Why Are Personal Interviews Important?

Moving from the 1950’s to the 1960’s events changed from having problems at home to once again having problems abroad. I found the Vietnam War to be the most significant event of the 1960’s because it consumed upward to half the decade and even into the 1970’s. The Vietnam War stands as the United States longest military conflict in History. According to a website dedicated to the Vietnam War, “The hostilities in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans. Another 304,000 were wounded.” (The Ultimate Resource for the Vietnam War. 2007). This war had a great impact on many Americans especially for the ones who fought in this war. I have an uncle that fought in the Vietnam War. He was one of the unfortunate soldiers in the jungles that got sprayed with Agent Orange. He has major disabilities and has not been able to work for many years. He still has frequent nightmares stemming from his experiences in the War and his life is still hugely affected by his service many years ago. Richard M. Nixon stated in 1985 that, “No event in

We originally chose our topic off of the Cold War standards because that is what we were currently learning in class. We decided on our specific topic (Vietnam War drafting) for two reasons. The first one was because Ellie’s Grandpa, Steve Pomerleau, was drafted into the war in 1969. We thought it would be a very interesting experience to interview him because he had a personal connection to the war and what happened. The second reason was because we knew very little about the vietnam war and wanted to know what happened and how it affected the world. We eventually narrowed down our topic to Vietnam war drafting because many people did not realize how it affected the soldiers.

Hopkins, A. (2012). Protest and Rock n' Roll During the Vietnam War. Student Pulse, 4(11).

During the 1960s our nation was going through many important and crucial events. From the Vietnam War to national politics, and even civil rights, our country was changing a lot. In particular, the year 1968, was when our country went through a major turning point, especially when you take in consideration the major events that involved the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement such as the “Tet Offense”, violent protests, and the Civil Rights Act being passed.

With the overwhelming amount of Levittown houses, the obsession to obtain the perfect American “ideal family” as seen on TV and the unspoken agreement to fear any and all foreign ideas and values, the 1950s were revealed to be a decade of prosperity, conformity and consensus. Just ten years later the atmosphere in America was shockingly different; the 1960s were a decade of turbulence, protest and disillusionment due to the ongoing struggle for civil rights, arising feminism, and the Vietnam War.

When I heard about the riot and massacre that had occurred in Clinton one hundred years ago, I was left in complete shock. I had never before heard about these events. They weren’t told in my history classes. We never covered them whenever we talked about events that happened in Mississippi. So, when Thursday came and I sat and heard about what had happened I was left intrigue and wanting to know more.The event started off with former Mayor Walter Howell, who is the official historian of Clinton, telling an account of what had happened. He paraphrased the history of things, yet, he left things accurate and precise.

This thematic standpoint in return provides ground for a second major theme; the 1960s was home to the birth of civil rights movements and forever changed the American idea of the status quo. To a large extent, it is agreeable that that the 1960s serves as the era that led to activism in the US. Anderson is able to confirm and strengthen his standpoint by the fact that it was during one of the greatest milestones of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, that for the first time in the history of the US, the government was subjected to criticism and attacks against their “ways”. This can be evidenced by the fact that Americans, which were majority college students, took to the streets to protest government action. At the time, the policies and actions put forth by the government were seen to be very secretive and wrong. Citizens were hastily informed about the need to stop the spread of communism at the expense of capitalism. Not only were government policies seen as corrupt, the government had kept the American society in the dark concerning the actual situation in Vietnam. There seemed to be no cost that was worth retreating from Vietnam. Draft calls were constantly increasing and the war itself began to result in federal expenditures, deficits, and inflationary pressures ( Anderson 90). For some Americans, the war not only damaging, but unfair. Mexican Americans were the poorest and

History 1302 Final Exam Spring 2013 On the day of the final, the students will be told which two prompts they will be required to respond to in blue books that the students have provided to the instructor. Essays should show a great deal of thought and range between “short answers” and formal essays, leaning closer to the idea of an essay. The student may have one page of handwritten notes on a standard size sheet of paper (8½ X 11). Bring this sheet with you to the final. 1) The events at the 1968 Democratic national Convention in Chicago suggested to many that the nation was disintegrating. But, as the authors of the textbook have noted, the tensions that seemed so palpable that summer had been long in developing and had “revealed deep

