this is vietnam
DESCRIPTION
"This is Vietnam" is a typographic book inspired by an interview with two of my veteran uncles about their experiences fighting in the Vietnam War. From the interview, I pulled specific quotes and phrases that I felt strongly captured their stories, using bold graphic elements to express the chaos and intensity of the war.TRANSCRIPT
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THIS
IS
VIETN
AM.
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THIS
IS
VIETN
AM.
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THIS
IS
VIETN
AM.
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YOU PEOPLE SHOULD LEARN WHERE THIS IS BECAUSE IT’S GONNA AFFECT ALL YOUR LIVES.
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If you didn’t go to college, you were gonna get drafted.
“I’m not gonna get drafted.” So I thought, “Well I’ll enlist.” Because you get a better deal if you enlist.
Everybody had to register for the draft at age eighteen.
Our teacher said “You guys should know where this is because it’s gonna affect all your lives.” And it was so funny because of course nobody in our class knew where Vietnam was and it was like, you know…
I went to college in Superior, Wisconsin, dropped out, went to River Falls, but I didn’t have enough credits so I knew I was going to be drafted.
I didn’t have enough credits and I took a physical and I could chew gum and walk down the street at the same time so I ended up being drafted.
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I tried to get into the air force
and uh, the air force wouldn’t
take me because I was colorblind,
slightly colorblind, so I ended up
signing up in the army security
agency and the recruiter told me,
it was really funny because the
recruiter told me, “If you sign up
in the army security agency they
can’t send you to Vietnam.” It was
what they did! They tell you this,
you know, and it was funny because
there was a point after basic
training, and I can’t remember
where the hell we were but we were
all sittin’ there, and this guy
comes up and he says “How many of
you assholes signed up in the army
security agency?” About seven of
us raised our hands and he said...
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“YOU DUMB
FUCKERS ARE ALL
GOIN’ TO VIETNAM!”
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“YOU DUMB
FUCKERS ARE ALL
GOIN’ TO VIETNAM!”
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I was scared.
I did not want to
go to Vietnam.
1 2
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2
I was just this kid
from St. Paul Park
who loved to play
football, hockey,
and baseball.
I did not know
anything about
politics, and I
guess I didn’t
care.
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We arrived in Vietnam on, on,
it was Christmas Eve. And
everybody was out partying.
And so we’re at Tan Son Nhut
Airport in Saigon, and there’s
nobody to pick us up, you
don’t know where to go, and it
was just the worst night I’ve
ever had. We slept on the tar
matt, on the freakin’ cement!
And it wasn’t til the next day
and then somebody actually
showed up and said “Oh yeah,
new people.”
There wasn’t a lot of respect
for new people in Vietnam
because, because it was like,
you people are so, you people
are so stupid. What are you
doing here?
DECEMBER 25TH, 1964
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“YOU CAN’T TRAIN
PEOPLE TO KILL PEOPLE.
THAT’S JUST AN
UNNATURAL THING.”
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You know, you can’t
take an individual
and try to train the
m to go to war.
Your whole life is spent f
our and a half
months with an M16 and an
M60 Machine Gun.
All you’re trying
to do is
keep yourself aliv
e.
All a sudden somebody’s shootin’ at ya, and you’re firing back.
And you got a shitty attitude.
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“YOU JUST TRIED TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU COULD DO TO MAKE THESE PEOPLE
NOT KILL YOU.”
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How do you live with that?
How do you live with yourself when you do that?
You don’t have to do this.
Oh my god, what is this.
This is crazy. This is absolutely crazy.
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Well, what can you do.
You’re gonna be dead in a couple days anyway.
Why start any sort of relationship?
I’d either just stare at the walls or talk stupid shit.
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“THEY HAD THE
BEST DRUGS IN THE
WORLD.”
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IF SOMEONE PASSED YOU A JOINT AND
YOU DIDN’T PARTAKE OF IT, YOU AROUSED GREAT SUSPICION.
IT WAS A STRANGE PLACE TO FIND THE DEMANDS OF
CONFORMITY.
