Thomas Gustafson |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 9 of 19 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max) if available
medium (500x500 max) if available
Large (1000x1000 max) if available
Extra Large
Full Resolution
Archival Image
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
|
I watched the Vietnam War – it was on television, and things like that – but it didn’t register to me. I’ll never forget when I’d just become a parent at 30 years old, and they dedicated the Vietnam War monument down in Washington, that Maya Lin did, and I remember seeing parents go up to it, and they were in tears. And I think I began crying for the first time in my life about the Vietnam War, because I think I knew what it would be like to be a parent, to lose a child in that war. I really had to gain a little more distance, a little more maturity, to measure the magnitude of what happened, which I couldn’t measure then. My parents subscribed to Life Magazine and Time Magazine, and I remember Life cover stories of the monks immolating themselves, and the burnings, the suicide; but it was probably the My Lai Massacre where you just remembered kids not that much older or younger than myself , and the pictures of the bombings in Life Magazine, those just seared into me: they just seared into my memory, to have that on a coffee table, to see that massacre. I think that’s when it really began entering into my mind, and when I got to college, and I had an anthropology teacher and a political science teacher; freshman year, I read the Pentagon Papers – freshman year, ’71 – a professor assigned us to read the Pentagon Papers, it just opened up my eyes to what had been covered up. I began to study history, I began to study the Vietnam War, in a critical perspective, and I’ve loved to be a scholar and a historian ever since. I’ll never forget reading the Pentagon Papers, and getting all of the documents, and all the evidence, and all the stuff that had been covered up, and all the secrets, and I was getting introduced to that stuff. It was like something so demystified, overcoming the denial, it was really getting honest, or seeing a critical perspective on our history.
Object Description
Profile of | Thomas Gustafson |
Title | Thomas Gustafson: Growing Up in America During the Vietnam War |
Profile bio | Our group had the pleasure and honor of interviewing USC Associate Professor of English, American Studies, and Ethnicity Thomas Gustafson. Gustafson was approximately 13 years old and coming of age during the height of the American War in Vietnam. He grew up in a conservative, mostly White suburbia in New Jersey, but attended a much more liberal high school during the years he began to form his own opinions about the war. He went on to attend Yale University to pursue a B.A. in English and history, and pursued a PH.D. in English at Stanford University. Today he focuses on political discourse in language, politics of language, and literature of the American West. Gustafson attributes his choice to pursue politics and history to his upbringing in the highly politically active years of the Vietnam War. |
Profiler bio | The profilers for this project are Kathleen Moore, Natalia Saucedo, and TJ Darcy. Kathleen grew up in Sacramento, California and attended USC to pursue a degree in business to be completed in 2018.; Natalia Saucedo is a political science major originating from Culver City, CA and will be graduating in 2019.; TJ Darcy grew up in Valley Stream, New York and attended USC to pursue a degree in computer science major with an emphasis in games. He will be graduating in spring 2016. |
Subject | Profile |
Profiled by | Moore, Kathleen; Darcy, TJ; Saucedo, Natalia |
Profile date | 2016-04-07 |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Elizabeth; New Haven; Palo Alto |
Geographic subject (county) | Union; New Haven; Santa Clara |
Geographic subject (state) | New Jersey; Connecticut; California |
Geographic subject (country) | USA |
Coverage date | 1953 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/thomas-gustafson-growing-up-in-america-during-the-vietnam-war/ |
Type |
images video |
Format | 1 image; 11 video files (00:11:16); 11 transcripts |
Language | English |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
Filename | gustafsonthomas |
Description
Profile of | Thomas Gustafson |
Title | Interview Transcription |
Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
Filename | gustafsonthomas-vid4_tr4.pdf |
Full text | I watched the Vietnam War – it was on television, and things like that – but it didn’t register to me. I’ll never forget when I’d just become a parent at 30 years old, and they dedicated the Vietnam War monument down in Washington, that Maya Lin did, and I remember seeing parents go up to it, and they were in tears. And I think I began crying for the first time in my life about the Vietnam War, because I think I knew what it would be like to be a parent, to lose a child in that war. I really had to gain a little more distance, a little more maturity, to measure the magnitude of what happened, which I couldn’t measure then. My parents subscribed to Life Magazine and Time Magazine, and I remember Life cover stories of the monks immolating themselves, and the burnings, the suicide; but it was probably the My Lai Massacre where you just remembered kids not that much older or younger than myself , and the pictures of the bombings in Life Magazine, those just seared into me: they just seared into my memory, to have that on a coffee table, to see that massacre. I think that’s when it really began entering into my mind, and when I got to college, and I had an anthropology teacher and a political science teacher; freshman year, I read the Pentagon Papers – freshman year, ’71 – a professor assigned us to read the Pentagon Papers, it just opened up my eyes to what had been covered up. I began to study history, I began to study the Vietnam War, in a critical perspective, and I’ve loved to be a scholar and a historian ever since. I’ll never forget reading the Pentagon Papers, and getting all of the documents, and all the evidence, and all the stuff that had been covered up, and all the secrets, and I was getting introduced to that stuff. It was like something so demystified, overcoming the denial, it was really getting honest, or seeing a critical perspective on our history. |
Archival file | Volume3/gustafsonthomas-vid4_tr4.pdf |