Vietnam War in the Academia (X). Vietnam War Oral History. In 1999 the Vietnam Centre and Archive initiated the Oral History Project (OHP). The history of the wars in Southeast Asia is not complete without the inclusion of the voices of those who were in some way involved. To that end, the mission of the OHP is to create and preserve a more complete record of the wars in Southeast Asia by preserving, through recorded interviews, the recollections and experiences of all who were involved in those wars. There is no political agenda in the development of the Archive or the OHP. Anyone can participate, whether an American veteran, a former ally or enemy of the US an anti-war protester, a government employee, a family member of a veteran, etc. The more breadth and depth the OHP has in its participants, the better and more authentic the collection and preservation of the history of the wars will be. The collection is housed at the Library of Congress. To date the archive has received more than 33,000 individual submissions. Meanwhile, the Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Centre (a nationwide volunteer effort to collect and preserve oral histories from America's war veterans) hosted on the fifth of April 2005, a symposium entitled: In Country: The Vietnam War, 30 Years After. It included General Julius Becton, Jr. (US Army, Ret.), Vietnam veteran and educator; Bernard Kalb, a veteran journalist, author and founding anchor on the weekly CNN programme Reliable Sources; Stanley Karnow, World War II veteran, journalists and author of Vietnam: A History; and panelist/moderator, Dr Daun van Ee of the Library of Congress Manuscript Division and Vietnam veteran and specialist in 20th century military history. The Vietnam War to date remains a fertile area for oral history projects. For instance, in March 2011, a picture of life during the Vietnam War era came together for Windward High School (Ferndale,……) students as they interviewed people for an oral history project Friday, March 25. History and English students broke into groups and talked to people from the community who had stories to share from the war and events around it. Interviewees included conscientious objectors, soldiers and Red Cross workers in Vietnam. "There's a wide variety of people that represent so many different aspects of the time period, which is really exciting for us and for the kids," said Windward English teacher Melissa Engels. "I'm sure they'll learn a lot of things that aren't in their textbooks." "I think it's a great opportunity to learn what actually happened, not from books," said Windward sophomore Nic Bol. "It puts a new perspective on the stories told in books. I'd like to hear what happened from the people who were in it." Bol and Dixon Hoppins interviewed Duane Jager, who was a conscientious objector during the war. They talked about how the war in Vietnam sparked his interest in politics and human rights, and how his two-year battle against getting drafted was difficult for his family. [email protected]
