Vietnam War Interview The Vietnam War lasted from 1955 through 1975. Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford each held office during this time period of about 19 years. This war was an effort to halt the spread of communism, the Anti- communist forces consisted of South Vietnam, United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Khmer Republic, Kingdom of Laos and the Philippines. The communist forced consisted of North Vietnam, Viet Cong, Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao. The main reason the U.S became involved in this war was to stop another country from turning to communism. Thousands of Americans at this time were drafted into the war without a choice and died in battle. This caused major controversy because some citizens strongly believed in the United States goal of containment against world communism and many citizens did not feel like it was right for the United States to get involved. During this war the United States lost 59,000 lives with over 300,000 wounded. I interviewed my grandfather who was born in 1931, to ask him about his thoughts on the Vietnam War and how it affected him.
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He is 85 years young and still going strong. He grew up on a Ranch in Fresno with his parents and two older sisters. When he graduated from high school he got into Fresno State University and later graduated from there with a master’s degree to become a college professor. My grandma met him when she was going to school at Fresno State University and he was a student teacher still working towards his degree. They eventually got married and today they are still together living in a country home by the Old Lake in Merced. When my grandparents moved to Merced, my grandpa had gotten a job as a professor at Stanislaus State University in 1959, which was also towards the beginning of the war. I asked him if the War affected his life directly he stated, “It did not affect me directly but it was hard seeing people that I knew and was friends with get drafted while we were trying to get college degrees”. He also shared that he had a friend the he went to high school with you got drafted right when he turned 18 and died at battle, my grandpa was ineligible to be drafted because he was blind in one eye and had to have a glass eye implanted making him unfit for battle. My grandpa actually wanted to be a pilot for the armed forces and that is how he found out that he could not be assigned to any area of the armed forces. The drafting process was later revoked in 1973. His two cousins were also unable to join the armed forces due to one of them having Asthma and the other had a minor hernia that was going to be fixed. When I asked him what his personal opinion was of the war, he explained, “I think that the Vietnam War was fought for the wrong reasons, it was a very political topic and I think something could have been done about the issue without the United States loosing thousands of soldiers”. He also shared that he thinks that this war was drug out to stimulate the economy, at the time the U.S was close to a depression state and he thinks that the economy could have been a big factor in why the war went on
He is 85 years young and still going strong. He grew up on a Ranch in Fresno with his parents and two older sisters. When he graduated from high school he got into Fresno State University and later graduated from there with a master’s degree to become a college professor. My grandma met him when she was going to school at Fresno State University and he was a student teacher still working towards his degree. They eventually got married and today they are still together living in a country home by the Old Lake in Merced. When my grandparents moved to Merced, my grandpa had gotten a job as a professor at Stanislaus State University in 1959, which was also towards the beginning of the war. I asked him if the War affected his life directly he stated, “It did not affect me directly but it was hard seeing people that I knew and was friends with get drafted while we were trying to get college degrees”. He also shared that he had a friend the he went to high school with you got drafted right when he turned 18 and died at battle, my grandpa was ineligible to be drafted because he was blind in one eye and had to have a glass eye implanted making him unfit for battle. My grandpa actually wanted to be a pilot for the armed forces and that is how he found out that he could not be assigned to any area of the armed forces. The drafting process was later revoked in 1973. His two cousins were also unable to join the armed forces due to one of them having Asthma and the other had a minor hernia that was going to be fixed. When I asked him what his personal opinion was of the war, he explained, “I think that the Vietnam War was fought for the wrong reasons, it was a very political topic and I think something could have been done about the issue without the United States loosing thousands of soldiers”. He also shared that he thinks that this war was drug out to stimulate the economy, at the time the U.S was close to a depression state and he thinks that the economy could have been a big factor in why the war went on