What is the truth of war? Reflection
In this project we learned about the various aspects and intricacies of the Vietnam War. We learned about the Vietnam War through the Ken Burns documentaries, reading the book The Things They Carried, interviewing Vietnam veterans and other primary sources. To help us fully understand the extent of all of the angles of the Vietnam war we were shown the Ken Burns documentaries. In these documentaries there was a lot of content that showed the many political opinions from both sides. The documentaries showed the content in a non biased way as to not offend the watcher/listener. This way, our class was able to receive this information well without pre-formed opinions on the subject. We read the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. This book described the perspective of a ground soldier before, in, and after the Vietnam War. I learned about the draft and how psychologically that affected someone. I learned from this book how traumatic war is and how you can be there one moment and the next be plastered to a tree by a mine. This book gave the perspective of the effects on a soldier when they were back home and trying to reintegrate into society. This wonderful and insightful book has made an impact on the generation that did not experience the war, and I believe is a very relevant book to read. I believe that it is relevant to read about the mistakes and successes of our nation and the human race. We interviewed various local Vietnam Veterans and gained insight on the war from a more individual perspective. We recorded many of these interviews and took the most relevant clips from them splice them together and presented it at the exhibition. Throughout this project I learned a multitude of different things about the Vietnam war. This knowledge has heightened my knowledge and perspective on the history of our country, the world, and the tendencies of our species as a whole.
Our class displayed our learning to the public through an exhibition. This exhibition consisted of a series of groups of students managing separate rooms. Different messages and ideas were portrayed in each room about the Vietnam war. The first room was The American Homefront room. This room encompassed the details of what was happening during at the time of The Vietnam War in the homes of the United States. Due to the fact that this war was the first "television war" that the US and the world had experienced. This war was the first to show the graphic images of a war front. Because of this new found display of information the television had great power over the views of the citizens of the United States. Then next room was the soldiers on the battlefield room. This room contained many of the facts and features of the life of a foot soldier. The supplies they needed, the diseases and rots affecting them, and generally the other physical elements US soldiers and Vietnamese carried during the war. The next room that you would be lead into by a tour guide is the Soldiers' Emotions' room. This room’s main purpose was to show the effects of war on a soldier, and how this affected them psychologically during and after the Vietnam War. The next room was the Vietnamese perspectives room. This room's purpose was to provide a balanced view of the Vietnam War by considering the perspective of the Vietnamese people and military. . This room showed the guerilla tactics of the communist North Vietnam and the life of the Vietnamese in the south during the Vietnam War. The America Divided room is the room that was showing the facts of the controversy of the Vietnam War back in the United States. Due to the fact that the Vietnam War was just about the most controversial war in the History of the United States, there were many differing opinions expressed. This room was necessary for the complete picture of the Vietnam War. Finally the room that my group designed was the Retrospective room. This room's overall goal was to bring the exhibition to a close and to give a more than ground troop perspective on the events of the war. My groups room consisted of first a memorial display for the exhibition that participants could hang the dog tags they acquired in the Soldiers on the Battlefield room. Then you could enjoy the last Ken Burns documentary about many post-war events. After that the user can listen to a portion of the Veteran interview discussing what it was like for them post Vietnam War. Then you could bid on the room that you liked best in mason jars. Immediately after that you could write your reactions and responses to the question. What is the truth of war? For me the retrospective room turned out great, although it could have used some more filler content on some of the more blank parts of the walls in the room. All of these rooms to my knowledge flowed nicely and gave a nice although limited, overall picture of the Vietnam War.
In this project I have had my strong points and my weak ones. Points for refinement in my performance during this project include procrastination, engagement with the topic at hand, and unrelated conversations. An area that I believe I have improved upon is my communication and coordination with group members. In this project I really think that I have furthered my ability to communicate with group members. Due to the fact that I have steadily grown more outgoing in my communication since middle school, I think that I communicate well in the situations that require coordination of aspects of the different elements of our room, and double checking my peers in their completion of the different parts. I procrastinated in helping and completing the timeline and the museum text for the guide booklet for the exhibition. I often would be thinking about unrelated topics and not engaging with relevant topics furthering the progress of our group. Due to the fact that many of the group members had various like interests to mine outside of school I would often have off topic conversations. These conversations definitely hindered my ability to contribute to my groups progress. Next time I definitely need to improve upon these areas for growth. I especially need to work on not getting distracted by my peers.
