[speaker002:] well I guess it depends on what age I'm in the thirty something so I know I mean I lived through it uh are you old enough to know about the war
[speaker001:] um just barely yeah I'm uh twenty nine so uh
[speaker002:] oh okay well yeah you're old enough but it was on the fringe
[speaker001:] yes but just uh yeah exactly had some friends over that were that were in it
[speaker002:] it ended when I was in uh college in uh when I turned nineteen in nineteen seventy I can't even remember at this point um when I turned nineteen it was the year that uh the draft was still going on if I had been a male or in Israel I'd have been number two
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] yeah so I learned a lesson in gender um in terms of the war I don't know um
[speaker001:] wowie uh-huh
[speaker002:] see actually I don't really know that much about it I just know socially the impact it had here and what you hear in the media you know um I guess I think it was not that great that we were in there um in terms of for how long it lasted
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] you know what do you think
[speaker001:] um-hum well I think it's uh basically the same way it's certainly has affected uh US policy though there's no question it had an overwhelming effect of how we approached the the thing in uh Iraq
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] because uh the whole thing that was bad about Vietnam was no different from Iraq I mean it was uh one country picking on a smaller weaker one
[speaker002:] right the devastation yeah
[speaker001:] yeah the only difference was that the government said okay if we're going to support this smaller country then we're going to support it a hundred percent and we're going to consider ourselves against in war against these people as well
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah and in full faction yeah
[speaker001:] which uh right which really wasn't the attitude with Vietnam it was sort of a president's war rather than a country's war
[speaker002:] yeah it just kind of dragged on um I don't know how you were historically but I was was a little bit older before I realized just how long it had been going on since LBJ and I mean I had yeah
[speaker001:] right yeah it seemed to me like it was it seemed like it was going on forever yeah
[speaker002:] it really well yeah in fact because in terms of when your there's at least ten years between us so in terms of when you were in school I'm sure that it was you know the majority of your high school and junior high years um
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] one of the things I didn't like was the weapon the weapons I can't even say it the weaponry that systems that they used um it just didn't seem that um
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I don't know technically we knew what we were doing either then you heard about the things like agent orange et cetera and you'd think
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] you know just uh how could the government or the Pentagon uh whomever whomever's in charge there been so careless
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] of course now uh now everyone's more uh you know environmentally uh intelligent than they were back then I mean back then it wasn't commonly known that saccharin was bad for you and all these other things that people
[speaker002:] conscious yeah Nutrisweet yeah and all these other things that's true uh
[speaker001:] that people know about themselves now
[speaker002:] um monetarily too I just don't think we've done enough for the uh Vietnamese people as a whole um in South Vietnam in general in helping them restore themselves
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] you know and I don't know if it's because there aren't any oil fields there
[speaker001:] yeah I don't know if they uh I don't know if they have that resource or not
[speaker002:] yeah I mean I don't think they do but I just think it's kind of a shame that uh you still hear things about the children that are orphans there and um so on a whole I don't know war isn't good and that one I probably um
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] my main opinion would be we shouldn't have done it
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] well that's what I know about the Vietnam War unless you have
[speaker001:] yeah yeah well you know a little uh a little bit more than I do explain it said I didn't uh get to live through it that the people that I know that it did
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh felt very strongly most of I work for a government contractor so most of the guys I work with are uh well at least some of the guys I work with rather are veterans
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum oh Vietnam
[speaker001:] and uh from Vietnam and I haven't talked to any of them that that weren't you know glad that they went or or rather thought that the reason they went was a good one
[speaker002:] jeez yeah um-hum and that that
[speaker001:] you know most of them are very very strongly that that the reason for America to be there was a good one they just felt that the way America backed them up wasn't wasn't at all right
[speaker002:] uh-huh in terms of the personal yeah the bitterness is more on a personal level than on a
[speaker001:] yeah in term of yeah personal level and and the finances how they started you know like air attacks and stuff like that dropped off like crazy because the Congress wouldn't approve you know yeah
[speaker002:] uh-huh the money's after yeah I mean I think it started actually like like in the late fifties I mean like in fifty eight fifty nine
[speaker001:] um I I
[speaker002:] so it really I mean because I know in nineteen sixty three I mean I was nine years old when Kennedy was shot
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so I mean I remember um right around then that that's when I first started hearing about Vietnam but then as I got older and studied in school I realized it was even going on before that
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] you know and you think to yourself oh my goodness Eisenhower that sounds ancient yeah and I know I know you know a lot of the Vietnam vets that are my age in their later thirties um guys that I know that
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] they're just kind of bitter you know they they you know I hate to quote that movie Born on the Fourth of July but it's that kind of idea
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know they just don't feel that socially they were given like a friend of mine called it the yellow ribbon syndrome yeah they weren't given the yeah so
[speaker001:] right right the ticker tape parade and all that
[speaker002:] well I won't keep you anymore that's probably about as much as we both but thanks for talking to me ah yes is that where you're at
[speaker001:] okay yes uh were you calling from Texas no I'm in Falls Church Virginia
[speaker002:] oh I know where that is that's beautiful where you're at
[speaker001:] yeah right right near DC
[speaker002:] DC yeah are you a native of there
[speaker001:] ah pretty much yep been
[speaker002:] yeah uh Dallas it is uh ninety two degrees here today but at least the humidity is uh below forty percent which makes it kind of like Phoenix
[speaker001:] yeah it's about the same weather here little bit little bit cooler like eighty nine but basically the same thing
[speaker002:] really well you yeah well you're not missing too much then
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] really well take it easy okay bye-bye
[speaker001:] okay bye-bye