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This oral history explores the life and Vietnam War service of Jeff Danziger, award winning cartoonist who currently resides in Brattleboro Vermont. Danziger, a New York native, attended the University of Denver before moving to Plainfield, Vermont. Danziger was drafted into the US Army in 1966, and tried to avoid deployment to Vietnam by attending language school and by becoming an officer. He served in Vietnam from 1970-1971, where he worked in various capacities for the First Cavalry Division and also served as an advisor to the South Vietnamese Army during the period of the “Vietnamization” of the war. In addition to discussing his wartime experiences in Vietnam, Danziger also reflects on postwar writings and films about the war, American attitudes towards veterans, and his return to Vietnam as a journalist years later.
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Oral History Interview with William Donahue, who served in the Vietnam War. He first recounts his upbringing in Washington, D.C., and his higher education at Colby College. Donahue shares his path to enlisting in the Marine Corps after being denied a student deferment for law school. He describes the various training camps he attended before arriving in Vietnam, where he began as an infantry officer in 1967. Just as the Tet Offensive began in 1968, he was transferred to the Military Police Corps but soon returned to his infantry position. He describes his experiences on and off the battlefield and the relations between the men in his battalion, especially concerning race. Post-Vietnam, he continued his service as an instructor at Camp Lejeune, a training camp in North Carolina, and ended his active duty as a soldier in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Donahue closes out the oral history by detailing life after the war and how his perspective on the war has changed over time. Currently, he is writing a memoir about his war experiences.
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Michael James Beahan (GR’97) was born in Towanda, Pennsylvania, in December 1945. Beahan went to high school on a military base in Kaiserslautern, Germany before enrolling in Pennsylvania State University, where he joined the advanced ROTC program. Upon graduating in 1967, Beahan was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He spent eighteen months at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama before completing six months of intelligence training at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. In 1970, Beahan was assigned to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon, Vietnam, spending three days before transferring to Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand to complete his one year tour. He later secured a position with the 7th Airborne Command and Control Squadron (ABCCC). Working as an intelligence officer in an airborne command post over the Plain of Jars region, he flew over 95 twelve-hour combat missions over Laos. Following his military service, he pursued a career in media and technology, including 20 years as Director of the Jones Media Center at Dartmouth College. At the time of this interview, Beahan was retired and living in Lyme, New Hampshire.
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Interview with David “Jake” Guest, Class of 1966. Guest discusses his life growing up in Hanover, where he attended Hanover High School and then Dartmouth College. Encouraged by Dean Thaddeus Seymour to take a few years off from his studies, Guest joined the Army and was deployed in Germany. Guest reflects on his growing disillusionment with the military and eventual discharge, which propelled him to travel Europe and the Middle East. Guest then discusses his return to Dartmouth and his involvement in anti-war activism. Finally, Guest details his experience with the Wooden Shoe Commune and his contributions to the Upper Valley community through organic farming.
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Oral history interview with James Harlow, resident of the Upper Valley currently residing in Thetford, VT. He was drafted into the army, and was deployed in Vietnam from 1971 until medical issues sent him home in 1972. He briefly lived a regular civilian life, but re-enlisted into the military in 1973 – marking the beginning of a career that would last until 1992. Jim was a combat engineer and spent time as a minesweeper in a modified bulldozer after the prior operator was injured. In this interview he discusses his experiences in Vietnam, the Gulf War, and his perceptions of society, religion, and drugs during the Vietnam war era.
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Ernest Paul "Rusty" Sachs was born 7 May 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri. Rusty's father was in the Army and served in Normandy as a battalion surgeon. After Rusty's father left the Army in 1946, his family spent time in Normandy and France before returning to the United States. The majority of his childhood was spent growing up in Norwich, Vermont, where he graduated from Hanover High School. In 1961, Rusty moved to Gernoble, France after being waitlisted at Harvard. He attended L'Externat Notre-Dame, Université de Grenoble until he was accepted at Harvard the following year. After two years, Rusty left Harvard and joined the United States Marine Corps. He made his way into the Marine Aviation Cadet Program (MARCAD), a unique program where enlisted Marines with two years of college experience could become pilots and earn a commission as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. Rusty was sent to Vietnam in July of 1966 as a replacement pilot and was assigned to H-34 helicopter squadron HHM-362, which at the time was based out of Ky Ha. During Rusty's time in Vietnam, he flew 725 combat missions with his primary role being the medical evacuation of wounded soldiers and Marines. After returning from Vietnam, Rusty went back to Harvard to finish his bachelor's degree. He became involved with the group known as Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) as a speaker and organizer. In 1974, Rusty returned to Norwich, Vermont, and attended Vermont Law School in 1975. After one term in the Vermont House of Representatives, Rusty practiced law until 1999. Once he stopped practicing law, he returned to training flight instructors. He served as the Executive Director of the National Association of Flight Instructors until 2007. Rusty and Marlene Sachs are now retired and live in Norwich, Vermont.
