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Dennis Bidwell ’71. Oral History Interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Bidwell discusses his childhood in Denver during the 1950s and early 1960s. He then shares his Dartmouth experience through debauched dorm life, his emerging political awareness during a study abroad term in Bourges, France, his shift to majoring in government, his teaching as a Tucker Foundation intern in Jersey City, NJ, and his involvement in the antiwar movement, including with the Congressional lobbying group, Continuing Presence in Washington (CPW). He also describes watching the 1969 draft lottery, applying for Conscientious Objector (CO) status, and conflicts with his father over his CO application. Bidwell describes his post-graduation move to Boston, work in community organizing and education, and deferring his acceptance to NYU Law School in anticipation of alternative service. Bidwell describes his later career change to nonprofit funding and real estate philanthropy and his move to Northampton, MA. Finally, he offers final reflections on his activism and on healing familial rifts over the war.
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Charlotte Albright, freelance journalist and writer for Dartmouth communications. This oral history interview documents her experience growing up during the height of the Vietnam War. Albright describes her early life, growing up in Pennsylvania, the death of her parents at a young age, and her undergraduate studies at Bennington College. She discusses her involvement in guerilla theater as a form of antiwar activism at Bennington as well as the impact the draft had on many of her male friends in theater. Albright also reflects upon her participation in an antiwar protest in Washington, DC and discusses how she views the war 50 years later.
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Henry (‘Hank’) Billings was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 21st, 1941. He has three siblings, two older sisters and one younger brother who served in the National Guard. After graduating high school, Hank attended Wentworth College, Northeastern University, and UMASS Amherst in ROTC to study economics and history. After graduating in 1964, Hank deferred service to hitchhike around Europe for a year before arriving at Fort Benning, GA in April of 1965 for Basic Infantry Training. He continued on to Fort Holabird, MD where he trained as an intelligence specialist, and joined the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Arriving in Saigon in December of 1965, Hank served in the research and analysis branch at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. While there, Hank worked as an expert on, and wrote reports about, B52 bombing efficacy, Cambodian incursions, and Vietcong soldier morale. Returning from Saigon, Hank finished his duty as a first lieutenant at Fort Devens, MA. After service, Hank participated in antiwar protests, and attended UMass Amherst for graduate school in education, eventually becoming a teacher. Hank returned to Vietnam in 2001 for a country bicycling tour.
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Matthew J. Friedman. Class of 1961. Oral history interview with the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Friedman describes his experience at Dartmouth highlighting that he was the first math-psychology major and how he was a good student. He discusses his strong feelings about not wanting to participate in the Vietnam War as he did not support the war. Friedman attended Yeshiva University graduate school for psychology. Friedman discusses how he feared being sent to Vietnam because of his expertise in pharmacology and how he would have to participate in chemical warfare. He went to Kentucky to the Addiction Research Center and describes meeting people who were opposed to the war and living an alternative lifestyle. He studied neuroplasticity and was later accepted to Mass General Hospital where he studied for two years. Friedman completed his third year as a resident at Dartmouth. Friedman describes what it was like to live in the Upper Valley as an organic farmer and antiwar advocate. Friedman did not want to leave the area after his studies were complete and accepted a position at the Veterans Affairs hospital and has worked there for 42 years. Friedman was on the cutting edge of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) research and was asked by Congress to participate in a PTSD research project in 1984. He describes how the term PTSD came into common usage and its evolution within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Friedman explains how he became the Executive Director of the National Center for PTSD from 1989-2013. He concludes his interview by describing the future of PTSD research and care.
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Dartmouth alumnus David Aylward, Class of 1971, describes his childhood as the son of a Foreign Service officer with postings in Japan, Burma (now Myanmar), Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Washington, D.C. The interview includes his impressions of the Vietnam War as a child and young adult, his introduction to political activism as a high school student, and his involvement in antiwar protests and political organizing as a student at Dartmouth College, as well as his stint as Editor-in-Chief of The Dartmouth during 1970-1971. After graduation, Aylward worked for the presidential campaign of George McGovern and served as a junior staffer in McGovern’s Senate office before receiving a law degree from George Washington University Law School. He went on to pursue a career in law, entrepreneurship, and healthcare consulting and joined the faculty of the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
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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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Vietnam veteran and alumn Stephen Hallam describes his experience in Vietnam and his perception of the socio-political climate of the time. Hallam further discusses his stance on the conflict as well as his perception of the Vietnamese while on-ground.
