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I was a teen and planned on entering into the military and go overseas but this war ended before I graduated. So I guess it did influence me in a way that I wanted to help. Still tried to enter into the military after I graduated but my lousy hearing kept me out. Everything still worked out well for me in the end.
I was 10 when the war ended, remember being worried about my cousin’s boyfriend (later husband) who did three tours in the marines. Remember watching the evacuation on TV more vividly. I didn’t have much of an opinion other than War=bad.
I watched CBS news every night with my parents. My father was a veteran of the battle of Okinawa, where 200,000 people died. He would call out bullshit and blunders he was seeing on screen.
Remember this was when there was only 30 minutes of national news every day. Local news rarely covered anything about the war. No 24/7 news feeds, no internet. Magazines and newspapers gave more in-depth analysis of the battles, and magazines, in particular, had more graphic images than TV news.
Heck yeah, every night. Influenced my outlook on a lot of things: I still won’t say the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem, and I will never hang the flag.
I turned off all news for three years after a year or so of watching uncut, uncensored war film on nightly news. It was AWFUL. Everything about that war was despicable.
I lost my Dad when he was shot down in 1966. MIA. I was such a war hawk. As I grew up, watched the news, I could not support it. My Mom lost it when I declared as a sole surviving son when I was drafted.
Seeing young Americans dying on the battlefield on the nightly news as we ate our meals, most realized Vietnam was not worth dying for, let then solve their own civil war.
Yup. Was all grown up, finished college, and working when I remember watching soldiers, bloody from battle wounds and crying/screaming being loaded into Huey helicopters for evacuation.
I distinctly remember eating dinner – spaghetti if I recall correctly – while soldiers were bleeding out on my TV screen. After thinking about it and realizing I could do that without losing my appetite, I decided 1) TV was desensitizing me to reality and 2) I didn’t want to be that way, uncaring because another’s suffering wasn’t real. I certainly was against the war as it was just a naked power grab and way for the Military-Industrial Complex to make bank. The lies about ‘body counts’ from the Army were transparently obvious.
So – got rid of the TV. Raised my kids w/o one, too. If they wanted entertainment, they had to learn to read. We also talked to each other. Still don’t have a TV, but I do watch videos on YouTube and sometimes movies on Plex.
Casualties from the Middle East wars were brought home in the middle of the night and no news cameras were allowed to film them unloading the planes. In the late 60s/70s our ‘Free Speech Zones’ were the entire USA. In subsequent wars, protestors were herded away from crowds and politicians so they could ‘protest’ out of range of cameras.
Our mother would listen to All Things Considered on the radio in the late afternoons while lying down with a headache, and there would always be bad news about the war and the bombings and the casualties. I support NPR and listen to other shows, but to this day cannot listen to All Things Considered or their theme music.
My dad started watching the news every night at 5, so 3 programs. Every night I had to watch young men carried off on stretchers with the sound of helicopters. Distressing for sure.
For me it was 4.19.1968 when we got news that my neighborhood friend was KIA in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. I shall never forget his flag draped casket and his family’s tears.
Oh man, I was a kid born 1960. My parents didn’t watch TV during dinner, but would wheel one in at the height of the conflict. Pretty disturbing for a 10-11 year old. I was terrified to get drafted.
Why did the U.S. start the war with Vietnam. The answer i always get is because Vietnam was communist.
Why did the U.S. care if Vietnam was communist? It never made any sense.
I turned 18 in 1966. Got a notice in the mail a week before my birthday that I was to report to the Selective Service Board within two weeks following my birthday and that I was legally obligated to carry the card with me 24/7.
I’d done a history project on Vietnam war current events in the news the year prior. It had become quite clear to me at that time that the war was escalating with no end in sight. A week before I graduated from high school, Marine recruiters came on campus in their dress blues and battle ribbons, promising to make us all men if we signed up. Seven boys from my senior class of 250 kids did just that.
But, not me, as I was headed for college.
It was that next year when a couple of those boys were now dead and the nightly news was full of bloody combat footage that my anti-war sentiment congealed. There were also Viet vets returning home and attending school along side me with nothing but horror stories to share about their experience. That was impossible to ignore.
