What are your recollections of the era covered in this book?

What are your recollections of the era covered in this book? Where do the events fit in your own personal history?

I do not remember anything about this time & I was a teenager at the time. Boys I graduated from high school with fought in the War, as did my cousin. I say boys, because that's who they were.I do remember seeing news clips of the War & the dead arriving home. I remember watching the draft lottery on TV when I was in college & the anti war protests on campus & the popularity of anti war songs.
As an adult I'm learning more about "my generation's" difficult time.

I vividly remember reading LIFE MAGAZINE and seeing pictures of the Buddhist priests in flames and pictures of "the Dragon Lady" and her husband and his brother. When my mother caught me reading the magazine and looking at the pictures, she snatched it from me and told me I didn't need to be looking at such awful things. I told her if it was happening, I didn't see anything wrong with me reading about it -- I should know about it. Needless to say, she stuck with her guns!

I was also a teenager at this time, but Vietnam filled the evening news during those years. I remember seeing either a photograph or a news video of the Buddhist priest. Over the years, I have read several books about the Vietnam War, but I don't think I ever heard of Madame Nhu until this book came out. I remember the students protesting the war. The iconic photo from Kent State is imprinted in my mind, but I also remember the news video of the Kent State shooting because it aired several times. The war and all that surrounded it was a very difficult time for the country, but it did show everyone that people can come together and force change.

I remember seeing the photo of a monk committing suicide and thinking, "Why would anyone do that?" I only became aware of the situation in Vietnam when we had "boots on the ground" and people I knew were coming home dead. I wish I had known more about why we became embroiled in that conflict, it might have tempered my hostile attitude towards anyone who participated in the war. I have since learned tolerance and regret my immature behavior.

I have many recollections of this era but I will say this book prompted me to go to the Internet and remind myself about the Vietnam War. To me one of the strengths of this book was an inside feel of what was going on with people in power during this time. I often have wondered what happened to some of those people and the author did an excellent job in bringing forward their lives.

I have vivid recollections, neighborhood boys coming home without arms or legs--if they came home at all AND, in retrospect, the lies the American public was told-- we were stopping the domino effect of communism when the majority of people in Vietnam were so poor that it did not change their lives no matter who was their leader without our interference. I think the movie "The Killing Fields" captures this era with some honesty that was missing in newspaper and TV broadcasts at the time. I think this book captures that era, too, and it is important that people know that no government is the "Good Guy" 100% of the time - - as the book jacket anecdote makes clear.

I remember reading this quote about the Vietnam War. I think it was said by Abby Hoffman.
"Prior to the Vietnam War -It was my country right or wrong……but the war changed that….my country was wrong……"

I was a young teenager but I remember the Walter Cronkite reporting on Vietnam through the years and how we as a nation seemed to change as the situation in Vietnam changed. The images of monks on fire, small children running for their lives and an execution live on TV. The worst was when in college the weekly death count began to add people I knew. That is when war comes home to you.

I was a girl during this time and I remember hearing the Viet Nam body count every night on the TV before dinner.

I remember the monk setting himself on fire and pictures of the war. I didn't start thinking about Vietnam Nam until I started college in 67 and the young men my age were being drafted. I paid attention after that!

I had just graduated from high school and many of the boys in my class were drafted. At first, I though we were doing the right thing but when some of the boys either didn't come back or came bac really damaged, I started to change my mind. I, as many others, watched the war from a distance, and really didn't think much about it.

My children were young--all born by 1966. I was so wrapped up in diapers, laundry and my very own depression, that the only thing about the war with any real memory was the evening news, which I rarely watched.

And the fact my husband had his first orders for Viet Nam when our youngest (of 3) was 7 months old. I was very much alone as he had been a reservist for 10 years. The camaraderie of wives and families was nil because of our physical location. I don't even remember that much about the protests. Fear of my husband's safety overcame me many times. That tour was 18 mos. and the subsequent two Viet Nam tours were a year each. He says he doesn't remember much about the returns home, nor that they were even "discouraging." We survived our own war, so to speak!

Great question! I was in junior high through college graduation for the bulk of the US involvement in Vietnam. My father was retired military as was his younger brother who rejoined the Army to go to Vietnam to keep his older son from being sent there. It was a horrific experience for him. I recall the brothers of high school friends killed overseas and the nightly newcasts of frightening statistics. Later, the protests on the Mall around the Washington Monument stretching to the Lincoln Memorial; candlelight vigils, music and the shock of Kent State with grim, armed soldiers holding rifles with fixed bayonets, lined up every few feet on Key Bridge between Georgetown and Arlington; tear gas canisters being lobbed onto the campus lawn by DC Police and buses rolling into town for a massive demonstration...all colleges shut. It was a divisive time, a time for political activism and a time when we hoped to make a difference and end the war. There were discussions about high and low draft numbers; ways to avoid the draft or to serve and some acquaintances sliding into Canada. Monique Brinson Demery has provided a well-written, concise history of Vietnam. There were no courses in Vietnamese history in when I was studying history...we were thrust into the experience.

I was born in 1961 so I have very little knowledge about the era; I was too young. And then, although I was a teenager when the war ended in 1975, I was just as self-absorbed as anyone that age typically is and don't really have many recollections of what went on. About all I remember is the horrific pictures on the nightly news (I remember having to be elsewhere when my dad was watching). It's surprising, really, because I had an uncle who attended Kent State (I believe he was on campus during the shooting) and who subsequently enlisted.

Too young to recall. I only know what I have heard and read.

I was in grammar school during our involvement in Viet Nam. My mother always had the radio on and I remember hearing the birthdays every year for the order of the draft. I also remember hearing death tolls and names of cities as well as the My Lai Massacre and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I was not personally affected as my father and uncles had served during the Korean War and my cousins were too young for Viet Nam.

I was employed as a librarian in a semi private military school training MAGG officers before they went to places like Vietnam. I remember the growing mistrust of Madame Nhu, but also the wondering if the coup was the best thing. These were young military officers not sure of what the future would hold.

I was born in '62 right in the time of the Vietnam war protests, the news reel footage that we received, 2-4 days after the event actually happened. I remember pictures from newspapers, magazines "Look" and "Life" and on our black and white tv the footage of people being airlifted out when the war broke out. I remember them giving number of deaths that happened that day in battle and I remember the end of the war and influx of Vietnamese to our country. I was in senior high and had to help a Vietnamese student sitting next to me and everyone in our class had to help her get around the school which was interesting considering we did not understand each other but were still able to get the job done. I also remember she brought her lunch every day in a thermos consisting of really smelly fish and rice sometimes with vegetables.

I was young--but had 3 older brothers and sisters who would terrorize me with stories. I do remember the vivid picture of the monk, and the war protesters...and was very aware of the draft, because of my brothers and my boyfriend in high school..who was #3