Final Blog Response: John Kerry

In this excerpt about John Kerry we learn that not only did this war have an impact on the soldiers serving in it, but it also impacting the lives of the citizens at the home front and the rest of the people around the world. It was hard for many Americans to have a positive attitude about this war because many of them strongly did not support the war, but knew that they needed to help out their soldiers in some way if they wanted it to end sooner and so they could have a victorious outcome. However, the U.S. did the opposite of supporting their country and they acted out on the enemy when events such as the My Lai Massacre occurred and the U.S. military destroyed Vietnamese villages and killed many innocent civilians living in the are. One of America's goals in fighting all of these wars is to find a way to create peace with other countries and this event completely swayed these Vietnam areas in the opposite direction. Commander Calley ordered his soldiers to attack these areas even though there was no signs of attacks from the enemy side. He claimed that these tactics were fought because they were trying to find Vietcong, but in reality it just ended up destroying the villages and killing these innocent civilians. John Kerry states. “Each day to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her hands of Vietnam someone has to give up his life so that the United States doesn’t have to admit something that the entire world already knows, so that we can’t say that we have made a mistake”. This quote displays that it seems as if the U.S. has lost its drive to spread Democracy around the world and stopping the spread of Communism, but they are rather more interested in keeping their legacy in combat by having the reputation of a feared military. President Nixon finally realized that the soldiers were being completely worn out and didn't have the energy to fight anymore. He took action and started to withdraw thousands of troops which was known as Vietnamization. It was so crazy that this battle for being fought for eleven years and was not even declared as a war. This taught a lesson to America and the rest of the countries around the world that if they are going to get involved in a battle like this one, a war should be declared first because it may result in a disaster of a long war like the one that occurred in Vietnam. I think that this war has helped America learn more about the country as a whole in terms of its government, and fighting tactics. America must stick to their goals that they had at the beginning of the battle like promoting Democracy and stopping the spread of Communism rather than ignoring the countries morals and goals in order to become successful in the future battles. 

 

After wrapping up the year with learning about the Vietnam War I realized that I really did not know much about this war before learning about it this year. I was able to see the different fighting tactics both countries had against each other and the grueling years fought to push towards peace and improvement of the governments. I really enjoyed learning about the artifacts of the war and many of the images that I saw have stuck with me. When watching the videos in class I remembered seeing the lives of innocent children being torn apart in the My Lai Massacre. These images really stuck with me because it reminded me of the Holocaust when people were being brutally murdered for no reason and were left helpless around their loved ones. I think that America must maintain the legacy of spreading Democracy around the world and doing whatever they can to promote freedom and equal rights to all the countries in the world. Though the country wants to maintain the legacy of being victorious in all of their battles, I do not think having a good reputation is the most important part of the legacy, rather promoting peace around the world and spreading their morals to the other countries. I hope the U.S. can maintain these morals because it is essential to the lives of many including myself. I have learned so much this year in U.S. history about many events that occurred in America and the impact on others and I want to leave this year taking pride in being an American citizen.

 

Lessons of Vietnam

I believe lesson I is an important lesson because when working with a vast number of people there needs to be ways for everybody to work together. This lesson talks about how if players are arguing with their coaches and not executing the plays then they cannot not be successful in achieving their goals of winning. This goes along with the government as well because as there are different branches, the separation of powers may cause some discrepancy to the ideas of these people dealing with important problems like war.This can relate to the Vietnam war because the people and leaders of the country needed to be somewhat supportive of the war and corporate in different ways. The soldiers that are drafted to the war, but don't support need to have a positive attitude and execute what is asked by their leaders if they want to be able to work their ways towards peace and end the war earlier. The rest of the country must corporate as well along with the soldiers because they must find ways to be supportive to make progress in ending the war. Citizens at the home front need to participate in helping these soldiers by taking over jobs that the soldiers previously had to increase production in order to supply the soldiers with enough materials. A lot of the American citizens may not agree with the war, but the lesson here is that in order for the war to end earlier and have success in creating peace, others need to work together to help the entire country as a whole.