Then one of my college buddies dropped out, lost his student deferrment, got drafted and sent over. Larry was his name. A black kid – athlete – track star. Six months later, Larry was back on campus. Only now he had no feet as they’d both been blown off when he’d stepped on a land mine. Then my best friend, Tom’s younger brother came home without his legs for the same reason.
So, there were a lot more things to see and hear than the nightly news to help influence my perspective.
I did. They posted dead service member’s faces on the evening news. My older brother was 17 when the war ended. Until then we were all terrified he’d be drafted.
I had no choice but to watch it. Every night on the nightly news. The helicopters, the execution of that poor man, the young girl with the Napalm burns, the student protesters, the USO shows, my parents had it on every single day
What stood out more to me were the casualty reports on the radio, probably because I didn’t watch the nightly TV news much, but couldn’t escape radio news.
That war changed me forever. I was too young to help draft dodgers when it happened. I got my chance back in the 90s when there was once again the threat of conscription. I told my brother to send his sons here to Canada. I don’t want my family fighting and dying for rich old men.🍁
Every night on Cronkite. It was truly horrific. I was 13 when I learned that a casualty meant a death. Up until then I thought it was something casual, like a sprained ankle.
I had two Uncles in Vietnam from 67 to 69. I was 7-9 years old. My mom watched Walter almost every night and I did too thinking my Uncles would be on. They never were. Both made it home. One died from Agent Orange in 2001, and the other died from mesothelioma in 2007.
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I was a teen and planned on entering into the military and go overseas but this war ended before I graduated. So I guess it did influence me in a way that I wanted to help. Still tried to enter into the military after I graduated but my lousy hearing kept me out. Everything still worked out well for me in the end.
Absolutely, especially after I got my draft card.
I was 10 when the war ended, remember being worried about my cousin’s boyfriend (later husband) who did three tours in the marines. Remember watching the evacuation on TV more vividly. I didn’t have much of an opinion other than War=bad.
You couldn’t miss it, the war was covered everywhere.
Especially the weekly “body count”.
I watched CBS news every night with my parents. My father was a veteran of the battle of Okinawa, where 200,000 people died. He would call out bullshit and blunders he was seeing on screen.
Remember this was when there was only 30 minutes of national news every day. Local news rarely covered anything about the war. No 24/7 news feeds, no internet. Magazines and newspapers gave more in-depth analysis of the battles, and magazines, in particular, had more graphic images than TV news.
Heck yeah, every night. Influenced my outlook on a lot of things: I still won’t say the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem, and I will never hang the flag.
I turned off all news for three years after a year or so of watching uncut, uncensored war film on nightly news. It was AWFUL. Everything about that war was despicable.
I lost my Dad when he was shot down in 1966. MIA. I was such a war hawk. As I grew up, watched the news, I could not support it. My Mom lost it when I declared as a sole surviving son when I was drafted.
Seeing young Americans dying on the battlefield on the nightly news as we ate our meals, most realized Vietnam was not worth dying for, let then solve their own civil war.
Yup. Was all grown up, finished college, and working when I remember watching soldiers, bloody from battle wounds and crying/screaming being loaded into Huey helicopters for evacuation.
I distinctly remember eating dinner – spaghetti if I recall correctly – while soldiers were bleeding out on my TV screen. After thinking about it and realizing I could do that without losing my appetite, I decided 1) TV was desensitizing me to reality and 2) I didn’t want to be that way, uncaring because another’s suffering wasn’t real. I certainly was against the war as it was just a naked power grab and way for the Military-Industrial Complex to make bank. The lies about ‘body counts’ from the Army were transparently obvious.
So – got rid of the TV. Raised my kids w/o one, too. If they wanted entertainment, they had to learn to read. We also talked to each other. Still don’t have a TV, but I do watch videos on YouTube and sometimes movies on Plex.
Casualties from the Middle East wars were brought home in the middle of the night and no news cameras were allowed to film them unloading the planes. In the late 60s/70s our ‘Free Speech Zones’ were the entire USA. In subsequent wars, protestors were herded away from crowds and politicians so they could ‘protest’ out of range of cameras.
Our mother would listen to All Things Considered on the radio in the late afternoons while lying down with a headache, and there would always be bad news about the war and the bombings and the casualties. I support NPR and listen to other shows, but to this day cannot listen to All Things Considered or their theme music.