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Oral history interview with Dartmouth alumnus Russell Andrews '68, MED ‘78, who served in the Peace Corps in Micronesia after graduation. He later received a doctorate in human development from Harvard University before returning to Dartmouth to attend medical school. Afterwards, Andrews served for two years (1979-1981) as a US Army Flight Surgeon in South Korea and Natick, MA. He completed his neurosurgery residency at Stanford University and went on to a career in neurosurgery that included private practice and faculty positions at several universities. He also acted as a medical advisor for the NASA Ames Research Center for 25 years. In this interview Andrews discusses his experience as a college student and young adult during the Vietnam War and his perceptions of the political climate at the time.
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Eagan, Jeff Interview Abstract:
1. Growing Up in Milwaukee, WI
2. Dartmouth Experience and Growing Political Consciousness
3. Occupying Parkhurst and Finding Activism
4. Post-Grad Career in Community Organizing and Environmental Policy
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Jimmy H. Zien, Class of 1969. Oral history interview documenting his experiences with activism and the Vietnam War era. Zien describes his early life in post-World War II Tennessee and his father’s job with the National Labor Relations Board, including his interactions with continuing New Deal programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). He discusses race relations, McCarthyism, and nuclear threats during the Cold War. Zien recalls the assassination of President John F. Kennedy during his high school years, and his firsthand observations of the Watts riots in 1965. He recounts his time as a student at Dartmouth, his participation in the anti-war movement on campus, and his experiences with political activism and campaigning for Eugene J. McCarthy during the 1968 presidential campaign.
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Peter H. Zastrow. Class of 1961. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Zastrow documents his time in the Army during the Vietnam War. He describes his childhood moving across the United States. Zastrow discusses his time as an undergraduate student at Dartmouth, and his involvement in the Glee Club and the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Zastrow shares how he received a deferment from the Army to attend graduate school, studying English at Indiana University. He describes being sent to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas after graduate school to write and proof-read field manuals for the Vietnam War. Zastrow shares how he was sent to Vietnam to write stories about the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) Division to be publishes in Army newsletters. After the Vietnam War, Zastrow describes how he participated in anti-war activities with Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW).
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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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Curtis R. Welling. Class of 1971. Oral history interview documenting his childhood, career at Dartmouth, six years spent in the National Guard, his return to campus as a student at the Tuck School of Business, and as a Senior Fellow at the Tuck School of Business from 2013-2017. Welling lived in French Hall his freshman year and played on the freshman football team. Welling joined the college radio station, WDCR, as a sports broadcaster. While most of his time with WDCR was spent on sports, he was sent to broadcast the Parkhurst takeover in 1969. He joined Phi Delta Alpha and was an English major and a government minor. Welling describes the cultural climate in the United States and at Dartmouth leading up to the Vietnam War, postwar, and contemporary political and economic challenges. Welling describes not wanting to go to Vietnam and had anticipated being exempt because of respiratory allergies but was not given the exemption and therefore joined the National Guard.
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Susan E. Tavela. Wife of John E. Tavela, Class of 1964. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Tavela explains that she participated in the project because her husband is in a nursing home for dementia and is unable to tell his own story. She describes her childhood growing up across the country and how she met her husband. She describes herself as a civil rights activist and provides a few examples of how she and John participated in protests, marches, and political campaigns. She describes her marriage to John while he was attending Dartmouth. She explains how John was drafted after he completed his graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University. She describes John’s involvement in the Medical Service Corps. Tavela reads a number of excerpts from letters that John sent to her during his time during the Vietnam War. Tavela describes how she believes John’s dementia is a result of his participation in the war. She explains that John had a difficult time transitioning back from the Vietnam War. She shares that John was depressed after he returned home and discusses the impact it had on him personally and on their family.