Studs Terkel #8

In this last Terkel reading I read about Dolores Dante and Phil Stallings. Both of them wanted to be noticed as hardworking employees who could relate to the everyday lives of other citizens in the society. They wanted to focus on the fact that the goal of work was not all about making the most money, however it was to be remembered for the hard work and their love for their jobs. I believe these two employees were definitely right about this. People want to find purpose and meaning in what they do. The happiest people are not always the highest paid men in a law firm, but they are the artists barley being able to pay for their rent but doing so by spending everyday doing what makes them happy. People change their jobs to make themselves sound more important to feel a need to impress society with their responsibilities in the workforce, but this is not what gives their work meaning. To enjoy their lives they need to be passionate about their jobs. One man was comparing the work of a banker with the work of a fireman and he really makes it clear that what people want most of a job is something to make their lives fulfilling. He said, "I worked in a bank. You know, it's just paper. It's not real. Nine to five and it's shit. You're lookin' at numbers. But I can look back and say, 'I helped put out a fire. I helped save somebody.' It shows something I did on this earth." What people need is a sense of purpose. What good does it do to waste our time here on earth doing a job that makes us miserable and does nothing to really help society or the people around us? Dolores Dante added great insight into this idea of fining joy in your work no matter what it is you do. She had been working as a waitress for the last twenty five years and she was well aware that people did not think of this job as anything too impressive or fulfilling. She thought differently. She gives her opinion to her customers on whatever they may be discussing, from politics to her own personal philosophies. She said, "I just can't keep quiet. I have an opinion on every single subject there is. In the beginning it was theology, and my bosses didn't like it. Now I am a political and my bosses don't like it. I speak sotto voce. But if I get heated, then I don't give a damn. I speak like an Italian speaks. I can't e servile. I give service. There is a difference." I found it fascinating to hear her talk about her job this way. She really put thought into everything she did and said. She is not concerned so much with tips, but with the personal enjoyment she can bring herself out of her day. That's all she needs. She actually cares about the people she serves food to, sometimes going as far as mixing their salads herself because she knows how they like it and what will satisfy them better by putting her own twist on it. It is an exhausting job to her but she loves it. She does not see herself as 'just a waitress' but as a loyal friend to her customers and finds true joy and entertainment out of her job. The times now are a lot better for everyone in the workforce because now more minorities are getting involved in the workforce. Back in the Civil Rights Movement the blacks were not even allowed to work anywhere, besides of being slaves. Now in the modern day society women and blacks are given these opportunities to strive in work and it proves that they have the same ability as the dominant race. For example, Barack Obama became the first African-American President in the history of the United States, making a statement to the country that anything can be done if you put your mind to it. I am very satisfied with this change because I know that I will be able to work later in my career with a more diversified group then it was in the earlier age.

A very different interview on the subject of working in ordinary jobs was done with a man named Phil Stallings. He had a very different perspective on his job than Dolores Dante. He worked in an assembly line at a factory and did not find his job fulfilling in the slightest bit. He did not love his job at all. In fact, he found it to be almost painful, saying "repetition is such that if you were to think about the job itself, you'd slowly go out of your mind." But he found the solution. He believed that "if you involve yourself by yourself, you overcome this." He knows that as a worker in the factory he is not really treated with respect or valued by his employers. It cannot be easy to look at lifeless, mechanical systems and know that your bosses value these more than they value you. He said that "If the machine breaks down, there's somebody out there to fix it right away. If I break down, I'm just pushed over to the other side till another man takes my place. The only thing they have in their mind is to keep that line running." Stallings knew that he was mistreated at work and he hated the way employers abused him and the other factory workers. He knew that he could get a job somewhere else, but the pay was best where he was. The most surprising part of it all was that although he hated working in the factories, he actually really enjoyed the job itself. He said, "Funny thing is, I don't mind working at body construction. To a great degree, I enjoy it. I love using my hands- more than I do my mind." He knows that he does good work and he tries to find ways to make the best of his situation at the factory. Dolores Dante loved the job that she did. She knew people did not think of it as a very fulfilling job, but she found her own joy in it, and so did Stallings. Even though he hated the way his employers treated him at his job, he found ways to enjoy the job itself and loved that it allowed him to use his skills to accomplish something. Work goes further than just the money you are receiving for it, but it is also about finding a good balance of joy with the work because many jobs are tied into having them for the rest of peoples lives. I know that in my future I want to go into business. Yes, I understand that some of the stuff may be boring and hard with jobs like accounting and other jobs in this area, but I know that these things will pop up in the business world. I very much enjoy all these things in business and understand that I may have to go through some very hard work to eventually reach my full potential of success and complete happiness in my job.