This project has changed my perspective on war and what the Vietnam War was as a whole. The most impactful messages that I will remember from this project are some of the specific things said by the veterans in the interviews that our class undertook and the one I did. I will always remember the most shocking and interesting things that I discovered in the interview with my grandfather. I will remember the facts about the constant effects of Agent Orange in the water in Vietnam. I learned a lot about the effects and difficulties with Agent Orange from the interview with the veteran at school. I have learned of its origins, and pre-Vietnam War French Colonialism. I now know much much more about this country's political and military history. This changed my entire perspective on the origin and nature of this war, and the character of highly controversial current conflicts. I believe that the truth of war is extremely complicated, and steeped in the past and present. It is when human behavior can be taken down to raw elements emotions and the psychological battle with reality and what is correct, moral, and sane.
Our class displayed our learning to the public through an exhibition. This exhibition consisted of a series of groups of students managing separate rooms. Different messages and ideas were portrayed in each room about the Vietnam war. The first room was The American Homefront room. This room encompassed the details of what was happening during at the time of The Vietnam War in the homes of the United States. Due to the fact that this war was the first "television war" that the US and the world had experienced. This war was the first to show the graphic images of a war front. Because of this new found display of information the television had great power over the views of the citizens of the United States. Then next room was the soldiers on the battlefield room. This room contained many of the facts and features of the life of a foot soldier. The supplies they needed, the diseases and rots affecting them, and generally the other physical elements US soldiers and Vietnamese carried during the war. The next room that you would be lead into by a tour guide is the Soldiers' Emotions' room. This room’s main purpose was to show the effects of war on a soldier, and how this affected them psychologically during and after the Vietnam War. The next room was the Vietnamese perspectives room. This room's purpose was to provide a balanced view of the Vietnam War by considering the perspective of the Vietnamese people and military. . This room showed the guerilla tactics of the communist North Vietnam and the life of the Vietnamese in the south during the Vietnam War. The America Divided room is the room that was showing the facts of the controversy of the Vietnam War back in the United States. Due to the fact that the Vietnam War was just about the most controversial war in the History of the United States, there were many differing opinions expressed. This room was necessary for the complete picture of the Vietnam War. Finally the room that my group designed was the Retrospective room. This room's overall goal was to bring the exhibition to a close and to give a more than ground troop perspective on the events of the war. My groups room consisted of first a memorial display for the exhibition that participants could hang the dog tags they acquired in the Soldiers on the Battlefield room. Then you could enjoy the last Ken Burns documentary about many post-war events. After that the user can listen to a portion of the Veteran interview discussing what it was like for them post Vietnam War. Then you could bid on the room that you liked best in mason jars. Immediately after that you could write your reactions and responses to the question. What is the truth of war? For me the retrospective room turned out great, although it could have used some more filler content on some of the more blank parts of the walls in the room. All of these rooms to my knowledge flowed nicely and gave a nice although limited, overall picture of the Vietnam War.
In this project I have had my strong points and my weak ones. Points for refinement in my performance during this project include procrastination, engagement with the topic at hand, and unrelated conversations. An area that I believe I have improved upon is my communication and coordination with group members. In this project I really think that I have furthered my ability to communicate with group members. Due to the fact that I have steadily grown more outgoing in my communication since middle school, I think that I communicate well in the situations that require coordination of aspects of the different elements of our room, and double checking my peers in their completion of the different parts. I procrastinated in helping and completing the timeline and the museum text for the guide booklet for the exhibition. I often would be thinking about unrelated topics and not engaging with relevant topics furthering the progress of our group. Due to the fact that many of the group members had various like interests to mine outside of school I would often have off topic conversations. These conversations definitely hindered my ability to contribute to my groups progress. Next time I definitely need to improve upon these areas for growth. I especially need to work on not getting distracted by my peers.
This project has changed my perspective on war and what the Vietnam War was as a whole. The most impactful messages that I will remember from this project are some of the specific things said by the veterans in the interviews that our class undertook and the one I did. I will always remember the most shocking and interesting things that I discovered in the interview with my grandfather. I will remember the facts about the constant effects of Agent Orange in the water in Vietnam. I learned a lot about the effects and difficulties with Agent Orange from the interview with the veteran at school. I have learned of its origins, and pre-Vietnam War French Colonialism. I now know much much more about this country's political and military history. This changed my entire perspective on the origin and nature of this war, and the character of highly controversial current conflicts. I believe that the truth of war is extremely complicated, and steeped in the past and present. It is when human behavior can be taken down to raw elements emotions and the psychological battle with reality and what is correct, moral, and sane.