OHreflection

Topic: Vietnam on the Home Front Subject: John Harvey (My father)

After hearing what my father had to say, I was surprised to figure out that most of what I thought was true was not. For example, I didn’t know that the War really affected small towns like his. Giving that my Dad lived in Delavan, I knew they would know about the War, but not in the way that they did. I’m sure that a huge part of that was because of how the media made almost everyone know every terrifying part of the War. But Delavan really did have an opinion. Sure, most of the people in the town weren’t standing outside waving banners around, but they did have daily discussions about what they thought about it. When I asked my Dad about the Jackson State Shootings, I was not at all surprised to hear his response. My Father knew pretty much nothing about what had happened. He told me that he had heard someone talking about it a couple times. Other than that, he couldn’t recall much of anything. That is completely understandable, considering that time period that the shootings happened in. The Jackson State Shootings were the innocent killings of two black students by white motorists who were obviously racist. People in the 60’s didn’t care if a black man got killed; it just didn’t matter. That is why the news never really made it to my Father. My Dad also mentioned how the Vietnam War really re-introduced, or maybe introduced protesting. The War also created pretty much a national protest against a common thread that everyone seemed to hate. He said that the media took a huge part in making people even more angry about what was happening overseas.