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Robert Munson, a Vietnam veteran, discusses his childhood moving around the United States with his military family. He then discusses his military service beginning with his training at Fort Belvoir in Virginia and his experience as an army engineer. He goes on to talk about his time in Vietnam, beginning with his chaotic introduction to the war in Saigon and Cam Ranh Bay. He goes on to talk about his experiences during the Tet Offensive, and how he earned his Purple Heart. After this, he goes on to speak about his experiences in the latter half of his tour, featuring interactions with his commanding officers and Marines in Hué. After Vietnam, Munson talks about his transition back into civilian life and his career and family relationships. At the end of the interview, he discusses his move to the Upper Valley of Vermont/New Hampshire, his current views on the war, and his interactions with younger veterans.
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This interview, conducted on October 27, 2020 with Mr. Michael Heaney for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project, begins with Heaney’s childhood. He discusses how his father’s service in WWII influenced him from a young age. While a fighter pilot in the pacific theater, his father kept a detailed combat diary, which Heaney recalled reading very closely in his early years. He discusses his activities in school, where he maintained multiple peer leadership positions. He goes on to describe his ROTC program at Middlebury College, which led him to enlist in the US Army. After joining the Army, Heaney participated in several training camps, including ROTC, basic infantry training, Ranger school, and jump school. He then discusses his arrival in Vietnam, the men with whom he became acquainted, and ultimately the ambush he experienced on May 16-17, 1966. Heaney discusses the hours-long firefight where he was wounded in the right calf. From this point in the interview, he transitions to discussing the experience of telling the traumatic story of the ambush during multiple interviews in which he has taken part over the ensuing decades. He recounts that upon returning home from the hospital, his parents asked to read his combat diary rather than discuss his experiences openly. The interview ends with Heaney’s reflections on the experience of being interviewed for the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary series, The Vietnam War, and its role in establishing the collective memory of the Vietnam War.
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Jack "Doc" Cassidy was born on June 18, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut, into a blue-collar family. During his teenage years, Cassidy focused on his budding football career and spending time with friends in his neighborhood. Cassidy failed in his first attempt at college, leading him to join the Navy Reserve as a Hospital Corpsman in early 1966. Cassidy attended Basic and Hospital Corpsman Training, where he contracted a dental infection that delayed his graduation. This delay altered his service trajectory: Cassidy now had to attend Combat Corpsman School in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and would eventually be deployed to Vietnam. Cassidy arrived in Vietnam during the late summer of 1968, where he was attached to Kilo Company, of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, who at the time were in Thuong Duc, an area in I Corps near the Laotian border. Cassidy went on to serve in the “Arizona Territory” near An Hoa as well. During his interview, he speaks of racial tensions in his unit, opinions of officers and fellow enlisted men, “euphoric recall,” wound care, booby traps, drug use, an eventful R&R trip to Singapore, reunions, and the overall Corpsman experience in Vietnam.
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Bruce Boedtker was born 1950 in Glen Cove, Long Island, but spent much of his early life moving from place to place. Boedtker felt most at home on his grandparents’ farm in Springfield, Vermont, where he eventually lived full time and attended school. He volunteered for the Army after dropping out of high school and receiving a low lottery number in the draft. He served during a period of US troop withdrawal in the Vietnam War. Boedtker began his basic training on September 14, 1970 at Fort Dix, New Jersey, then completed Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Initially enlisted to serve in Vietnam, his orders changed, and he was deployed to Wildflecken, Germany. There he served as an Infantry Private with the 3rd Infantry Division as part of the US Army’s presence in the NATO alliance to defend the Czech border. During his service, Boedtker describes being bored and aimless, until his Company Commander offered him a job as his driver. Boedtker describes this opportunity as a major turning point in his life, as it gave him a greater sense of purpose through his responsibility of leading drills. His main connection to the Vietnam War was through the Vietnam veterans sent to Europe to finish out their tours and the stories they told. They often described the lack of discipline and strategy that caused the chaos and unrest in Vietnam. Boedtker was discharged on April 18th, 1972. He returned to Vermont, where he received a degree in engineering from the University of Vermont and eventually ran his own business. Today, he lives there with his family.
