Vietnam
Everybody has a different outlook on a certain topic. Some viewpoints are dissimilar than others, while some viewpoints are the same as others. When reading the lecture and the personal recollections of the Vietnam War, the information given in the personal recollections did not contradict the lecture. The information in the lecture does correspond with the personal recollections that were written by people associated with the Vietnam War.
There were things that did correspond in both the lecture and personal recollections. For example, in the lecture it says that at one point an American unit was angry because they could not find their enemies. So “they rounded up unarmed women, children, and elderly civilians, raped the women, then opened fire. The killed over 300 Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children…”1. There are also other horrible events like the one mentioned before that were written by soldiers in the personal recollections. “The Commo Man” by Pete Childress, tells an account similar to the one mentioned before where an innocent civilian loses his life due to an unnecessary action committed by a U.S. soldier. In this personal recollection, a group of U.S. soldiers had been joking about finding the ‘commo man.’ The U.S. soldiers had been “finding bits and pieces of communications gear--a length of wire, a handset, some batteries…”2. They made jokes about what they were “going to do to "The Commo Man" when we [U.S. soldiers] finally found him”2. Later on, a grandfather is walking with his grandson, and the U.S. soldiers tell the sergeant that he is the ‘commo man.’ The U.S. sergeant becomes overwhelmed by the pressure of his fellow soldiers and shoots and kills the grandfather for no apparent reason. These types of unnecessary acts occurred often by U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War, and both the lecture and the personal recollections talk about these types of awful actions.
After reading the personal recollections, my mind has changed about the Vietnam War. I used to believe that the U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were actually fighting guerilla battles 24/7. I thought it was actually very tough for them to stay there and fight, and constantly fearing for their lives. But, after I read the personal recollections, I realized that the U.S. soldiers did have time to go and have fun. One U.S. soldier stated speaking of the time to relax, “we all had our favorite bars and quite often our favorite girls”3. When they would relax and go to the bar, they would often have sex with the local women. Here the U.S. soldier states speaking of having sex with a lady at the bar by saying, “…her job performance was based on quantity not quality. A trip behind or curtain or up a stair was quickly followed by a very non-romantic encounter. Complete with "sincere" noises expounding on what a wonderful #1 boy friend you would make if only you would agree to pay her rent etc, etc”3. So after reading the personal narratives, I realized the soldiers did not just constantly fight a war, but they had time to relax and have fun.
Everybody has a different viewpoint on what they believe really happened in Vietnam or how the war came to be. From reading the lecture by a historian, and reading the personal recollections by individuals who actually experienced the war firsthand, the two sources did not contradict each other. They both had the same information, but they were written in a different way. The lecture speaks in a third person point of view, giving a more broad picture on what really happened, and the personal recollections speak in a first person point of view giving more knowledge and detail into the actions/events that occurred during the Vietnam War.
1The Vietnam War and the Tragedy of Containment. 17. On-line. Internet. 4 May 2003. Available:
WWW: http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/omalley/120/victory/vietnam/contain.html
2The Commo Man. 12 June 2001: 7. On-line. Internet. 4 May 2003. Available:
WWW: http://www.vwip.org/articles/c/ChildressPete_TheCommoMan.htm
3A Day in the Ville. 11 June 2001: 3. On-line. Internet. 4 May 2003. Available:
WWW: http://www.vwip.org/articles/c/CalbreathJim_DayInTheVille.htm