietnam from March of 1968 through March of 1969 as the flight operations coordinator (specialist fifth class) for the 147th Assault Support Helicopter Company, based near

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the coastal city of Vung Tau. Our nickname was the "Hillclimbers," and our motto was "Press On." We had more than a dozen Chinook helicopters in our company, and my job was to stay at base operations and maintain communications with the helicopters while they were on their missions. During my off-duty time I was able to go along on many missions as we flew in support of the ground combat troops who were actually engaging the enemy. I flew on missions during my off-duty hours for the excitement involved. In one of the letters that I wrote to my mother I told her that I thought going on helicopter missions during the Vietnam War must be the last great adventure on earth.

Although there was never a dull moment while I was in Vietnam, I was more amazed by and interested in the war that seemed to be going on back in America. While I was in Vietnam there was a week-long takeover by students of several buildings at Columbia University; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated; Dr. Benjamin Spock was found guilty of conspiracy (the verdict was later overturned); and Chicago became the scene of the most violent national party convention in American history, as antiwar demonstrators clashed with police. From my perspective, the Vietnam War seemed to be going on in America, too.

After leaving the service in 1970, I pushed the memories of my Vietnam experience into the back of my mind, and I do not remember thinking much about the war until the spring of 1985, when I met Thomas Boettcher. He was a Vietnam veteran from my hometown of Ponca City, Oklahoma, and his book, *Vietnam: The Valor and the Sorrow*, had just been published. It was the first book I had bought about the Vietnam War, and as I read it, I found myself thinking for the first time of the conflict as history.

By February of 1987, I had been teaching junior high school social studies for twelve years but had never discussed the Vietnam War in the classroom. Now that I was faced with the task, I felt uncomfortable with it, not because my experiences during

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the war had been traumatic, but because I had no idea how or what to teach about it.

I knew that my teaching would have to include more than just an anecdotal personal history. I could tell my students about the army training me for three months for a job I was then never assigned to do. I could tell them about the free mail privilege, which meant I could send as many letters home as I wanted without ever using a postage stamp. I could try to describe the sound made by Russian 122 rockets as they hit the airfield. I could talk about the exciting day I got to meet entertainer Ann-Margret. I could tell what it was like to spend seven days in Sydney, Australia, and then have to return to Vietnam. I could tell them about the day the helicopter I was riding in made a series of direct combat assaults over a period of fifteen and a half hours. I could talk about the importance of the short-timer's calendar. Those things might be of some interest, but there would have to be more.

To prepare myself for teaching my eighth-grade students about the Vietnam War, I started by sending surveys to sixty Oklahoma junior high school principals, hoping to find out the grade level at which the war was usually taught, how much time was spent covering it, and the number of veterans involved in teaching it. I wanted to discover the status of Vietnam War education in Oklahoma junior high schools so that I could see where my own course would fit in.

Thirty-five percent of the principals who responded reported that the war was not taught at all in their schools. Three of those principals thought the war was a more appropriate subject to teach in high school. When taught in junior high schools, it was usually taught as part of an eighth-grade American history class, with one or two weeks devoted to it. In my survey, 12 percent of those teaching about the war were Vietnam veterans.

Next I surveyed more than seven hundred junior high school students in three Oklahoma cities to find out what they already knew about the Vietnam War and what questions they were most interested in having answered. The survey instrument

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was simple. It was a sheet of paper. On one side students were asked to write five to ten statements that they knew were true about the war, and on the other side they were to write five to ten questions they would like to have answered.

I found that although the students were very interested in the war, they knew little about it and were concerned about their lack of knowledge. The papers returned to me included the following statements: "I need to become more educated on that subject." "No one has ever taught me about the Vietnam War." "They don't teach about that war in school. All I know about the Vietnam War has come out of movies." "It might be kind of a shame, but I don't know anything about the Vietnam War." "How come they don't teach more about the war in school?" "Is anyone else as dumb about this as I am?"

Students have made it clear to me that they see this as the war no one wants to talk about. They seem to be saying that they know the war is the skeleton in America's family closet, and that they think they are now old enough to be let in on the secret.

The tremendous interest in this subject among students is something that teachers should capitalize on. As a junior high school teacher my job is often divided into two parts. Before I can start teaching about a subject, I frequently have to find a way to arouse my students' interest. With the Vietnam War the work is half done. The students are already interested. Their knowledge, though, is limited.

Students' statements of what they knew about the war included the following: "The war was fought to save U.S. prisoners from Vietnam." "It was really us against ourselves." "I know that Americans always fought each other in their camps." "We dropped a bomb on Hiroshima." "We should not have gotten involved in it because there are still millions of our men over there." "It took place in the Philippines." "I know that it was as bad as I can only dream."

The most common responses were:

1. Many Americans were killed.

2. It took place in Vietnam.

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3. The United States lost.

4. American POWs are still being held.

5. It took place in the 1960s and 1970s.

The questions I received were often interesting, too. Among them were: "If they're having a war why are little kids there?" "Are some men still alive that fought in it?" "Did the U.S. fight in the war?" "Did they have automobiles back then?" "How many heroes were there?" "How many people tried to prevent that war?" "What were all of the names of the people who served in the Vietnam War, if you know?"