Too young.
Mama was a Beatnik, literally spent the 60’s in Greenwich Village coffee shops and bars. Straight up socialist.
She taught me to never, ever disparage the men coming back from war.
yes
Every. Goddam. Night.
With Walter Cronkite intoning over the footage.
In those days, everyone watched the evening news… the only option was which of the 3 networks you favored at 6pm: CBS, NBC, ABC.
Many commentators have said that it was the immediacy and intensity of the nightly news coverage that helped turn Americans against the war.
I visited the war museum in Vietnam. They call it the American war.
My dad started watching the news every night at 5, so 3 programs. Every night I had to watch young men carried off on stretchers with the sound of helicopters. Distressing for sure.
People I knew getting killed was a factor, too. My dad was a deceased WWII vet so I had a sole surviving son deferment.
For me it was 4.19.1968 when we got news that my neighborhood friend was KIA in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. I shall never forget his flag draped casket and his family’s tears.
Oh man, I was a kid born 1960. My parents didn’t watch TV during dinner, but would wheel one in at the height of the conflict. Pretty disturbing for a 10-11 year old. I was terrified to get drafted.
Why did the U.S. start the war with Vietnam. The answer i always get is because Vietnam was communist.
Why did the U.S. care if Vietnam was communist? It never made any sense.
Uncle Walter (Cronkite)
I remember the body count report.
I turned 18 in 1966. Got a notice in the mail a week before my birthday that I was to report to the Selective Service Board within two weeks following my birthday and that I was legally obligated to carry the card with me 24/7.
I’d done a history project on Vietnam war current events in the news the year prior. It had become quite clear to me at that time that the war was escalating with no end in sight. A week before I graduated from high school, Marine recruiters came on campus in their dress blues and battle ribbons, promising to make us all men if we signed up. Seven boys from my senior class of 250 kids did just that.
But, not me, as I was headed for college.
It was that next year when a couple of those boys were now dead and the nightly news was full of bloody combat footage that my anti-war sentiment congealed. There were also Viet vets returning home and attending school along side me with nothing but horror stories to share about their experience. That was impossible to ignore.
Then one of my college buddies dropped out, lost his student deferrment, got drafted and sent over. Larry was his name. A black kid – athlete – track star. Six months later, Larry was back on campus. Only now he had no feet as they’d both been blown off when he’d stepped on a land mine. Then my best friend, Tom’s younger brother came home without his legs for the same reason.
So, there were a lot more things to see and hear than the nightly news to help influence my perspective.
I was more influenced by being 8 and watching my 18yo brother listen to the radio with my parents to see if his draft lottery number was up.
The news was useless. Most information getting out was from the guys who actually came back.
I did. They posted dead service member’s faces on the evening news. My older brother was 17 when the war ended. Until then we were all terrified he’d be drafted.
What a waste of young life 😪
I had no choice but to watch it. Every night on the nightly news. The helicopters, the execution of that poor man, the young girl with the Napalm burns, the student protesters, the USO shows, my parents had it on every single day
Yes. They didn’t have the censorship of war that we have now.
Yes, and I was draft age at the time. It was terrifying. It made me wonder why we were even fighting over there.
Yeah, I saw it. But I was 6. The severity flew way over my head.
What stood out more to me were the casualty reports on the radio, probably because I didn’t watch the nightly TV news much, but couldn’t escape radio news.
Yes
Yes
I’m old but not that old that I’d have followed foreign news back then. Except space stuff.
That war changed me forever. I was too young to help draft dodgers when it happened. I got my chance back in the 90s when there was once again the threat of conscription. I told my brother to send his sons here to Canada. I don’t want my family fighting and dying for rich old men.🍁
Every night on Cronkite. It was truly horrific. I was 13 when I learned that a casualty meant a death. Up until then I thought it was something casual, like a sprained ankle.
I had two Uncles in Vietnam from 67 to 69. I was 7-9 years old. My mom watched Walter almost every night and I did too thinking my Uncles would be on. They never were. Both made it home. One died from Agent Orange in 2001, and the other died from mesothelioma in 2007.
I didn’t watch it much because I was prime for the draft. I did get drafted in 1969, but I was sent to Germany.