The Tragedy in the Vietnam WarBy: Keegan

ContentsPg 1. CoverPg 2. Author’s NotePg 3. Family TreePg 4. NarrativePg 5. InterviewPg 6. BibliographyPg 7. Reflection

Author’s Note: The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, against the South Vietnamese and the United States. The war began in 1954 (though conflict in the area stretched back to the mid-1940s), after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and continued against the backdrop of an intense Cold War between two global superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union.  More than three million people (including 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War; more than half were Vietnamese civilians. By 1969, which was the peak of U.S. involvement in the war, more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the war. Growing opposition to the war in the United States led to bitter divisions among Americans, both before and after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. In 1975, communist forces seized control of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year. My granduncle was serving in South Vietnam as a medic in the Australian military base.

Family Tree:

Narrative:The  Tragedy  in  the  Vietnam  War

It  all  started  when  I,  a  muscular  yet  nervous  young  man  stepped  into  the  Australian  military  base  in  Vietnam.  I  was  married  to  Sylvia,  who  had  sent  me  off  and  was  praying  for  my  safety  back  at  home.  The  look  of  anxiety  on  my  face  was  a  conspicuous  sign  that  it  was  my  @irst  time  at  war.  I  felt  out  of  place,  where  the  soldiers  ate,  drank  and  chatted  heartily.  No  one  seemed  to  notice  me,  as  if  I  were  a  shadow  in  their  midst.  Glancing  around,  I  noticed  a  striking  young  man  gesturing  to  me  to  come  over.  He  was  a  tall,  burly  guy  with  blond  hair.  Curious,  I  walked  over.  “Hi,  what’s  your  name?”  the  young  man  asked  nonchalantly.  

“I…I’m  Steven,”  I  stammered.“My  name  is  Robert,”  the  man  replied  with  a  smile.“By  the  way,  are  you  from  Australia?”  Robert  

asked.“Yes,”  I  replied.  He  continued,  “Are  you  married?”Enthusiastically,  I  exclaimed,  “Yes,  I  am!”  I  then  

whipped  out  a  picture  of  my  beloved  wife  and  showed  it  to  him.  Examining  it,  he  told  me  about  his  girlfriend,  how  he  planned  to  marry  her,  and  get  a  second  degree  in  university  while  passing  me  some  of  his  photos.  The  photos  all  featured  a  slim  young  woman,  in  her  early  

twenties  with  a  smile  on  her  face  that  could  make  anyone  feel  good  around  her.  “She’s  my  girlfriend,  you  know,”  Robert  told  me.  I  could  almost  see  his  eyes  sparkle  when  he  mentioned  her.

As  if  we  were  destined  to  be  best  friends,  the  two  of  us  hit  off  immediately.  Even  though  we  had  just  met  each  other,  we  acted  as  if  we  were  old  buddies,  drinking  and  laughing  throughout  the  night.

  It  was  a  big  day  for  everyone,  especially  me,  who  was  the  greenhorn  in  the  division.  Crawling  into  the  trenches  in  the  forest,  we  waited  for  the  enemy  to  arrive.  The  next  few  minutes  were  a  blur.  Gun@ire  was  all  around,  with  the  occasional  crack  of  the  heavy  artillery.  I  was  crouched  inside  the  trench,  tending  to  the  wounded  and  hoping  that  I  would  survive  the  day.  Luckily,  I  was  only  the  medic,  so  my  chances  of  getting  hit  were  much  lower  than  the  average  soldier.  Beside  me,  Robert  was  trying  to  peek  out  of  the  trench,  desperately  trying  to  monitor  the  enemies’  position  so  that  he  could  give  the  order  that  would  signal  the  troops  manning  the  heavy  artillery  to  @ire  at  the  enemy.

Suddenly,  the  crack  of  a  ri@le  reached  my  ears.  I  glanced  up  at  the  opening  of  the  trench,  only  to  see  my  good  friend  Robert  falling  from  it.  Blood  gushed  out  from  a  small  hole  in  his  head  where  the  Vietnamese  put  a  bullet  through.  There  was  no  time  to  cry  out,  not  even  to  give  the  order.  Anger  and  grief  washed  over  

me.  I  felt  so  helpless  standing  over  my  friend’s  lifeless  body.  Yet,  being  inexperienced  with  guns,  I  made  no  attempt  to  @ire  back.  Instead,  I  yelled  at  the  others,  “Come  on!  Shoot  them!  Kill  them  all!”  Afterwards,  I  yelled  at  the  Vietnamese,  “I  hate  you!”  a  fellow  comrade  then  took  me  away  and  tried  to  console  me.

The  next  few  days  passed  in  a  blur.  No  matter  how  many  I  healed  in  the  battle@ield,  no  matter  how  many  lives  I  saved,  the  fact  that  I  could  not  save  Robert  was  etched  in  my  mind,  soul  and  being  for  eternity.  I  woke  up  constantly  back  at  home,  my  screams  echoing  throughout  my  house  as  the  image  of  Robert’s  bloody  @igure  came  into  my  dreams.  And  forty  years  later,  despite  all  that  time  to  erase  that  gruesome  memory,  I  would  tell  my  grandnephew  all  that  had  happened  as  if  it  was  yesterday,  and  I  can  only  hope  that  the  same  fate  does  not  befall  him.