Terkel #7 Florence Scala & Tom Kearney

   In the reading of Florence Scala this gave me a better perspective of Chicago, the city I was born in. She talked about how she loved the city because there was always excitement going on around the area. Her farther was a tailor who did not make a lot of money off of his job, and did not have enough money to send his kids to school. They spent a majority of their childhood at the Hull House and she became involved in the city planning.  More opportunities were displayed in her life as she encountered and advocated for change. Those who were immigrants understood the delicate balance of change. Change seemed to be disruptive at times to the people living through it.  As Florence said in her story, “ You cannot have the nice rich people at the top passing on a program for the poor, because they simply don’t understand, they can’t understand” (230).  Florence saw lives destroyed like Eric Hulbert, Jane Addams’ nephew, who tried to get his ideas across to an audience and they ignored him.  In 1965, society was still struggling for equality.  Communities were divided and Scala felt the need tocampaign for the preservation in her neighborhood.  She was campaigning for the past and the present.  Her father who was a tailor trying to make a life for his family reflected the hopes of a better life for his family in Chicago. Places like the Hull House led reform movements for improvements to cities, the creation of child labor laws, workers' rights, and other Progressive reforms. Florence Scala later volunteered at the Hull House and represented the advancement of the voice of a woman during this time. This can connect to the Civil Rights Movement because the minorities such as the African-Americans were fighting for their rights in order to have a voice in the decision made by others. Not only were they trying to make a change for themselves at the time, but they were advocating for everyone in the future to have the same equal rights. She may have run and lost for political office, but she courageously made her voice heard to save her neighborhood and the efforts of all those who worked hard to rebuild a better life. Though I am not really a minority in the community I can still relate to Scala and her experience. Since I am a young inexperienced kid, it will be hard for me to have a voice in several things that I want to have an opinion on. If I want to move up in the work society I will have to prove myself first to have a voice in my work.

              Tom Kearney was a policeman for twenty-three years and was born in Chicago. His father was also born in Chicago and worked as a fireman. Though his family was sacrificing their lives in these dangerous jobs they still did not have a lot of money. The hours were grueling and the pay was not very great. He came from an Irish Catholic family where there was a balance between change and the preservation of tradition.  He grew up in an Irish neighborhood where he said, “The streets, the names were Irish” (264).  Chicago seemed to be divided by neighborhoods made up of people with similar backgrounds.  How can people have greater tolerance and understanding of others if they are not exposed to lifestyles other than their own?  It seems that Tom did not have a lot of diversity in his life which may have made it hard when change came to his life. I can directly relate to this because in Deerfield the town that I live in, there is almost no diversity as a majority of the citizens are white, and a lot are Jewish. I wish there was more diversity in this town because it would create a different society and change the ways of this environment. When I visited my brother at college in Peoria, Illinois I was able to experience some diversity when I interacted with some other races such as African-American and Asian. It was nice to see some change to the area of the population and I enjoyed being around these people. This can relate to times in history such as WWII because during this time at the home front the neighborhoods were split up by people's race. The Japanese-Americans were segregated in neighborhoods with their similar backgrounds. The same thing was going on during the Civil Rights Movement when all the neighborhoods were separated by race as there were white neighborhoods and blacks ones. The lack of diversity still exists in many neighborhoods today and it seems like a large amount of change will not occur. Tom was raised in a family where children were excluded when the parent’s entertained. He didn't want his kids to experience the same thing so he exposed his son to adult ideas and conversation.  The hope for change and tolerance comes from exposure to an exchange of ideas and information.  Kearney’s experience of living a more isolated life than his children, allowed him to recognize what needed to be done to affect change. He believed the younger generation fought less because they communicated more.  Communication leads to the new ideas and information and from this exchange, comes change.