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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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Lewis J. Stein oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Stein describes growing up in New York City and attending Hunter College. He shares why he applied for the Peace Corps to avoid the draft. Stein describes attending Peace Corps training in French language immersion and cultural education at Dartmouth College. He discusses being assigned to a Peace Corps position in Togo. Stein describes what life was like in Togo and the work that he did with the Peace Corps. He explains how his experience in the Peace Corps reinforced his feelings of being in opposition to the Vietnam War. He shares why and how he petitioned to be a conscientious objector and what his two year service assignment was. Stein describes attending graduate school at the University of Connecticut and his career in special education administration.
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David M. Stearns, Class of 1968. Oral history interview documenting his service in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. Stearns describes his experiences as a student at Dartmouth College, including his observations of the anti-war movement on campus. He discusses the military service draft and his decision to enlist in the Army. Stearns recalls training at Fort Ord; working at the Fort Hood computer center; being stationed in Long Binh, Vietnam; and maintaining a relationship with his wife and newborn child during his service. Stearns also shares his opinions on the war, the socioeconomic elements of the draft, current politics, and the treatment of veterans.
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John G. Spritzler, Class of 1968. Oral history interview documenting the anti-war movement at Dartmouth College, with a focus on the Parkhurst Hall protest of 1969. As a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter at Dartmouth at the time, Spritzler provides insight into the campus atmosphere and the deliberations of the anti-war movement from its core. Spritzler details interactions between the anti-war movement and the wider student body, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), the authorities, and the faculty of the college.
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Spitzer, Leo Interview Abstract:
1. Childhood in La Paz, Bolivia
2. Middle School and Pressure to Assimilate in NYC
3. High School and College Outside NYC
4. Graduate Work and Interest in Africa
5. Coming to Dartmouth
6. Anti-Vietnam Sentiment on Campus
7. Anti-Apartheid Work and Race Relations
8. Developing Specialty Departments
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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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Jeffrey L. Rogers, Dartmouth College Class of 1966. Rogers’ father was friend to Richard M. Nixon and secretary of state under his administration. At Dartmouth he played intramural sports, was the president of his fraternity, majored in History, and was a Senior Fellow. He talks about the spirit of activism surrounding the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war while at Dartmouth. Rogers attended Harvard Medical School but dropped out after the first year. He applied to Officer Candidate School [OCS] in the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army while still serving. Rogers did well in OCS and trained in navigation. In Vietnam, he served as a navigator, an officer of the deck, and a landing signals officer aboard the USS Repose, a hospital ship. Rogers describes the ship and the operations aboard. For his second year of active duty he was stationed in the Pentagon. Afterwards he attended Yale Law School, a part of the class of 1973, where he befriended the Clintons. He then became a manager of an office in Portland, Oregon and retired as a lawyer in 2004. Rogers obtained a master’s degree in counseling, becoming a mental health counselor. He currently works as a counselor with combat vets, specifically focusing on PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. Rogers discusses Watergate, government, recent wars, and returning to Vietnam in 2004, with his son.
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Riggs, William Interview Abstract:
1. Childhood and Memories of the Cold War
2. Time at Dartmouth
3. Getting Drafted into the Training Aids Division
4. Support of the Antiwar Movement
5. Completing Service and Final Thoughts
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Richard J. Parker, Class of 1968. Oral history interview documenting his experiences as an activist during the Vietnam War. Parker discusses his early interactions with national politics, his religious background, and his experiences with the civil rights movement. In particular, he describes his firsthand observations of the Watts riots in 1965, his work with the Dartmouth-Talladega Upward Bound program in Alabama in 1966, and his participation in campus protests. Parker discusses his time as a student at Dartmouth, including his involvement in Bones Gate, the crew team, Casque and Gauntlet, and the Dartmouth Christian Union (DCU). He recounts his initial attempts to obtain Conscientious Objector status with the Selective Service and his later decision to submit his draft card. Parker describes his participation in anti-war protests and his experiences campaigning for Eugene J. McCarthy during the 1968 presidential campaign.
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V. Bruce Pacht, Class of 1967. Oral history interview documenting Pacht’s time as an anti-war protester, as well as his participation in the take-over of Parkhurst Hall. Pacht details his journey from Dartmouth College to Stanford University, the protest at Parkhurst, and life in the Wooden Shoe commune in Canaan, New Hampshire.