Oral History Interview with Colin Blaydon

Title
Oral History Interview with Colin Blaydon
Narrator (written)
Colin Blaydon
Narrator First Name
Colin
Narrator Last Name
Blaydon
Interviewer
Riley Collins
Abstract
Professor Colin C. Blaydon. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Professor Blaydon describes growing up in Newport News, Virginia as the son of a Naval architect and engineer. Blaydon discusses his school experience, race relations, and segregation in Virginia during his childhood. Blaydon describes attending the United States Military Academy at West Point. He shares that West Point was a difficult experience and was able to transfer to University of Virginia as a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Blaydon discusses being commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers after graduation, however, he attended Harvard University for graduate school and did not go into active duty until 1966 after he completed graduate school. He shares his experience at Harvard studying modern control theory and later received his PhD in applied mathematics. He was commissioned by the Atomic Energy Commission for a nuclear technology fellowship. Blaydon shares how he was able to use his PhD work while on active duty. He describes meeting Alain C. Enthoven after a class at Harvard and as a result of their conversation, Blaydon describes how he was assigned to Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara’s staff. He details his involvement with Army intelligence during the Vietnam War; specifically, his work with drone technology. He describes being sent to the strategic target operations center at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Professor Blaydon describes working in academia his time with the Department of Defense. He worked at Harvard Business School as an Assistant Professor teaching quantitative analysis and finance. He discusses the climate on campus and the difference between graduate and undergraduate student attitudes towards the Vietnam War. He details the events of the Kent State shootings and Harvard’s decision to suspend classes and remove the ROTC from campus. Blaydon describes his involvement with Vietnamese resettlement in the United States after the war. He discusses his career as the Dean of the Tuck School of Business and describes the Tuck School’s participation in establishing a business school for the Vietnam National University during the 1990s. He describes the reception the Americans received in Vietnam during this time.
Date of Interview
August 19, 2016
Subject
Civil/Government Service
Dartmouth Faculty
Dartmouth History
Military Service (Army)
Political Participation
Protest/Antiwar Activism
Upper Valley Resident
Vietnam Era Veteran
Language
English
Rauner ID
DOH-518
Interview Audio Source (MP3)
//rcweb.dartmouth.edu/DDHI/histories/blaydon_colin/blaydon_colin.mp3
Interview Transcript Source (PDF)
//rcweb.dartmouth.edu/DDHI/histories/blaydon_colin/blaydon_colin_transcript_final.pdf
HTML
//rcweb.dartmouth.edu/DDHI/histories/blaydon_colin/blaydon_colin_transcript_final.html

Transcript