John Slattery was drafted when he was only 20 years old. He is currently 64 years old, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has been teaching the English language to children and adults for most of his life in many different countries and all through out the United States. John was stationed in Chu Lai, Vietnam when in combat.
When the U.S. went to war with Vietnam, they wanted to stop the spread of communism. The domino theory was taking over parts of Europe and Asia. John commented, “It was feared that if North Vietnam were to win, then the communist government that came to power there would use overt and covert means to make other, neighboring countries in Southeast Asia communist-led, as well.” In 1963, John was drafted and entered the Vietnam War. In the beginning, he thought people in Washington state were confident with what they were doing, but after a brief time in Vietnam, he understood that the Vietnamese were strongly opposed to the intrusion. “I started thinking that, after all, they had the right to decide their own form of government and that we really had no business being there.” America did not belong in Vietnam. Many soldiers, like John, were impacted by the war in both good and bad ways for many years. The war did not just affect our soldiers in a physical way, but mentally. What those brave people saw at war “scared” them for life. John quoted, “I drank heavily for a long time afterward and bummed around with no direction and no ambition for about five years, and I had what I guess would be called a "nervous breakdown." The healing process took quite awhile, but eventually some good came out of it. Thanks to what I'd done there and what happened to me afterwards, I gradually realized that we're all a part of one another, that when we hurt someone else, we hurt ourselves as well, and when we help another, we are helped, too.” The Vietnam War changed John’s life in a positive way too. “It changed the way I look at the world and at my fellow humans, and I think it made me a better person.”
The most abrupt effect of the Vietnam War on the U.S. was the death toll of Americans. The war took about 58,000 American lives and left tens of thousands wounded. The war also killed hundreds of thousands of the innocent Vietnamese. John stated, “I think it may have been the end of innocence for many of us.” Prior to the war, the majority of people trusted the U.S. government and fully supported the information they were given. After the tragic war, several people were uneasy and questioned the actions and views of those in power. John is not so sure whether the Vietnam War had a great impact on the world. “Who can say how the world might be different today if what happened to them had never taken place? Chaos theory helps explain why answering this is impossible. Everything’s connected-the beating of a butterfly’s wings in the Brazilian rain forest can cause a hurricane in Florida. There are simply way too many variables involved to let anyone say how the world was affected.” John believes the U.S. should be neither praised nor condemned. He feels that we should not have gone to war. Policymakers truly believed they were right, when they were really not doing the right thing. Too many people died and there was not much accomplished for the greater good. America was “defeated” because of the unusual strategy the Vietnamese used which was called Guerrilla warfare. Guerilla warfare is an alternative method of war which small groups of soldiers try to use surprise tactics (ambushes, raids) to conquer an enemy.
After interviewing John Slattery, it seems that America did not belong in Vietnam. There were no winners, only losers. Many soldiers and civilians lost their lives or were wounded in combat. Some soldiers were emotionally depressed from what they saw in combat. America got into the war to prevent the spread of communism but was not ready or equipped to take on their upcoming challenges. America was not prepared for battle. As communism spread like a disease, people started to panic about who to trust. The official government strategy was questioned, and doubted, while some worried about communist thoughts and sympathies. In the end, communism spread to South Vietnam, uniting the North and South as one sovereign country.
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