Terkel #6

Peter Ota, Nisei lives in Los Angeles and his father is a leader of the Japanese chamber of commerce. Unfortunately, while they were living fine in the United States they were forced to evacuate their area and were shipped to Santa Anita where their future was uncertain. They were forced to lie in these small barracks that were not very nice and did not allow for privacy. This had really change the thoughts of Peter and his family, especially his father as Peter explained his father, "Had put all his faith in this country."(207) After they were sent to these internment camps Peter's father had lost some of his faith that he previously had for America. These camps can relate to what was going on during the Holocaust because when Hitler was in power he was forcing the Jews out of their areas and made them go into these concentration camps. These camps are similar because both minorities were forced to leave their homes and go to these horrible camps with bad conditions.Though Peter and his family were stuck on these camps, there was one way to leave them. Peter decided to take this route in which he would work on sugar beet farms.  Though the pay was very low and the conditions were not great, Peter felt it was a better alternative than staying in the camps. When he was old enough, Peter was drafted into the army. This was a little ironic because when he was fighting in the war, his family was at the camp waiting for the war to end. Peter suffered a tragedy when he was entering the army as his mother passed away. After his service was finished Peter wanted to be able to blend into the community and become a part of "white America". Later in life when Peter was married and had a daughter, his daughter questioned him about these internment camps and it was very difficult for him and others to talk about the terrible experiences they had with them. This can relate to my grandfather because even though he served in the Army he did not really want to talk about it ever because of some of the bad memories that were involved with it.

Betty Basye Hutchinson was a nurse that helped many young men in the war. At first it was hard for her because they made the nurses pay for rent for the places that they were staying in when serving as nurses even though Betty did not have any money to pay for it. Luckily for her the government helped these nurses and paid for their homes. She became a very popular nurse as many people would take pictures of her and she was even given a nickname as the "twirl girl". Many of the nurses dropped out of this job in order to join the army. She got the accomadation of being an official nurse when she said, "The day President Roosevelt died I was an official Army nurse"(213). Though Betty really liked working as a nurse it was very hard as she had to go through seeing some very disgusting images. She was working in the orthapedic field were some of the soldiers were severly wounded and had many body parts that were distorted. One of the soldiers that she worked on was Bill and he claimed he would not leave the room until his face was put back to normal. Betty knew that it was not going to be possible to fix these battle wounds, but she did her best work to replace his face. After the war Betty was with Bill and it was very hard to go out in public as the wounds of Bill's face were still very visible. Others would give them bad looks and feel disgusted when around them, but they knew that they would have to go through some of this disrespect from others by the looks they got from others. This can relate to my life because my grandmother suffered a fire which has left burned parts all over her body. When I am with her some people may look at her differently, but by now our family has become suceptible to this and know that others may look at her in this way. Anyways Betty was still disappointed because she didn't understand why these soldiers were fighthing because there was always going to be some conlfict before, during, and after the war is fought. This can relate to the past and present because though many wars were fought, many problems have still not been solved. We still have many soldiers all over the world today because there seems like there will always be conflicts with other countries.    

Studs Terkel #5

Peggy Terry worked in a factory with her sister and mother loading shells, ammunition, and other materials to help in the production for necessities for World War II. Unlike others Peggy actually enjoyed going to work because it gave her something to do and she knew that the money she could collect could help towards create a better life for herself and her family. Though she was not very knowledgeable about what she was making at work she just found joy in going to work. She was not very connected to what was going on with the world as she was not very aware of the war that was going on, and this could be due to the fact that she didn't have a radio like many others who received their news from. She stated that the radios were mostly a part of the rich people's lives as she said, "having a radio was a luxury." This can relate back to the Great Depression that we learned about earlier in the year because it shows that a majority of the citizens in the country were still recovering from this economic downfall and that a radio was not a necessity for the middle class citizens at the time. Though she had a job along with her mother they did not allow for any flexibility in the job. Peggy's grandmother was very sick and on the verge of death and Peggy's mother wanted to take a leave of absence to help her out, but instead the company fired her because they did not give anybody any time off. In Peggy's time working in the factory she had built up a hate for the Japanese even though she did not have any personal interactions with them. All she knew was that the American soldiers were fighting against them and that was enough for her to create a hate for them. Along with not knowing much about the war, Peggy did not realize the meanings of human rights and had no idea of the cruelty going on in the concentration camps. This puts Peggy in a bad position because if she is ever in trouble she would not know how to fight for her rights and would be at a disadvantage. Many people in the workforce most likely built up a similar dislike to the Japanese citizens as they knew that their American soldiers were fighting their lives against them.

