Gloria Pollock's Role In The Vietnam War

Gloria Pollock was 16 years old when the Vietnam War began. When the war first started, Mrs. Pollock did not think much of it. She just thought of it as another war that the United States would take care of. It was not a big deal to her, until further into the war, when she realized it could affect the US in a pretty big way. Although she, or anyone in her family, did not fight in the war, she knew a few people that had entered the war. Most of them were her friend’s fathers or brothers. When asked what she remembers from seeing on tv or reading in the newspapers, Mrs. Pollock revealed a lot of horrible things. On tv, there were a lot of nasty stories, like calling the soldiers baby killers, and just shaming them as if it was their fault. Mrs.
Pollock, I interviewed Sharon Reeder. When the Vietnam War began, Mrs. Reeder was nine years old. She was too young to really understand what was happening with the war, so she didn’t have any feelings towards it at the beginning. One of her family friends, Donny Cook, fought in the war, but none of her family members took part in the war. When asked what she remembered from seeing on tv, Mrs. Reeder supplied a bunch of information. She remembered footage of the Vietnamese citizens/children getting killed, and the usage of agent orange, which harmed a lot of the US soldiers, and had many deadly after effects. The news also covered the protests going on, but Mrs. Reeder did not happen to know anyone personally who had been protesting. Because the news of the war was so new, teachers did not talk really talk about it in school. Sometimes it was brought up in history class, but there were not any huge lectures on it. Towards the end of the interview, Mrs. Reeder was also asked questions about the more political side of the Vietnam War. She was uncertain on how she felt towards the war. There were some points that made America’s involvement in war seem okay, and other points that made it seem foolish that America would even consider taking part in the war. Mrs. Reeder didn’t particularly agree with the idea of drafting, as she called it a “necessary evil”, but she knew that if it wasn’t for the draft, they wouldn’t have had anyone to fight in the war. When asked
Reeder and Mrs. Pollock went to schools that did not talk about it as much, because they did not think it would become as life changing as it really did. As the war got more intense, the news started broadcasting a lot more of the action that happened, and both women can remember the horrible stories and footage that was shown. Vietnamese citizens were getting tortured, alongside American soldiers who came back from the war. Mrs. Pollock really felt as though the political leaders were the foolish ones who should not have even gone into war, while on the hand, Mrs. Reeder feels that America was right to go into war, but should not have dragged it out. When soldiers came back from war, they were not the same, as they were depressed or angry. To this day, Mrs. Reeder and Mrs. Pollock both think about war, even though it did not have as big as an impact on their lives, as it did to other families who had soldiers in the war. Both can agree it was a gruesome time that affected America as a