-OH+Will+P+final

__ Oral History Notes on the Vietnam War __

The Vietnam War was a very controversial war, but there was one short-term cause that started the war, it all happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August of 1964. In the Gulf of Tonkin U.S ships were stationed, when North Vietnamese ships fired torpedoes at an American ship, the USS Maddox. After the incident President Johnson asked congress to take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression. Congress gave him that power in an overwhelming vote. U.S dropped bombs on North Vietnam in operation Rolling Thunder. Finally marines are put on Vietnam and the war starts in full battle. Being a soldier in the Vietnam War was scary. Most did not want to be there, and some would say they didn’t need to be there. Soldiers were also not used to the warfare. They were trained to “fight the Russians”, but this style of fighting was totally different. It was Guerilla Warfare, the NVA and VC set up traps all over the place, you could see a friend one moment, but when you look back at him you don’t see him because he is underground in a trap. The VC also filled the speared traps with animal poop so you get sick. The VC was very clever, the built a series of tunnel systems underground in North and South Vietnam, so they could disappear and reappear somewhere else quickly and easily. Prisoners of war were treated very harshly. They would be hurt in ways that are illegal in some places. They would be forced to sit in a chair without sleeping, and if you fell asleep or fell over in the chair you would be tortured. The NVA would break your bones, and dislocate elbows, shoulders, and other parts of your body to make it painful. Some prisoners actually asked the NVA to kill them right there because they were tortured and hurt so badly. The NVA responded, “No! You are not ready to die, you must be tortured more!” Luckily, the prisoners were able to create a language called tap code, it consisted a series of knocks or taps on a wall or other surface to communicate with each other. Some got so good that when they were working they would use their broom and sweep the language. The language was based off of this 5x5 grid of letters:

|| 1 || **2**  ||  **3**  ||  **4**  ||  **5**  ||  || If you were communicate the word "WATER", the cipher would be the following (the time between each pair of numbers is smaller than the one between two different letters):
 * ** Tap code ** ||
 * ** 1 ** || A || B || C || D || E ||
 * ** 2 ** || F || G || H || I || J ||
 * ** 3 ** || L || M || N || O || P ||
 * ** 4 ** || Q || R || S || T || U ||
 * ** 5 ** || V || W || X || Y || Z ||
 * The tap code table ||
 * ** W ** ||  ** A **  ||  ** T **  ||  ** E **  ||  ** R **  ||
 * (5,2) || (1,1) || (4,4) || (1,5) || (4,2) ||

media type="youtube" key="Dx8-ffiYyzA" height="349" width="425"

Sources:

[]

[]

[]

[]

Reflection:

This project has helped me get a better understanding of the Vietnam War. Reading about this topic in school is not as exciting as hearing it from someone who actually lived in that time period. My grandparents forgot some things, but I thought it was very cool to hear them tell me about their lives during the war. I also learned about how they reacted to all of the propaganda and protests around their city. I did learn that they really did not support the war or oppose the war, but what they did support were the troops. I thought it was cool to hear that from them because it seemed different, I don't know how but it just did. It might have just been that I mostly hear either "I support the war because the NVA attacked our ship." or "I don't support the war because it is not our problem." it seems like the typical response. My grandparents said this, "We don't support or oppose the war, but we support the troops because they are giving their lives and it isn't their fault. They were drafted and they can't do anything about it, and I'm pretty sure none of them want to be there. That is why we support the troops." I thought that just really stood out to me. I also loved to hear them talk about how their thoughts of the war changed as it got near the end. During the Tet Offensive, they said that they kind of got discouraged because of all the attacks at once, but they still thought that the US would win. Also when the Americans were being air lifted out of Saigon, they said that they thought the US was giving up. Lastly, I thought it was really cool to hear my grandpa say that his friends were drafted to the Korean War, but he wasn't because he had high blood pressure. I thought it was amazing how the army picks and chooses who goes in and who doesn't, and how something like high blood pressure could keep you from being in the war. Overall, I loved this project because it gave me a chance to connect with my grandparents more and learn about some of their stories of life in different time periods. I also really liked this because it was cool to hear this from a first hand account. Don't get me wrong though, text books about the subject are great, and so are primary sources, but to actually hear it from another human-being was really really cool.