This Highly Decorated Vietnam Veteran Remembers '60s America

in the beginning that the war had very little effect on the average American after warriors and people were debating the right or wrong s of Vietnam then it started having an effect but during the 60s there was not much effect unless your son was there if your son was there your daughter was a nurse or whatever and you worried about the war but the average person got up what traffic went to work I got his paycheck what a six-pack and you know how does weekend and watch football and if in a Vietnam came alone he flipped the channel back then we didn't have little flippers for your channels but they changed the channel Vietnam was boring America was so confused I mean for the first time you had fathers and sons fighting over what is patriotism you had brothers and sisters fighting what is patriotism for the first time since the Civil War and it was confusing families were broken up emotionally physically broken up over the Vietnam War I know them I know my friends yeah remember you know when you sit for years in classrooms and you're in an appropiate type community where you stay relatively close you're there because it's either your Township if it's a public school or it's a Catholic school you're there because it's your parish you go through school all these years together and then you grow up some go off to war some stay home when you meet again that meeting where you met originally in the hallways of the different schools and your little boy and little girl when you were protecting your head from the atomic bomb when you meet that same little boy a little girl you had an affinity he had a love and respect for and all of a sudden there's a distance because you served in Vietnam and that hurt and hurt a whole lot and even those that were against the war somehow they confused the war in the warrior and came somewhat against the warrior and that's my resentment to them and it's strong you know I take them on I'll take them on strongly on it so it was wrong and they hurt us and there were a lot of Vietnam veterans hurt because nobody but nobody thought about the returning veterans it was war peace and unfortunately we were instruments gears in the machinery of war and we were expendable and to this day I mean during the 60s when it was vogue to take a black to lunch during the 60s when the women's movement was just starting during the 60s when Hispanics and brown powers starting during all the movements our movement who want to take a Vietnam veteran to lunch if you have a real expensive piece of equipment maybe you'll hire a black maybe you'll hire a Hispanic maybe I'll hire a woman maybe you'll hire an Eskimo you're not about to give that expensive piece of equipment to a Vietnam veteran that the media is portrayed is psychotic a neurotic explosive temperamental so what happened that's why the Vietnam veterans started testing themselves then where they used to hug Miss Molly a little Maui in the hallways of school they put that distance in there that wedge in there their only peace their only solace was in themselves their only peace their only solace the substance abuse that the Vietnam veterans experienced was acute back here in America not in the war zone they may have been introduced to different substances overseas but the abuse of it was back here because they could escape they could hide there their rates of alcoholism their rates of marital breakup all those things are much more dramatic than any other segment of society the rates of unemployment even to this day and we would debate I mean I had a friend of my wife's who was strongly into the anti-war movement and she was always welcome at my house and still is to this day and she was you know she had her point of view I respected her I respected every protestor that stood out there on the street and said we want this to happen I respected Cassius Clay who became Muhammad Ali because he did it within the system the guys who went to Canada I don't respect them at all because they didn't help the system they didn't change the system they didn't point out the gutless spineless politicians you shouldn't go with the flow something's wrong here let's fix it so the people those protestors I had a lot of respect women cuz they were pointing out they're saying either a fish or cut bait they were saying the same thing I was saying in a different way they wanted the same end result as a soldier soldier wanted peace they wanted peace we both wanted peace I saw them drawing out the war but I respected what they were doing to this day you know I'll sit down and chat in a room and people know where I stand and I know where they stand I have to respect them for standing up for their cause and that's what America is all about and that's what they taught us in the 60s and the 50s and those folks from the 40s planted in our head that we can if it's on our mind and sent our hearts and our soul we can talk about it we don't have to always agree and that's one great thing that came out of the 60 generation is that we can agree to disagree and that's a wonderful thing I think before that everyone tried and that's why the politicians who are in power we're all trying to agree they couldn't make a decision I think the protestors and those were serving in uniform would all be proud not as though they would like them but be proud of a politician wouldn't make a stand on an issue they didn't know what the hell you're doing one day they're bombing next day they're not bombing one day they're doing this you know come on you're either gonna do it or not do it it's like being almost pregnant you can't be almost pregnant something you know when something happens it happens and in war what was happening so I respected those guys in the sense that they were doing what they believed in the folks ran away to Canada didn't do anything for America the United States of America they'd do anything for the brothers or the sisters they didn't highlight an issue and as far as I'm concerned they're gutless and did do anything for me or my brothers or sisters splitting splitting of a generation children you grew up with your friends that you made your first holy communion with that you did little things with in life yeah you know you made your Bar Mitzvah with whatever it was all of a sudden there's a change and that change something that you couldn't put your finger on it it was it was painful you would like everything to be the way they were in the early 60s and late 50s you would like every woman to be there at home and every man to have a job but things were changing and we didn't know how to identify those change it was probably the most painful thing was a separation of generations but what happened was the anti-everything group and I have to tell you they're anti everything as far as I'm concerned they were also anti Vietnam veterans and by being anti Vietnam veterans that really really hurt us because that that really split up the gal you made your first communion with or the guy you made your bar mitzvah with that was the cutting point when they turn on us and that group the people that were speaking for peace never picked up a banner and said you know we want to help you guys get a job we want to march to Washington for a job for you guys maybe you did something that we didn't like but it wasn't your fault your and your your teens you graduate from high school you didn't really know the depth of it and I just feel that that was a separation in society can I talk and chat with those people yes can I play an intellectual and mental gymnastics with those people yes no one wants peace more so than someone who's seen war and I can explain that to them his best I see fit but if you're going to engage in a war I'll tell you how to do it and how to finish it real quick and I don't ever ever see another protracted war but America is going to get into and I think the peace people made their point and made it very clear and as a result there's a lot of understanding about the national politics of the world today and about each other in terms of overall learning process unfortunately many many people say they love the 60s but the 60s were just full of negative explosions there's not a whole lot of good to talk about us in the oh I love the 60s also wonderful about the 60s the 60s we had some of the most prominent wonderful people in the world killed we had Vietnam what was still one of them you got to smoke grass what was so wonderful about the 60s there was a lot of pain so the good that came out of it is that we got out of the 60s we're still a nation I mean is an awful awful lot of hurt an awful lot of people that look back at the 60s and they think it romantic you have to remember joining those tight types of strain there's a lot of romanticism and because you're doing something unique and different however I don't know that's good I really don't know that's good

Channel: David Hoffman

Views: 446,244

Keywords: Vietnam, Vietnam veterans, Green Beret, Vietnam War, David Christian, Vietnam soldier, 1960s, 60s, patriotism, honor, war stories, patriots, American history, Vietnam history, Ken Burns Vietnam, Ken Burns documentary, David Hoffman filmmaker, veteran, war hero, warrior, Purple Heart, Silver Star, American military medals, 1960s protesters, draft dodgers, Afghanistan veterans, Afghanistan soldiers, Afghanistan war, Afghanistan stories, Biden Afghanistan

Id: sZX9i24skyE

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 27 2018