Customer Reviews

What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam?

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I was a student at Pryor Junior High School when Bill McCloud decided to publish this masterful piece of work. I did not sit in his classroom, I had the other 8th grade history teacher (Mr. D), but I still learned a great deal from Bill McCloud and this book. In fact, I purchased the first copy of this book off the press and the author signed it as such.

Since then I have purchased several copies and gave them to friends who have become history teachers. However, the book helped me to understand not only Vietnam, but war in general. My father and several uncles served in nam, and I hardly knew a thing about the 'conflict' or what they went through until I read this wonderful book. I gained a new respect for my father and all those who served. When my father finally asked me about it (my interest in the book) it opened the discussion between he and I about his time spent in the war and the effects it had. Those conversations were some of the best times I was able to spend with my father.

Thank you, Mr. McCloud once again for your effort and I hope more people will be encouraged to read the responses to this question from some of Americas greatest leaders, and heroes. I rate it a strong buy. If you don't have it in your collection, then your collection isn't complete.

I first came across this book when preparing for a Veteran's Day presentation. As a Vietnam Veteran it was difficult for me to sum up my feelings about that time (my time) in history. I really struggled with what to tell Jr High kids about my experience and war in general. Bill McCloud's efforts to collect and record thoughts from some of the major and minor players of those difficult days in American history was invaluable to me. In my view the book captures the essence of the mood and thoughts regarding the "Vietnam experience."

Bill McCloud, himself a Vietnam veteran, has written a most important book. Serving in Nam from 1968-69, as a flight operations coordinator for the 147th Assault Support Helicopter company, based near the coastal city of Vung Tau, McCloud viewed the war up close and personal.
After leaving the service in 1970, he eventually became a junior high school social studies teacher in Oklahoma. After twelve years in the classroom, McCloud had the revelation that he had never discussed the war with his students.
He then began thinking of ways to teach about it. He started sending surveys to sixty junior high school principals to see how others were teaching the course.
Thirty-five percent responded that the war was not taught at all in their schools. Others reported it was usually taught in 8th grade American history class, with only 1 or 2 weeks devoted to it. McCloud also surveyed more than seven hundred junior high school students in three Oklahoma cities to find out what they already knew about the Vietnam War, and what questions they would like answered.
Surprising answers came back. "They don't teach about that war in school." "All I know about the Vietnam War has come out of movies." "It might be kind of a shame, but I don't know anything about that." "How come they don't teach more about the war in school?" "Is anyone else as dumb about this as I am?"
McCloud notes "students have made it clear to me that they see this as the war no one wants to talk about. They seem to be saying that they know the war is the skeleton in America's family closet, and they think they are now old enough to be let in on the secret."
McCloud found that there was tremendous interest in the subject among students. He came up with the idea of writing letters to well-known people who had been somehow involved in the war. He asked them in personal, handwritten letters, "What do you think are the most important things for today's junior high students to understand about the Vietnam War?"
Replies started coming in immediately. In 1987, (inerestingly the same year the film "Platoon" was released) McCloud began his American History course with a discussion of the Vietnam War and the 1960's.
The collection of letters soon developed into something he knew would be of national interest. The book contains letters from soldiers, politicians, military officers, POW's, nurses, refugees, writers, and parents of soldiers who died in the war.
Included are insights from Jimmy Carter, Barry Goldwater, George Bush, Oliver Stone, George S. Patton, Gary Trudeau, Kurt Vonnegut, and others.
All these different perspectives provide an important testimony on the most divisive event of our past hundred years of history.
Philip Caputo, a Nam vet, author of the highly acclaimed "A Rumor of War" contributed this: "The two most important things for junior high school students to understand about the Vietnam War are 1. The United States learned that there are limits to its power and that to exceed those limits invites tragic consequences. 2. The American soldiers who fought in the war did so out of a sense of duty to their country, but their country betrayed them by sending them to an unwinnable war."
While this book was published in 1989, its lessons seem very timely. It is a fascinating retrospective on America's turbulent 60's and 70's, and their lasting impact on our national psyche. Highly recommended reading, an important history lesson for all ages.

As a history major we read this book, or an excerpt of it, in a class on Vietnam. Two years later I sit down and read it again, and the ties to the political dissidence, confusion and conflict today in Iraq are all too clear. While the contributors at the time were concerned with a conflict in Nicaragua, we are now drawn east. As the United States continues to either openly or covertly work towards the overthrow of governments that do not support it, peace is becoming harder to find. Just as the American public did not agree thirty years ago to its tax dollars being used to fight a war that we cannot win, once again the people of the US are speaking out against a war that cannot be won. This is an amazing book, and a great read. An interesting quote comes from former president George Bush as he says that, "We must ensure that any major foreign policy commitment has the full support and understanding of the American people..." How quickly we forget.