Fellow GenXers: What was the Vietnam War to you?

[Taverner]

I was born in 1970. At that point, the war was in full swing. By the time I became 5, Saigon had fallen, the embassy evacuated, and that video is one of the first memories I had of watching news. I remember as a kid asking my parents why everyone was on the roof and why they only had one helicopter.

As I grew older, I met other kids my age who lost parents, brothers, uncles, other family members in the war. As Vietnamese refugees came to America, specifically my home, San Jose, I met other kids who witnessed the war first hand, the "Lord of the Flies" mentality that exited in the boats they used to flee their home, the scrambling to get out of the country. IN many cases, the wives and children were evacuated first, and their fathers long gone.

Even though I did not fight or have family who did, this was front and center of my national consciousness growing up.

What was it for you?

[InvisibleTouch]

1. It wasn't a big part of my consciousness, to be honest.

I'm about your age, and Vietnam seemed to belong to the previous generation, not to mine. My dad was there, so I knew that as a kid, of course, but even that was never a big issue; he came back safely and without any psychological aftereffects that I know of. I do remember writing stories as a kid with characters who included families of mother and child, but no dad, and it finally occurred to me that I should give an explanation of why there were several families with no dads, and I came up with, "They died in Vietnam." But there wasn't an emotional impact to it for me, it was just a way to close the loophole and get on with the story. Truth be told, the fact that there were no dads reflected more the frequent absence of my own dad (not just in Vietnam but other work-related absences later) than any consciousness about the war. I learned more about it later from TV shows and movies, but it still seems like the previous generation's landmark to me. "My generation's" war is the Gulf War, IMO, and its endless sequels.

[Exilednight]

2. Doesn't really mean much to me.

I was born in 1969 and have little or no memory of the Vietnam war. My father was a civil rights attorney, so most of early memories about politics revolve around race.

[NNN0LHI]

3. They ended the draft the same year I turned 18 so I was a bit nervous growing up

:scared:

[LuvNewcastle]

4. I was born in 1969 and only have

a few memories about Vietnam. I remember Walter Cronkite giving the total deaths per day, but I didn't really understand much about death then. One of my uncles was over there and I remember the adults talking about him sometimes. My impressions at that early age were that the subject was very serious and controversial, not really to be discussed openly. It was much later before I knew any facts about it all.

[Brickbat]

5. Very little. My father served in Korea; my uncle and two aunts sered in Vietnam but as far as I

know did not see a lot of combat. For me, any thing in southeast Asia meant a bunch of interesting of slides from my dad, and a necessity to salute my aunt whenever she came over. That was about it.

[aikoaiko]

6. Apocolypse Now.

I as born in 1968 and I have no memory of news or political discussions. It was always a historical event.

That movie defined it for me in the early 1980s.

[Brickbat]

7. Also, it was the Paul Hardcastle song, "19."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSGvqjVHik8

[FirstLight]

8. Same as you, born in 70

I had a cousin, waaaay older (well, I was 7 he was in his early 20's i guess) Who fought in the war. He had a wife & baby girl, i remember meeting her once. When he came back from the war, he was so fucked up and drank to numb the ptsd that he beat the wife and she eventually left him and cut off all contact to our entire family.
That was one of the personal things that happened...of course i didn't know the whole story about him till I was a teen i think. He got sober and is now remarried, but never had kids again. And he never talks about it.

The only other direct influence I had was having a young Vietnamese boy in my kindergarten class. Phi-Long, he knew hardly any English and seemed to be sick all the time. (maybe suffering from ptsd in his own way). Since I was the only one in my class who could already read well..I was put next to him and ended up teaching him English. He graduated from the same high school as me, brilliant with a 4.5 average! He used his American opportunity well, that's for sure.

Otherwise, I was not too versed in the actual war. I knew it was a blot on our nation, I knew we didn't 'win'...but that was mostly learned thru history class.

Not until we occupied Afghanistan and Iraq did I understand the dismay that our collective felt towards a war like that.
Yes, in my mind they are very similar...only the Vietnam war had a draft...and today, we don;t NEED a draft...unemployment is doing it FOR us.