Throughout history many people, places, and ideas have been forgotten, and then there are some that we can never forget. These memories can be different for all societies and cultures. The events that are remembered not only affect those living today, but changes the way future generations live. This type of memory was especially prevalent during the American civil war. It affected the soldiers fighting in the war as well as the children of those who fought. It is vital that we have an awareness about the role of children in the Civil War. The understanding of the children in the civil war is important because it shaped the variety of individuals’ affected, motivated troops to continue fighting, and formed race relationships that would define our country for decades to come. It also helps to show how it is the responsibility of historians to inculcate their audiences to the consequences of past events on all levels to influence decision making on contemporary issues.

The 1970s was an eventful time in United States history. During the decade citizens saw positive actions committed by government officials such as ending the Vietnam War and negative actions such as the Watergate scandal. Notable, the United States documented an “unreported resistance” among its citizens. The “unreported resistance” was made of the numerous American men and women who did not support the government actions at the time. They protested nuclear plants, government munitions deals with Nicaragua, and they were not accurately represented in voting.

Hundreds of bodies littered the ground. Sounds of explosions and endless gunfire filled the air. Soldiers, with their uniforms splashed in crimson, fought viciously and ruthlessly. Their main objective, which was to win the battle, took a backseat to their newfound desperation to stay alive. After all, war is not a game, especially one such as the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and left its survivors haunted by a multitude of atrocious events. Terry Erickson’s father and George Robinson, who were two fictional characters from the short stories “Stop the Sun” and “Dear America”, respectively, were veterans of the Vietnam War. The differences and similarities between Terry’s father and George Robinson are striking, and they merit rigorous scrutiny.

The anti-war protests of the 1960s was a response of resentment by minorities and young educated college students against the nation’s desire to participate in war against Communism in Vietnam and conduct a military draft. The protests, originally began with peaceful public demonstrations by activists, who were nonviolent; however, the peaceful demonstrators were frequently attacked and victimized by the police and other citizens, who did not share their same opinion. Throughout the peaceful protests the activists suffered many beatings in the hands of the police and as a result, many of the activists claimed the right of self-defense and turned to taking offensive actions against their oppressors including the police and other citizens. Later, the scene of violence and mayhem quickly shifted to college campuses, to which college students began protesting the draft (Gurr, 1989, pp. 183-185). At the time the average age of an American soldier serving in Vietnam was 19 and students quickly rebelled after realizing that young Americans were legally old enough to be drafted to fight and die, but were not yet legally allowed to vote or drink alcohol (UShistory, nd.).

In the speech “ Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence”, Dr. King speaks out on the issues brought upon by the Vietnam War and how it has a negative impact on African Americans. He displays a frustrated and irritated tone to shed light on this problem in order to entice anger within the African American community of Harlem and call them to fight against social injustice and fight for their civil rights.

The subject of my interview is a 68 year elderly Vietnamese man named Minh “Bi” Ngo. Mr. Ngo has white long hair, a medium long white beard and a distinctive mole on the bottom of his left eye and a thick Vietnamese accent. He was born and raised in Vietnam on April 3rd, 1947. He is also a widow who is currently living with his daughter in Westminster, Orange County. Originally, Mr. Ngo was from the city of Buon Ma Thuot in the province of Dak Lak, Vietnam. He then immigrated to Falls Church, Virginia where he began his new life in the United States. At the time of the interview, Mr. Ngo looked very exhausted yet grateful at the same time. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Ngo through his daughter, who is a friend of my cousin. I conducted the interview on the afternoon of September 24th, which lasted for two hours. During the interview Mr. Ngo shared with me his experiences during the Vietnam war, his times in the Vietnamese Reeducation camps, his immigration to the United States, and his involvement in the Vietnamese community today. As the interview continues on, I began to comprehend a little bit more on the way it was back then and how the common folks

Conducting interviews is fundamental as a case manager. In order to understand more about good interviewing, I decided to watch an interview about an addict mother conducted by Dr. Phil. While watching this interview, I made some notes on attitudes and characteristics that I considered important for good interviewing. The characteristics will be presented in the following paragraphs.