Interview:Name: StevenDate of birth: Where he currently lives: AustraliaHistoric event that affected them: Vietnam WarsPhysical description: Big burly, has a tattoo on his right forearm and has white hair, wrinkles on his face and wears spectaclesPersonality traits (what r they like?): Is jovial, friendly, likes to tell stories and jokes as well as has many photos of his nieces and nephews.

1) What happened in the Vietnam Wars?

In the first one of the French tried to re-colonise their colonies after Japan was defeated at the end of WW2. They fought against a (predominately) communist forces called the Viet Minh. The war ended in a big defeat for the French at Dien Ben Phu, but since a lot of Vietnamese weren't communist two states were formed, the communist one in the north and the non-communist one in the south. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese catholics streamed south to get away from communism. This all ended about 1954.

In the second one the Americans became alarmed at the communists conducting guerrilla warfare against the south, which had a very corrupt government. Eventually they, and some of their allies, sent in troops to help the south survive but it didn't work. They fought the war without ever seeming to realise that you have to win the people as well as battles. They left, and a couple of years later (about 1975) the south fell.

2) Why did the war start?

The first one started because the Vietnamese wanted to be free of French colonial domination. The second one started because the communists wanted to control all of Vietnam, and the Americans were worried that if Vietnam fell communism would spread all over South East Asia.

3) How did you feel when you served in the war?

Hot, sticky, tired and, on a couple of occasions, rather scared.

4) What did you do—strategies, weapons, things the Vietnamese did against you?

I was a medic attached to a battery of field artillery. At that stage of the war the VC (Viet Cong) had discovered that it was a bad idea to attack Australians since we had fought the Japanese in New Guinea and had been fighting in the jungle since 1948 against Malayan terrorists, the Indonesian army in Borneo etc and were actually better jungle fighters than they were. They tried to leave us alone but we went looking for them. They did set a lot of rather cunning booby traps.

5) What do you think about the war?

It didn't achieve it's objective, but maybe it bought democracy time. Who knows.

6) What was the date that you started serving in Vietnam?

I was in SVN (South Viet Nam) in 1971.

7) What was the timespan of the event?

For Australia it started in 1962 when the Australian Army Training Team was sent to help train the South's army. Regular troops first landed in about

1965, and we withdrew about 1972.

8) What were the immediate consequences of the event?

Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all suffered terribly after they fell. The communists sent thousands of the old regimes soldiers, civil servants etc to "re-education camps" a polite way of saying prison, and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge murdered millions of their own people. They even killed people who wore glasses in case they had been studying and were "intellectuals".

9) Were there any injuries, close friends lost?

No injuries, I was lucky. Two people I knew were killed, one shot, one stabbed. Over the ten year period I believe we lost about 520 men killed. In ten years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan we've lost 38, so I suppose you could say it was rather intense.

10) How did it affect you?

Not as much as other people. I come from a military family with four generations of soldiers behind me. I was raised around army barracks, and attended army schools. Even my mother had been in the army, and wartime stories were common at the

dinner table, from both my parents and grandparents.

11) How did the war change your perspective?

It didn't. I was a fiercely pro-democracy anti communist before the event, and remain so to this day.

12) Who was with you that you know well?

Nobody. I was a professional soldier and it was just a job for me. I never bothered keeping in touch with anybody from the regiment. Also we weren't treated very well when we came home so most of us just ticked the box as closed and got on with life.

13) Particular moment that you remember clearly?

A young and very popular officer had been living in the pit next to me. He'd told me all about his girl friend, how he planned to get married and maybe do a second degree at university. I showed him pictures of my wife and daughter and we got on really well. Then we got the news that he'd levered himself up to get a look at the enemy position so that he could call in fire and had been shot dead. That was over forty years ago but I can remember the moment I was told as if it were yesterday.

Bibliography:Vietnam War http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war

Reflection:What specific challenges did you face during this project?The communication with the family member who I interviewed was a problem because my granduncle did not use Skype and overseas calls were costly, but we decided to do so anyway.

What did you learn about your family member? (personality, character…)

He was a jolly guy who can make everyone around him feel good but I’ve always known him to be like that anyways. He is also very knowledgable about the subject I was interviewing him on, which probably shows that he is very observant.

What did you learn about yourself (as a learner, as a

family member)?I have learnt that it is one thing to hear a story and another to actually experience the situation.

How have you grown? (as a writer…)

I have learnt to spot excessive parts in my narrative as well as refine my ideas.

Why do you think doing a project like this is important?It allows me to understand what my relative went through before and compare it to how life is like so that I can avoid the mistakes he made.

What part of this process did you enjoy most? Why?

I enjoyed the interviewing the most because I got to chat with my granduncle whom I had not seen in a while.

What part of this process did you least enjoy? Why?

I did not like the ‘researching-for-information’ part because I took quite some time to look through everything.

How do you plan to share this project with your family/

family member?I plan to print it out and show it to my mom.