Poetry Project
Veteran's History Project
In this project, we interviewed veterans of the Vietnam war and sent the tapes into the Library of Congress. It was most exhilarating.
Link coming soon!
Project Reflection
In my first project, I became convinced that war was the worst possible thing for a person to experience, completely destroying a person psychologically. Then I met my veteran, Terry Bacon. He was a very down-to-earth man who didn’t seem too distressed. He breezed through the interview, telling us his horrifying stories calmly as if having his gun shot in half wasn’t that terrifying. However, he did tell us that the war did affect him psychologically in many ways. He told us that when he got back, he constantly scanned the ground for traps and he still has to sit facing doors in order to see what’s going on around him. I believe that my veteran has hardened himself in order to be able to talk about these things. After interviewing my veteran, it has occurred to me that while war is very damaging, it is possible to make a recovery.
One of my interview questions was “Did the men in your unit get along well?”. When I asked my veteran this, he explained that some did and some didn’t. Apparently this was during a time where there was a lot of racial tension in America. African-Americans were serving in the war along with Caucasian people and every race was incorporated, much to some people’s dismay. I did know that there was a lot of racism at this time, but I never thought it would have interfered with the war at all. I considered them two different issues, when, in reality, they were not.
If I were a historian, I could definitely use my interview. My interview holds not only facts, but the opinions and views of a soldier and how he has been able to cope with the horrors he has seen. Terry Bacon describes what patrol was like, the combat, the weapons he used. The interview is rich with history and different perspectives that might bit have been taken into account before. Anyone could watch this interview and know twice as much about the Vietnam War.
I learned a lot in this project, from group work to the government. This project has made me question our government even more than I already did. Before this project, I thought the Vietnam War had more of a purpose, but apparently not. The war was kind of pointless, in all reality, and the war seemed to be solely for the government and the wealthy. Because of this project, I have learned much more about the world that I didn’t know let alone care about when we started.
Tonkin Writing!
While many people believe that the “Gulf of Tonkin incident” was an unprovoked attack, there is still uncertainty on whether the North Vietnamese did attack, but if they did, the North Vietnamese felt like they were provoked since America had been doing air-raids on Vietnamese borders and trolling their waters.
The incident happened on August 2nd, 1964 during the Cold War, when America lived in constant fear of Communist aggression. The US Maddox was in North Vietnamese waters doing signal intelligence patrols when three North Vietnamese torpedo boats surrounded the Maddox and shot a torpedo at it. The Maddox fought back until the North Vietnamese retreated. The US had suffered no casualties while 4 North Vietnamese soldiers were killed. In Document 3, President Lyndon Johnson talks about the battle, saying we “knocked hell out of ‘em.” He describes how they took down the North Vietnamese boats with artillery shells. The time this document was written is very important—it took place immediately after the first incident, while the Cold War was in full swing and America was on the brink of war with Russia. Much of the propaganda around the time was getting the US civilians to trust their government. This document seems to be trying to get support by really focusing on the US’s victory. While America did not take much damage, one fighter plane was damaged—which is something Johnson fails to mention. The president seems to be making Americans seem almost superhuman, only discussing their victory in this battle. Many US citizens believed the attack was unprovoked, causing a lot more tension between the Capitalists and Communists, North Vietnamese people and American people.
Dean Rusk, the secretary of state at the time, was interviewed by and NBC-TV journalist, Elie Abel. When asked for an explanation of the unprovoked attack, Rusk responds by saying “They see what we think of as the real world in wholly different terms. Their very processes of logic are different.” (Document 2). This also seems to be an effective and shady propaganda technique; insulting the enemy in a secretive way by saying they have distorted perceptions of reality. However, President Lyndon Johnson also hints that the North Vietnamese probably were provoked in Document 3. He says that “there have been some covert operations in that area that we have been carrying on—blowing up some bridges and things of that kind, roads and so forth.” (Document 3). Therefore, the United States had no reason to call the attack unprovoked, since US troops had been in Vietnam since 1963 and there were a few attacks done by the Americans. The people of North Vietnam had a right to attack, since the US had been attacking continually since 1963. Rusk’s response was definitely anti-Communist. He was a very important part of the US government at this time, so it is obvious that he would think this way given the time period.
The second “attack” occurred on August 4th, 1964, two days after the first one. The US was still shaken up from the first attack, so when news of a second torpedo attack reached them, things got chaotic. However, it is still a mystery if North Vietnam did attack again. There really is no evidence of it. Even the commander of the Maddox, Captain Herrick, says “the first boat to close the Maddox probably launched a torpedo at the Maddox which was heard but not seen. All subsequent Maddox torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonar man was hearing the ship’s own propeller boat.” (Document 7). Herrick was on the boat himself and thought he heard a torpedo, but nothing happened to the boat or any of the people, causing Herrick to believe that the sound must have been the ship’s propeller. If there really was an attack or any cause for alarm, the cables sent from the Maddox might have been more frantic or intense. With the American people believing North Vietnam had attacked them a second time, the Vietnam War heated up even more, along with the bitterness towards Communism in America and making a war between the US and Russia even more possible.
Truth of War Project
The objective of this project was to capture the truth of war from the point of view of a soldier. By reading books, watching movies, and having seminars, we were able to gain a good understanding about how a soldier feels during the battles they fight and how it affects them. For the project, we were told to write an essay explaining the truth of war for a soldier using evidence and professional language. Also, we were instructed to capture the truth in an artistic form, such as a sculpture, a short story, a collage, or even a movie. What I learned throughout this project is that war is not only frightening for civilians, but even more so for the soldier. We studied the first and second world wars and read books about them, such as All Quiet on the Western Front and Slaughterhouse 5. We learned about the different types of warfare (trench warfare and urban warfare), the fronts, and other things contribute to warfare during these time periods.
I used all habits of heart and mind in my project, but I believe perseverance is the biggest one. I chose a very ambitious project idea and there were many times I almost scrapped the whole thing to just start something simpler. But I kept with it and my movie turned out to be a bigger success than I thought it would be. A movie is a hard thing to do in three weeks, but I kept with it and I believe my project is quite special.
My essay required many revisions, like the title. I have never been good at coming up with titles. My original title for this piece was “Gee, Thanks War. It Was Really Cool of You to Just Show Up and Ruin My Life. You’re So Thoughtful.” This is supposed to be a professional paper that makes people think and feel sort of depressed, so it really made no sense that it had a title like that. So I took a deep line from my paper and turned it into the title. My essay is now called “Quest for Survival”, which sounds much more appealing. Another revision I made was analyzing my paragraphs more. My essay started to sound more like a summary of the book than an explanation of war. For example, one paragraph in my first draft had absolutely no analysis and was all evidence. All the evidence would be overkill for my audience, and analyzing what I have to say means less work for them.
If I were to have an extension on this project, I would have made my movie more refined in SO MANY WAYS. Some people would talk as I was filming, and I found out I couldn’t edit it out. If I were to redo this, I would enforce the quiet rule. Also, I would take more time to get better props. The things we had for the movie were very cheap and didn’t fit well with the movie. I would have added more scenes that I mention in my essay, since some of my scenes seem kind of random.