E.B. Sledge was in a different situation that Peggy as he was a soldier on the Pacific area of the battlefield. Sledge was only 19 years old when he had to enter the war. This can relate to the recent Terkel reading about Bob Rasmus because he was only 14 years old when he entered the war as a soldier. Both of these kids were very young and brave men to have the courage to serve for the country at such a young age. It just amazes me that so many of these soldiers that had to serve in the war were teenagers my age that were fighting for their lives everyday trying to help out the country. Being at such a young age these soldiers needed to gain friendships with each other in order to have trust. These close relationships among the soldiers helped the boys deal with their low points and carry on with their efforts. As sledge describes one of his stories he talks about a Japanese soldier. The soldier was already captured and instead of accepting defeat he tried to kill himself along with another American soldier in a suicide bombing attack. This was just the way that the Japanese soldiers were trained and they had to do anything to help out their country in the war. Sledge learned from this that he had to be able to have courage and be aware of the things going on around him. He had to cope with the terrible images of the dead bodies around him and carry on with his attacks. Just from watching the clip today in class from Saving Private Ryan shows me that this must have been extremely difficult to deal with the images surrounding them as bodies were blowing up all over the place. Close companions were dying left and right and they had to move on from these hardships and keep on fighting. It was hard to even see the images on the film so I could imagine how hard it must be to fight in the war and be seeing people getting killed all over the place.

An Oral History of World War II

After reading the introduction of the oral history of WWII I realized that this war really changed the United States as a whole. This gave me a great background on information leading into the story of Bob Rasmus the rifleman. In this introduction they described how this war changed the psyche and the face of the world as it gave them a different outlook to the rest of the world. In this war there were many negative aspects of it as many citizens struggled to survive everyday. In the introduction it said, "First thing you talked about is what you wanted in your stomach."(165) This shows that many of the citizens at the time were uncertain of their meals everyday which can directly relate to the Great Depression that we learned about early in the Stud Terkel readings as many families were poor and did not know the food that they would eat for the day. Though there were many negatives from this war it created many openings for others as it gave women and minorities a better chance at getting a good job in a good enviroment. As many of the many were serving in the army it opened up plenty oppurtunities for others and these companies were finally willing to hire these people in order to keep their company in business. The New Deal that was passed created many jobs for all citizens and gave many people a good chance at becomming succesful. This relates to World War I because when this war was declared it caused total war to occur and in both situations minorites took over many of the jobs that the men occupied before the war. Though this opened up many oppurtunites for the women the war create some horrible images for the men serving in it. As they would walk past stacks and piles of their dead enemies it created a unforgettable image in these soldiers minds as they look at their enemies in the eyes. Overall this war was good for the country because it opened up chances for others and help bring the country together as they all had a common goal to win the war. In the story of Bob Rasmus he faced a hard situation as he had to serve in the army when he was only 14 years old. I can relate to this because I cannot imagine having to serve in the army when I was only 14 years old. To be honest I cannot even imagine serving in the army at 17 years old, so Bob needed to have a lot of courage to risk his life to serve for his country. He wanted to prove to others his manhood by entering this war, but he did not realize the images that he would be faced with. He had only thought about the positive parts of war and did not yet really think about having to actually kill others. As he grows throughout the story we realize that Bob's mindset changes and he has the integrity to kill his enemies. He turned into a completely new person by the end of the war from the beginning as he realized that he needed to change his mindset in order to survive this war. Not only did the mindset of Bob change from before the war to after, but the mindset of the entire country because America knew that it needed to do anything possible in order to win this war.