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Dartmouth Professor Marysa Navarro discusses her experiences with the Vietnam War, as well as her perception of the conflict from academic and individual perspectives.
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Vietnam veteran and Dartmouth alumn Stephen Landa ‘67 describes his experience in Vietnam and his perception of the socio-political climate of the time. Landa further discusses his stance on the conflict as well as his perception of the Vietnamese while on-ground.
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James T. Kloppenberg ’73 discusses his experience as a Dartmouth Professor during the Vietnam War era, as well as his perception of the socio-political climate of the time. In this interview, Kloppenberg also explores how America's post-World War II belief in its global dominance and the purging of experts during the McCarthy era contributed to a simplified understanding of the struggle against global communism and a lack of understanding of the situation in Asia, especially in Vietnam.
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Vietnam veteran and alumn Stephen E. Katz ‘56
describes his experience in Vietnam and his perception of the socio-political climate of the time. Katz further discusses his stance on the conflict as well as his perception of the Vietnamese while on-ground.
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Donovan, John Interview Abstract
1. Growing Up in Boston
2. ROTC at Holy Cross
3. Initial Impresisons of Vietnam
4. Riverine Warfare
5. Losing Faith in Vietnam and Subsequent Reading
6. Post-Navy Transition Period
7. Working in Education and Outdoor Programs
8. Consulting in Southeast Asia and Philanthropy in Vietnam
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Kent Yrchik-Shoemaker, Assistant Dean of the College. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Yrchik-Shoemaker describes his experience growing up in Minnesota, Washington D.C., and London, England. He discusses his experience attending Michigan State University as an undergraduate student and participating in the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He describes racial tensions on campus and why he chose to participate in the ROTC. Yrchik-Shoemaker describes his internal conflict with not believing in the Vietnam War and his sense of duty to serve his country. He shares why his friends called him the “ROTC Hippie” and his involvement with anti-war protests. Yrchik-Shoemaker discusses race relations in the military, his feelings of paranoia, and decision to leave flight training school through a process called self-initiated elimination. He explains why and how he had a mental health note in his military file. He describes his transfer to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California where he was trained as a satellite operations controller and his job as crew chief. Yrchik-Shoemaker discusses how he stayed an extra two years in the service and attended classes for counseling. He describes how the Vietnam War was coming to a close and how it impacted his time in the Air Force. He shares his growing mistrust of the military the longer he worked for them. Yrchik-Shoemaker discusses his role as an Assistant Dean at Dartmouth and his involvement with the undergraduate veterans and the challenges returning to school presented for them. He shares his feelings on the current challenges veterans face when they were active military.
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Dona Strauss, Associate Professor of Mathematics, 1966-1969. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Strauss discusses growing up in South Africa during apartheid. She describes why her family moved from eastern Europe to South Africa. She describes her educational path and how she arrived at Dartmouth College to teach. Strauss discusses her time at Dartmouth and her participation with antiwar activity. Strauss describes a trip she took to a march in Washington D.C. with the Students for a Democratic Society and the Quakers. Strauss describes the student take-over of Parkhurst Hall, the administration building on May 6, 1969. She discusses her involvement and the college’s response to her participation with the event. She describes the disciplinary process that she and Paul S. Knapp went through by the Committee Advisory to the President. She discusses the outcome of the trial and her subsequent departure from Dartmouth College. Strauss discusses living in England, raising her children, and being a professor of mathematics at the University of Hull. She describes the differences between academia in England and the United States.
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Thaddeus Seymour, Dean of Dartmouth College, 1959-1969, and English professor at Dartmouth, 1954-1959. Oral history interview documenting his career at Dartmouth, including his experiences with campus unrest during the Vietnam War. Seymour discusses the controversy surrounding the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at Dartmouth; student anti-war protests, particularly those led by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); and the occupation of Parkhurst Hall in 1969 by student anti-war activists. He describes his physical removal from the building during the protest and the management of the crisis by President John S. Dickey, Class of 1929. Seymour also details the commencement of 1969 and the address given by Nelson A. Rockefeller, Class of 1930.