[Taverner]

15. VN refugees and PTSD

I had a friend in college who was a refugee. He told me some stories that would make anyone give up any hope in the human race.

On the boat to America (and yes, it was a leaky fishing boat, meant for fishing around the Vietnam Coast, not a trans-Pacific journey) they ran out of food, pirates stole all their belongings, and before they were rescued they were discussing whether they should eat the dead bodies or not.

[provis99]

9. born in 1969.

I remember the helicopters leaving Vietnam, and being pushed off the aircraft carriers. My dad had me watch tv; he told me "America is about to lose a war". I also remember Nixon resigning, and watching tv with my dad, while he called Nixon an "evil bastard" or something like that.

I also remember that my mother wouldn't let me play with war toys; I had wanted a GI Joe and a cowboy six-shooter when I was tiny (this would be about 1974), and mom told me no war toys were allowed.

I wasn't born yet when a relative was buried after getting killed in a helicopter crash during the Tet Offensive; he was a Lance Corporal in the Marines, and only 19 when he was killed.

[dana_b]

10. I really wasn't aware of it

and didn't have any relative who had fought in it. My mom didn't have the news on very much so it just wasn't a part of my childhood.

[krabigirl]

11. Was too young to remember any of it, except what I saw in movies when older.

[newfie11]

12. Boy I feel old after reading above

I was in LA going to college during Vietnam. This was 1966 to
1968. There was much protesting. I was horrified by the pictures on the news of the war. Unlike today, horrific pictures every night on MSM of caskets coming back, of pictures of funerals and injuries to civilians.
Personally it did not affect me but I had friends drafted and some did not come home.
My husband (now)had been a medic with the marines
When he came back to the states his plane came in late at night to avoid the protests.

While Vietnam was going on so were the Watts riots. It was a scary depressing time.

[kentuck]

13. Me too. I turned 21 in Vietnam.

We had 548,000 troops there in '68. It changed my life forever.

[Brickbat]

14. I hope my reminiscing doesn't come across as flippant or uncaring.

As I got older and learned about Vietnam, it was to me both a symbol and a reality -- a symbol of how authority isn't always right, and a reality of the bloody-minded war policy that gave my generation the arms race.

[Taverner]

16. Thank you for coming home alive

:hug:

[WCIL]

17. I was born in 1965

My dad was a Marine, and he was in Vietnam in 1968. I remember snatches of things. My mom cried a lot, we always wondered where Daddy was and why he wasn't coming home for dinner. My mom would help me and my sister (only a year old at the time) scribble letters to send him. He sent us dolls from Japan. Mom couldn't visit him for R&R because she had no one to be with my sister and me. We lived in a little house in California.

When he came home we moved to South Carolina and he went to recruiting school. Then we moved to New York and Dad was a recruiter from late 1969 until sometime in 1971. He was always cranky, and mom said not to bother him; he really didn't like his job. He got out of the Marines as soon as he could afterward.

Growing up, he would not talk about the war AT.ALL. We didn't ask him questions, and when things about the war were on the news, he changed the channel. He has had to fight the VA tooth and nail for the last 6 years for his Agent Orange disability claim. My youngest sister died in 2005 of a heart defect. She was born 9 months after my dad returned from Vietnam, and he feels guilty, like he may have given her the birth defect. He has been in and out of the hospital for heart problems, strange skin rashes, and has false tested twice for Hepatitis C. When he was finally approved for his disability this summer, someone changed the heart flow on his medical records from 50 to 60%, and he went from a 60K to a 30K disability at the stroke of some stranger's pen. He has had treatment off and on for clinical depression for at least 15 years.

I lived the Vietnam war, but learned not to discuss it unless Dad spoke of it first. I do know that it screwed my family over.

[Taverner]

18. Thanks nt

[sixmile]

19. Dad, Stepdad and Uncles all served

A family of angry, alcoholic young men. All of whom I respect and admire.