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Strongest memory I have, and it’s not a good memory, was that
December 1st, 1968, my best friend got killed. Now that’s the
strongest, that’s the most powerful memory I have. And he uh,
you know. I carried a radio and he was the point man right in
front of me and he took three rounds in the head and was, you
know, probably dead before he hit the ground.
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I just remember carrying him, carrying him off, and that
night when we were pinned down, and they take the wounded
and they leave the dead. And so, he was wrapped up in what
we called a “poncho liner.” Yeah, he was wrapped up in a
poncho liner and we were hunkered down in a bomb crater.
And that’s like, he was my best friend.
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THEY’LL FIRE AND KILL WHATEVER MOVES.
IT’S
THEEN
EMY.
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IT’S
THEEN
EMY.
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Whoever came into towns with guns,that was the government. And if it was U.S. soldiers who came into town, they were the government. If it was North Vietnamese soldiers came to town, they were the government. And, and you didn’t, you didn’t fight either group.
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And the problem was,
they’d come in and shoot you up.
they,
if they knew that the Am
ericans
were there the day befor
e,
is that the V.C.,
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And if the Americans came in and
knew that the V.C. were there,
you know,
they’d shoot you down.
And they,
yeah,
I mean they slaughtered the whole town.
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BANG.
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BANG.
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I never thought I was going to get wounded. I don’t know, but that’s, that’s alright. Million dollar wound, I was the luckiest guy in the world.
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THEY WOKE ME UP AFTER THE SURGERY, GAVE ME THE PURPLE HEART, I SAID “THANKS A LOT” AND ROLLED BACK OVER.
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It was no big
deal, it was
just a guy in a
hospital, had a
box of Purple
Hearts and
walked around
and gave ‘em to
everybody.
THEY WOKE ME UP AFTER THE SURGERY, GAVE ME THE PURPLE HEART, I SAID “THANKS A LOT” AND ROLLED BACK OVER.
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“YOU’RE GOING BACK TO THE
UNITED STATES.”
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“YOU’RE GOING BACK TO THE
UNITED STATES.”
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Out in the
jungle for days,
people getting
wounded and
killed, seeing
things that
should only be
in a nightmare,
and not knowing
if you would
live or die
the next day,
changes people.
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TO ADJUST, THAT’S VERY VERY DIFFICULT.
WHEN YOU GET BACK, YOU CAN’T JUST ALL A SUDDEN SAY,
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TO ADJUST, THAT’S VERY VERY DIFFICULT.
I THINK IT IS, ANYWAY.
I CAME HOME AS WHITE AS A GHOST.
“HEY, IT’S OVER.”
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I USED TO HAVE DREAMS ABOUT VIETNAM.
The last subjunctive
thing, I was preparing to
run Grandma’s marathon
and I was runnin’ right
down by the house, about
six miles, and I came
around a bend and there
were some woods there and
I looked up and I saw the
three, same three Viet
Cong that I saw the night
that I got wounded. Just
a strange dream. I wasn’t
thinking about Vietnam
or anything, it was just
strange, all of a sudden
they were there.
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NOTHING WILL EVER BE AS BAD AS VIETNAM.
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NOTHING WILL EVER BE AS BAD AS VIETNAM.
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“Sometimes I think
the lucky ones were
the ones who got
killed in Viet Nam---
it’s too hard being a
survivor.”
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WHY DID I SURVIVE.
SOMETIMES I WOULD BE
ANGRY AND ENVIOUS.
I WOULD EVEN F
EEL SORRY FOR
MYSELF.
SOMETIMES I WOULD ASK MYSELF...
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IF I CAN SURVIVE THE NAM, I CAN SURVIVE ANYTHING.
BUT FOR SOME REASON, I ALWAYS PULLED MYSELF TOGETHER.
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This book is
dedicated to
John Price and
Billy Voje.
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Typeface used:
Courier and
Trade Gothic
Instructor:
Yvan Martinez
Images used
are FPO and not
owned by Jane
Gardner.
This book was
designed by
Jane Gardner at
Central Saint
Martins in the
Spring of 2013.
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