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Vietnam Interview

Vietnam Interview United States involvement in Vietnam initially began when the Truman administration of 1948 promised the French that the United States would help them continue their control in Indochina (Campagna). However, most citizens were not aware of this involvement until the official participation of the United States in the Vietnam War from the year 1964 to the year 1973 (Timeline). Vietnam was a new, strange, and often times dangerous land. Each individual soldier lived through a different experience. The one thing they all agreed on was that the country they were sent to save from Communist rule was the exact opposite of what they knew as home in the States Garey Guarisco was drafted into the United States Army in 1971. His experience in this “conflict” instilled in him a heightened sense of responsibility. Garey was nineteen when he entered the Army. The draft at the time was a lottery and if your birth date was chosen it did not matter if you were in college or not, you had to serve after you finished(Guarisco interview). A typical day in boot camp included a 5:00 a.m. wake up call, a mile run, weapon classes, calisthenics, lunch, more classes, and finally dinner. This action- packed day would eventually ended at 6:00 p.m. However, he was not to go to Vietnam quite yet. First he had to go to Fort Polk, Louisiana for Advanced Individual Training (Guarisco interview). Incoming troops realized that at any moment the enemy might attack (Frey-Wouters). The plane he was on was set to land at Cam Ranh Bay (Appendix C1). Garey, a specialist fourth class, was stationed in Quang Tri, an area approximately two miles from the demilitarized zone (Guarisco interview). Living conditions at the base camp were not great, but not altogether terrible. The buildings that the men lived in were referred to as hooches. A hooch would be divided into separate rooms that would hold a couple of guys. The inhabitants of the rooms would pay the Vietnamese for material that they used to cover their particular room in the hooch. In general, one could hire them, tell them what was wanted, give them money for it, and they would bring it back the next time they came (Guarisco interview). Garey and his unit were supposed to spend ten days in the field and then come back for three days of rest and relaxation. More frequently, it was twenty days in the field and then three days back at the base camp. A convoy consisted of four to five rows of anti-personnel carriers (APCs). An APC is a two-track armored vehicle with two sixty-caliber machine guns, one on each side of the vehicle and a fifty-caliber machine gun mounted in the center. Garey’s duty on a convoy was to man one of the sixty caliber machine guns on the side (Guarisco interview). Artillery was meant to soften up an area that was thought to contain troops of the enemy. In one instance, the commanding officer of Garey’s unit called in artillery and one of the shells fell short landing in the hatch of an APC. The result was the death of the five men that were inside. Once there was a firefight, which resulted in a casualty on the opposing troop’s side (Guarisco interview). The climate in the field was much like that of Louisiana: hot and muggy. At night, sleeping under the APCs, the temperature would be or sometimes even exceed one hundred degrees. The heat and humidity were made worse by the mosquitoes. When the weather was not hot and humid, as it was for the first couple months of Garey’s stay, it was the monsoon season (Guarisco interview). Monsoon season started in October and lasted for approximately five to six months (personal letters). The guards at the base camp needed a break just as much as Garey did. Garey was assigned to a special detail which entailed taking over the vacationing guard’s station at the rest and relaxation center on the base. A sergeant received a “Dear John” letter. The sergeant was obviously upset and waded out into the lake, with the intention to commit suicide. He walked in up to his knees and decided that if the sergeant would not come to his senses and come out he would hit him over the head with the butt of his gun and drag him out. Fortunately, for the both of them, Garey was able to reason with the sergeant and he came out of the water (Guarisco interview). Mortar attacks occurred quite often, mostly at night. Crimes were not only committed by the enemy, but also by fight. ellow American soldiers. Garey witnessed no injured being brought into his base camp, but being transferred out. When Garey first arrived at his base camp, in Quang Tri, there was a first sergeant that had had two claymore mines placed under his bed. The first had been faulty and had not exploded. The second had nothing wrong with it and it succeeded in blowing off both of his legs (Guarisco interview). A significant contributor to the amount of crimes committed by American soldiers in Vietnam was drugs (Charasteristics). The young men were sick of the war, so in between battles they used their extra money for drugs (Consequences). Garey estimated that seventy-five percent of the men in Vietnam used drugs. Heroin was cheap, only five dollars a vial and because of its purity, the effects of heroin lasted much longer (Appendix C2). The job guarding an ammo dump in Long Bien proved to be secure because after roughly eight months of serving for his country, Garey received his orders to return home at the conclusion of February 1972. Walking down the street, going home, he met his brother who was on his way to work (Guarisco interview). Garey was finally home, far away from the horrors of a war that was not going to be won. Americans felt the need to intervene in South Vietnam in 1965, aiming to prevent Communist rule in the country (Chandler). As a consequence Vietnam War veterans compose almost ten percent of their generation (Vietnam). Looking back, could the United States have changed its strategy to bring about a better outcome? If the common saying is true and if history, does in fact, repeat itself, will America intervene again? Bibliography: Works Cited Campagna, Anthony S. The Economic Consequences of the Vietnam War. Praeger, 1991. Chandler, Robert W. The U.S. Propaganda Campaign in Vietnam. Westview Press, 1989. "Characteristics of the Vietnam War." . "Consequences of Vietnam War." . Frey-Wouters, Ellen and Robert S. Laufer. Legacy of War: The American Soldier in Vietnam. Sharpe, 1986. Guarisco, Garey interview, 20 October 2001. Conducted in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Notes and tapes in author's possession. Author's step-father. Guarisco, Garey Personal Letters, September 1971 to February1972. Originals in Garey Guarisco's possession. Map of Vietnam, . Map of Quang Tri Province, . Photographs from the Vietnam War . . . "Timeline." . "Vietnam War Statistics." .

Word Count: 1064