How Did The Vietnam War Changed America

When the Vietnam war started late in 1955, my grandmother, Margery (Marge) Affeld was 14 years old. As she recounted to me her memories of the war she recalled that she was already living in California, engaged to be married to my grandfather. As the interview continued she talked about her stance on the war and Americas reaction to the war. She spent most of her time however, talking about the change of American leadership throughout the war and how it consequently shaped and changed America's viewpoint on the war. Marge says, "I was not in favor of it, but was beyond college age so I didn't participate in any of the demonstrations." She told me about the demonstrations she saw on television and how they peaked in the mid 1960's, a time

We discussed together things that were going on her life that made it seem that way. For one, Marge was out of college. Many of the people who had strong opinions gathered together on university campuses across the nation to show their opposition towards the war and its growing American death toll. She felt strongly that although she was upset with the government was highly unhappy with the situation, she did not feel comfortable contributing in the protests with her two brothers fighting. Marge described how her brothers felt like they needed to be there to fight, and so consequently she did not feel it was right to protest against them and their

Aspects such as socioeconomic status, religious beliefs and ethnic backgrounds did not change anything for her involvement in the war and the way it affected her life. She lived comfortably with her husband. They were both working full-time jobs and additionally were distracted by their two children who were in 1968 and 1971. Additionally, their religious beliefs never seemed to get in the way of anything that affected the war. Both being mildly Jewish, they did not have a strong hold on religion and therefore did not feel moved by their beliefs in the religion. Ethnically, both Marge and Fred are white and were not subject to any prejudice or mistreatment based on their race and ethnicity throughout this