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Stephen Le was born in 1974 in Nha Trang, Vietnam. Through the Amerasian Homecoming Act, Le moved to Burlington, VT, in 1992 with his Amerasian sister, two younger brothers, and mother. His family left Vietnam because of Stephen’s Amerasian sister, his mother’s former support for the Americans, and the opportunity available in the US. Six months after arriving in the US, Le moved to Boston, MA, where he attended school for English and received his license to work in the nails business. In Boston, he went from working in a nail salon to owning his own nail business. At age 21, he married his first wife, Hien Tran, with whom he had three daughters. After owning his business in Boston for 15 years, Le moved to Hanover, NH, where he took over Nefertiti Nails, a local nail salon. He married his second wife, Thuy “Mary” Hong, whom he met in Saigon on his way to visit Nha Trang. After their marriage, in 2013, Mary immigrated to the US and joined Stephen at Nefertiti Nails. Mary and Stephen have two daughters together and currently live in Lebanon, NH.
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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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Boettcher, Mark Interview Abstract:
1. Coming of Age in Weymouth, MA
2. Naval Training and Station in Brunswick, ME
3. Continued Reenlistments
4. Civilian Career in Computer Programming
5. Working at Dartmouth
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C. James Martel, resident of the Upper Valley. Oral history interview documenting his military service during the Vietnam War. Martel discusses his early life and his undergraduate education at the University of Detroit, where he was a member of the class of 1965, studied aeronautical engineering, and joined the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Martel recounts his military experience, including pilot training at Moody Air Force Base, service at Castle Air Force Base in California, service in the 337th Bombardment Squadron and 96th Strategic Aerospace Wing, and missions flown to Vietnam between 1968 and 1971. Martel describes his graduate studies in environmental engineering at the University of Massachusetts, his work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and at the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), and his doctoral studies at Colorado State University.
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William P. Link. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Link discusses his childhood, growing up in Laredo Texas in a family of eleven children. He shares his experience as a white child in a majority Mexican American community. He describes the transition from Texas to the Naval Academy where he attended college. Link shares what was expected of him as a student at the Naval Academy and an experience marching in JFK’s funeral as a midshipman. He describes his semester spent in Peru at the Peruvian Naval Academy. He describes his first assignment on the USS Nicholas, a destroyer out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Link was a communications officer. He describes life on ship, his duties, and where the ship traveled. Link discusses command duty officer school in Newport, Rhode Island, prior to his assignment as chief engineer on the anti-submarine destroyer, the USS Brownson. He describes his time at Vietnamese language and counterinsurgency school in Coronado, California. Link discusses his time as an American advisor on a Vietnamese riverboat, Vietnamese ship 229, on the Mekong Delta. He shares his medals and service ribbons from combat. He discusses his experience at Northeastern University working on his master’s degree in business. Link describes his career post graduate school working in computer companies.
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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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Charles G. Billo. Attended Bronxville Schools, Brown University Class of 1964. Billo applied to Navy Office Candidate School, but went to Columbia Business School, Class of 1967, rather than enrolling in OCS. At Columbia Business School, Billo also joined Columbia University’s School of International Affairs [now Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs]. He discusses changing views towards the war while in graduate school, and then his process of joining the Foreign Service in 1967. Billo was assigned to the CORDS [Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support] program, and was trained in Washington, DC. He arrived in Vietnam in 1969 as an economic reporting officer, with joint responsibility to the embassy in Saigon and the deputy for CORDS in IV Corps. He was then transferred to Can Tho in June of 1969, where he surveyed rice usage and consumption, and dealt with US imports of it. After leaving in 1970, at the age of 27, Billo was then reassigned, still in the Foreign Service, to a post in Milan, Italy. He met his wife there, and they were married in June of 1973. He discusses some anecdotes about his time in Saigon, his fears and his reflections on his time. He also discusses the military and government’s handling of the war, and how it has affected (or has not affected) current military conflicts. Billo discusses with frequent emotion his experiences and encounters in Vietnam, and reflects on the larger political theater at the time.