The five questions asked most often were:

1. What was the cause?

2. When was the war?

3. How many Americans were killed?

4. What countries fought in the war?

5. Who won?

The survey gave me a pretty good idea of what students knew and wanted to know about the war, but I realized I would still need help deciding what they should be taught about the war.

I decided to write letters to people who had been involved in some way with the war. I went through a dozen books on the war and wrote down every name that was in the bibliographies or indexes. I then went to Who's Who In America, Current Bibliography, and a few other sources to find out which of the people on my master list were still alive and prominent enough to have a current address listed. I wrote to a broad group of people, including decision makers who had been in the government during the war, prominent journalists, authors of books on the subject, leading voices in opposition to the war, and public figures in America today. The letter I sent to each person asked this question: "What do you think are the most important things for today's junior high students to understand about the Vietnam War?" I wrote each letter by hand, hoping that the personal touch might encourage more people to consider my request.

The replies started coming in immediately. Throughout the summer of 1987, I was receiving letters almost daily. As our school year began in August, I was still receiving letters. I de-

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cided to begin my American history course that year with a discussion of the Vietnam War and the 1960s. Although I will always have the letters to use in my classes, I will never again be able to capture the excitement of those two weeks in August. Each day I would excuse myself from my class just long enough to go to my mailbox in the administrative office of the junior high. I would then return with the day's mail, open the letters in front of the class, and say, "Okay, let's see what Barry Goldwater has to say," or, "Here's what Tom Hayden wants you to know."

My collection of letters soon developed into something I thought might be of national interest. I had repeatedly told my students that, while the letters were all addressed to me, the letter writers were actually speaking to them. So I knew the letters were something that should be shared with everyone.

I wrote to Richard Snow, managing editor of *American Heritage* magazine, and a few months later a selection of the letters appeared as the cover article in the May, 1988, issue.

After the magazine article appeared, I was able to obtain letters answering my question from an even wider array of interested people, including combat veterans and mothers who had lost sons in the war. From the very beginning of this project, virtually everyone took great care in answering my question, and I am grateful to all who were willing to help me gain a better understanding of the war so that I could do a better job of teaching about it.

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## Henry Kissinger

National Security Adviser under President Nixon, 1969-74; Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon (1973-74) and Ford (1974-77)

**W**hat is one to learn from our involvement in Vietnam?
1. Guerrilla wars are best avoided by preemption, by generous programs of assistance and reform in countries the United States considers vital. But once a war is in progress, victory cannot be achieved by reform alone.

2. Before America commits combat troops, it should have a clear understanding of the nature of the threat and of realistic objectives.

3. When America commits itself to military action, there is no alternative to achieving the stated objective.

4. A democracy cannot conduct a serious foreign policy if the contending factions do not exercise some restraint in their debate.

If Vietnam is to leave any useful legacy, America owes it to itself to make a fair assessment of the lessons of that tragedy. That has not yet occurred.

Radical critics seek to impose a version of history according to which bloodthirsty leaders sustained a war with no purpose except to satisfy twisted psychologies. The right distorts history by simply ignoring Vietnam. Its isolationist wing had always been more comfortable with strident anti-Communist rhetoric than with commitments to fight communism on distant battlefronts.

The lapse of more than a decade should enable America to face its past. As it turned out, the dominoes fell visibly only in Indochina. But the experience of Vietnam is deeply imprinted in the intangibles by which other nations judge America's staying power and even more in the willingness of America to defend its vital interests or even to define them. On the other hand, the Soviet Union, after a spurt of expansionism, is mired in contradictions. Vietnam, by its single-minded brutality, has turned itself into a pariah.

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America failed in Vietnam, but it gave the other nations of Southeast Asia time to deal with their own insurrections. And America's very anguish testified to its moral scruples. Once again, free peoples everywhere look to America for safety and progress. Their greatest fear is not America's involvement in the world but its withdrawal from it. This is why fourteen years after the sadness of Saigon's fall, American unity is both its duty and the hope for the world.

## John Stephen Knight, Jr.

High school teacher. Fairfield, Maine

**T**eaching about the Vietnam War to the children of those Americans who fought there, or who lived through the painful Vietnam era, is one of the most important, and difficult, jobs that an American teacher faces. The fathers and uncles of many of my students did their tour of duty there, and for many of them the war is not entirely over. Their children recognize that something important happened to their parents, but they are not sure what it is. They often sense that somehow this distant war has contributed to problems in their families, and for many it is a subject they had best not bring up at the dinner table, even though they don't know *why* they shouldn't.

I hope that students understand that no matter what the controversies surrounding our nation's involvement, the men who fought are not morally to blame for the disaster, and that we as a nation need to discuss the war and rebuild relations with Vietnam.

I want my students to develop skepticism regarding what they are told about America's foreign policy. They need to recognize that as individuals they must look behind the flag-waving and the political rhetoric and learn about the world's problems

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