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Jeremy B. Rutter. Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies, Sherman Fairchild Professor Emeritus in the Humanities. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Rutter describes his experience as the son of a foreign service member who lived in many places throughout the world. He describes his high school experience at Philips Exeter Academy. Rutter discusses his time as a student at Haverford College. He shares his experience being drafted for the Army. Rutter describes how he was sent to language school and then it was cancelled so he instead had to learn how to become a radio operator. Rutter shares how he was placed in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and never saw direct combat in Vietnam. He describes his transition back to the United States and completing his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Rutter describes how he began working at Dartmouth in 1976 until 2012.
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Francis X. Oscadal, Librarian at Dartmouth College Library, 1982-2016. Oral history interview documenting his experience as a conscientious objector (CO) during the Vietnam War. Oscadal describes the process of becoming recognized as a CO, his reasoning for pursuing CO status, and his work as a military draft counselor. He discusses the educational and career paths that led him to his position at Dartmouth.
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John M. Morton, Head Coach, Dartmouth Skiing, 1978-1989. Oral history interview documenting his athletic career and his military service during the Vietnam War. Morton describes his years as an undergraduate at Middlebury College, including participation in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and the ski team. He discusses infantry training at Fort Benning, Georgia, after graduation, as well as the two years he spent stationed at Fort Richardson, Alaska, while training to compete in the biathlon in the Olympics. Morton describes how his Olympic training was interrupted by orders to deploy to Vietnam, and details his service leading a Mobile Advisory Team (MAT) in the Mekong Delta, and later working as an instructor at a school for Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) advisers. He discusses returning to the United States after his tour in Vietnam and resuming his Olympic training at the Biathlon Training Center. Morton details his career as an Olympic biathlete and his time as head coach of Dartmouth Skiing.
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David C. Hoeh, Associate Director of Public Affairs in the Public Affairs Center at Dartmouth College, lecturer in Social Science at Dartmouth College, coordinator of Dartmouth College/Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) program. Oral history interview documenting his memories of World War II (WWII) as a child in Newton, Massachusetts, and his involvement in the Democratic Party of New Hampshire, first in student government at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), then in state government from 1963 to 1967. Hoeh discusses his experience and involvement in the Vietnam War era and Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) era at Dartmouth College, as well as his service as Chairman of the New Hampshire [Eugene] McCarthy For President Committee. Hoeh graduated from UNH in the Class of 1960 and earned his Masters from Boston University and PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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Gene R Garthwaite, Professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth College. St. Olaf College Class of 1955. At St. Olaf, Garthwaite majored in English, was the feature editor of the college newspaper, and served in ROTC [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps]. He married after going into the Air Force. After flying B-47s over the Soviet Union, he was awarded a Wilson Fellowship and enrolled in University of Chicago to obtain his Ph.D in English literature. After a year and a half, he delayed taking his prelims to go on an archaeological dig to Iran. Upon returning, he found a job in the management division of Aerojet General [Corporation] in Sacramento, California. He then transferred fields, and schools, and went to study Middle Eastern studies at UCLA [University of California, Los Angeles] to complete his Ph.D. He began to work at Dartmouth College in 1968, upon completion of his doctorate. He was part of a younger, liberal group of professors which formed to socialize and discuss the Vietnam war, and other issues such as civil rights. Garthwaite discusses the campus’ climate and how it changed, the admittance of women into Dartmouth, as well as Anti-war protests such as the Parkhurst sit-in in 1969. He participated in sit-ins and protests around civil rights and the war, and discusses those events as well.
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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.
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Bien, Peter Interview Abstract
1. Early Childhood in Queens and Education at Deerfield
2. Transferring from Harvard to Haverford
3. Introduction to Quakerism
4. Obtaining CO Status
5. Return to Europe and Marriage
6. PhD at Columbia and Coming to Dartmouth
7. Campus Atmosphere in the Sixties
8. Debating ROTC Programs at Dartmouth
9. SDS and the Parkhurst Occupation
10. Reactions to the Occupation: Personally, in the Quaker Community, on Campus
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Hoyt S. Alverson, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. Oral history interview documenting his experience of the anti-war movement at Dartmouth during the Vietnam War. Alverson describes his early life, including undergraduate studies at George Washington University, graduate studies at Yale University, and graduate research in South Africa. He discusses anti-war initiatives at Dartmouth, including the student occupation of Parkhurst Hall in 1969, as well as the back-to-the-land movement.