*Released prisoner of war Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm is greeted by his family at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif. Sal Veder—*https://time.com/vietnam-photos/

Jeff Suess, “Our history: 1960s radical Jerry Rubin was a showman” The Cincinnati Enquirer, August 29, 2018. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/08/29/1960-s-radical-jerry-rubin-showman/1132344002/
Mentioned in Pat Kinney interview

*The Courier,* December 17, 1968.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23511406/the-courier/

A conflict that forever changed a generation.

Margaret Sullivan. “The Civil Rights and Vietnam Protests Changed America. Today, They Might be Illegal.” *The Washington Post.* September 24, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-civil-rights-and-vietnam-protests-changed-america-today-they-might-be-illegal/2017/09/22/ae57f778-9ed9-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html

By: Gabrielle Greco

Introduction

The 1960s in the United States was a time of great change and civil unrest. The soocial and political norms of the Greatest Generation were turned upside down as the Baby Boomers embraced rock n’ roll and sexual freedom while protesting for Civil Rights and an end to the Vietnam War. The effects of the Vietnam War extended far beyond the Mekong Delta and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This oral history project focuses on experiences of four members of Cedar Valley who had close relatives or friends serve in the war, or were drafted themselves. Each person interviewed has a different experience to show how the conflict in Vietnam effected the community of Waterloo and Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Greg Greco

Greg Greco is a Waterloo, Iowa native, and owner of Greco & Associates, Financial Services, LLC. He grew up near Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. Greg was a born in 1960, making him a young child when the United States entered Vietnam. Along with six sisters, Greg had one older brother ten years older, Nick Greco. Nick enlisted in the United States Army in 1971.

Below are segments of the oral history interview with Greg Greco as he recollects watching his brother, Nick, leave for the war, watching him struggle with health complications afterwards, and his overall feelings regarding American military involvement in the conflict.

Dominic Joseph Greco, 1951-2017. Provided by the Greco family.

Greg Greco recollects on seeing his brother, Nick, leave for training and the send off at the airport when he left for Vietnam. Greco describes what his brother told him about Vietnam and the story of his first experience of death.

The Greco family learns that Nick had developed brain cancer after he has a grand mal seizure at a fast food restaurant while they were on their way back from a family trip in Missouri.

Following the surgery on Nick’s brain tumor, Greg tells of how Nick learned his health struggles stemmed from his exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam:

“Nick got with the VA in Iowa City, and they called him in. They had a map, and it said that most of the places he’d been, and where they used Agent Orange. He talked about it. They would go in and spray that shit then those guys would go in….they had B52s and they’d go in, and all the vegetation, like a day after they sprayed it, was just all wilted…the palm trees were just like rubber.”

Vietnam Center and Archive. “Film of US Soldiers spraying Agent Orange defoliant onto a riverbank without protective equipment” February 8-11, 1969.

Greg Greco shares his feelings of the Vietnam. He expresses his frustration that it took his brother away, describes the support from the neighborhood, and the war’s impact on American foreign policy.

“They had been through something together, you just knew it.”

Greg notices a special bond shared between Nick and his friend from the serive, Charlie Visco, when he and his wife came to Waterloo, Iowa to visit.

Pat Kinney

Pat Kinney grew up in Waterloo, Iowa. Kinney is a long-time journalist for The Courier, the local Waterloo and Cedar Falls newspaper. Pat’s two older brothers had entered the service straight out of high school for employment and experience outside of Waterloo, Iowa. While neither of them were present in Vietnam, they had friends and classmates who passed away in the war.

Below are segments from the oral history interview with Pat Kinney, who explains how the Vietnam War brought about his coming of age and understanding of death, the experiences his brother’s shared, and the implications of media coverage of the war.

Pat recollects on his childhood and his love of army related toys and comic books, not understanding protesting the military and why US Forces were not winning the war effort, and how he felt about the first person he knew who died in Vietnam.

Shares how his brother was faced with social difficulties after his military service, maintaining a pro- military sentiment about the war, and how he began to question the war when he attended college in the 1970s.

“When they say Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in America, he really was…”

Pat expresses the trust he had in the news media during the war and the Emmy Award winning reporting from reporters in the field.

Walter Cronkite reflects on his speaking out against the Vietnam War 50 years later on CBS, February 27, 2018.

Gary Schieders

Gary Schnieders is a history teacher at Columbus High School in Waterloo, Iowa. He was drafted after his 18th birthday in October of 1964 but was rejected at his pre-induction physical exam due to a medical exemption. In 1965, as the Johnson beings ramp up military engagement in Vietman, he was summoned to appear again.

Mr. Schnieders’ comments on the similarities between the military pullout of Vietnam and the recent pullout of American troops in Afghanistan.

Recollections of the two draft summons he received after high school graduation. Explains the various political conversations occurring around the time of the Vietnam War

“We fell asleep in history class again. It was a repeat performance.”

Comments on the similarities between the pullout of Vietnam and the pullout of Afghanistan.

The PBS segment which Gary Schnieders references.

David Will

David will is a mathematics teacher at Columbus High School in Waterloo, Iowa. He decided to go to college and become a teacher to avoid being drafted into military service for Vietnam. Ultimately he would be drafted in 1968 and stationed in Korea.

Mr. Will’s entire interview is below.

Education, draft summons, training, assignment

“They kept us overnight, which was a rather chaotic experience because we knew we were all goners.”

Stationed in Korea, conditions of their living, Bob Hope Christmas Show, return home

Bob Hope’s USO Christmas Show-Long Binh, Vietnam 1970. This was the same comedy tour David Will attended while stationed in Korea.

Conclusion:

The Vietnam War was the first war that came to the American public through the nightly news. Within Chester J Pack’s article, “And That’s the Way It Was: The Vietnam War on the Network Nightly News,” the author states: “television also showed the war as it was – a confused, fragmented, and questionable endeavor…television nightly news exposed the irrationalities of a war that lacked coherent strategy or clear purpose.” Each person interviewed in this oral history project mentioned the news footage as their first exposure to Vietnam, and placed trust in the media coverage that they were getting the true story of what was really going on.

Almost 50 years has passed since United States military forces withdrew from Vietnam. Public consensus of the war is drastically different today compared to America’s first entrance into the conflict. Sentiments in this interview showed contempt, disgust, at times hatred for ever entering into Vietnam in the first place. Time allows memories to contextualize significant and traumatic experiences.

Bibliography

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Hagopian, Patrick. The Vietnam War in American Memory: Veterans, Memorials, and the Politics of Healing. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009.

McMahon, Robert. “Contested Memory: The Vietnam War and American Society, 1975-2001 Diplomatic History, Vol. 26, No. 2 (April 2002): 159–184.

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Rydstrom, Helle. “Gendered Corporeality and Bare Lives: Local Sacrifices and Sufferings during the Vietnam War.” Signs , Vol. 37, No. 2 (January 2012): 275-299.

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