U.S. involvement in Vietnam was part of a conflict that extended from 1955 until 1975, pitting the communist government of North Vietnam against the government of South Vietnam, which was backed by the United States. The North Vietnamese government wanted to unify Vietnam under its rule, while the U.S. government sought to prevent the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia. Starting during the Kennedy administration, American involvement escalated until there were over half a million U.S. troops in Vietnam. The Soviet Union and China, meanwhile, supported the North Vietnamese with weapons, supplies, and advisors.

The U.S. withdrew its last combat troops from Vietnam in 1973 without achieving its overall objectives; two years later, South Vietnam was overtaken by the North. Prior to the current war in Afghanistan, Vietnam was America's longest war, and it left a troubling legacy in the decades that followed.

Lee Lindstrom

Serving in Vietnam

During the war years, men aged 18-25 were required to register for the draft; some volunteered for different branches of military service as an alternative to the draft, or out of a desire to serve the country. Women volunteers served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, especially as nurses. 

Barton Bean of Stratford served as an operating room technician in a Navy base hospital at Danang from 1963 to 1967. He worked helicopter duty, helping retrieve wounded from the fighting areas near Danang, and was wounded toward the end of his service. He wrote letters to a friend at home about the bombing of the hospital where he worked, and about arguments over how to treat a Viet Cong prisoner brought in for treatment. His friend wrote years later that he returned home in 1967 with “a deep respect for the Asian peoples, nightmares about the orphans and wounded, and a continued interest in the medical world.” 

While stationed at a Navy base hospital in Danang, Vietnam, Barton Bean IV of Stratford had this dress made for his friend Jocelyn Granet from Fairfield. 

TJ Kelley enlisted with a Marine Corps recruiter after graduating from Andrew Warde High School in 1965, “before Viet Nam was a real big deal." He remembered, "I knew we were at war some place, I just wanted to be there. All my friends were saying ‘go get ‘em’ and blah, blah, blah and they all turned out to be the biggest anti-war demonstrators in the country.” He served with the 3^rd Battalion, 3^rd Marines and was wounded in engagements with Viet Cong forces.  Although he believed that the war "was absolutely, positively fought wrong," he felt that the U.S. had an obligation to South Vietnam and he wouldn't have missed his experience there for the world.

"You can’t actually tell somebody what war is like, it’s impossible...I have spoken to groups where I get half-way through and I just couldn’t continue. And when I speak to veterans about it, I can talk to a veteran all I want, no problem at all, ‘cause both of us were there." 

At the age of 67, Stephen Koteles, who had previously served in World War I, World War II, and Korea, became the oldest member of the armed forces serving in Vietnam. The son of Hungarian immigrants, he felt obligated to fight communism and believed he had duty to serve once the U.S. decided to enter a war, even if “all wars are mistakes.” 

Upon graduation from college, Southport's David Sturges chose to serve in the Navy as an enlisted journalist. In 1966, he was assigned to Public Affairs aboard the USS Enterprise, the Navy's only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in combat. Her mission was interdiction bombing of Viet Cong jungle supply routes out of Laos and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and later, briefly with Seventh Fleet response off North Korea during the seizure of USS Pueblo. Sturges served as information briefer for press corps and government officials visiting the ship as well as editor of the ship's news magazine and battle damage assessment summaries. In 1968, he was ordered to the Pentagon as Flag Journalist, Personal Staff of the Chief of Naval Operations. He was commissioned and decorated with the Navy Achievement Medal for his staff accomplishments. However, when he returned home from active duty, he encountered hostility from family and strangers opposed to the war. 

In subsequent Reserve duty, he remained in Navy Public Affairs and retired as Lieutenant Commander, with 20 years’ service, in 1986.

Years later he reflected, "There is a growing public awareness that a lot of people went out there [to Vietnam] and did a very difficult job, kept their heads held high when they came back and are now getting the full appreciation of their service.”

Blake Wade left Roger Ludlowe High School at the age of 17 and enlisted in the Army. He took his guitar with him to Vietnam, and recorded two songs expressing his desire for peace and his questions about the war.  Believing that "the world must hear these two songs" by "the singing soldier," a high school friend in Fairfield spent his savings to produce Wade's songs on a 45 rpm record in 1970. 

Debating the War at Home

Americans were deeply divided over the war in Vietnam, especially as the number of draftees, casualties, and costs mounted in the late 1960s. As more Americans started to question involvement in the war, the antiwar movement grew into a major force, putting pressure on political leaders to rethink their commitment and strategy. While young people worried about getting drafted, many of their elders believed in the fight against communism in Asia.  At Fairfield's Memorial Day parade in 1966, speaker Charles Peden criticized those who protested the war as failing in patriotism.

Students at Fairfield University were arrayed on both sides of the issue. In 1965, 900 students and faculty signed a petition in support of the war, and planned a rally for Veterans Day. Around the same time, Fairfield University alum and Catholic Worker activist Thomas Cornell came to campus to speak about his antiwar activities, which included burning draft cards in New York City’s Union Square and protesting at New London’s submarine base.

Some in Fairfield looked to presidential politics, gathering signatures to make sure that antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy would be on the ballot in the 1968 election. Others protested directly; following Richard Nixon's escalation of the war, students at Fairfield University, Sacred Heart, and the University of Bridgeport planned a joint demonstration as part of the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam protests  in 1969.