Thomas Paul Chambers |
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Perceptions of the Anti-War Movement Interviewer: Were you bothered by the anti-war movement and public perceptions of the war? They didn’t know the truth. And I don’t really know what you can say about that. You can tell people, but I guess I’ve always kind had a short fuse. I never really took the time sit down and try to explain things or have a conversation with these people. I just was very angry with them and would have been more confrontational. But fortunately I wasn’t really around people like that very much. The day I got back at the airport, the day I was leaving. I left military service from Vietnam – so they flew me back to the airport in San Francisco and then I had to make my own way home from there. As I came out in uniform there were protestors there. And I was angry about that because I thought of the people who died both on their side and ours, the Vietnamese and ours, and it just uhh – these people had such a good life. They can go to movies, they can sleep safe all night, they don’t have to sleep in the rain, they don’t have to climb hills. And they are disparaging the people who made that possible and that kind of hurt. The Vietnam War is very misunderstood, very often you hear people saying that the Vietcong defeated the Americans. Well the decisions that were made were political, militarily we were not defeated. There was no American Dien Bien Phu, the enemy lost far more people than we did; and if you look at the occupation of Saigon at the end of the war there weren’t a lot of little men in black pajamas walking in, there were North Vietnamese regulars riding in on their Tanks. That’s who defeated the South Vietnamese when we left. They didn’t defeat us.
Object Description
Profile of | Thomas Paul Chambers |
Title | The Men with Painted Faces |
Profile bio | Thomas Paul Chambers served two tours in Vietnam from 1966-67 and 1968-69. He served in an infantry company during his first tour. Shortly after returning to the United States, he volunteered for a second tour where he served in an elite Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol or LRRP Company. During his second tour all LRRP units were reorganized into the 75th Ranger Regiment and re-designated as Rangers; as such he holds the rare distinction of being a founding member of the 75th Ranger Regiment. Thomas Paul Chambers is one of the rare few to have served as an Infantryman, Airborne Infantryman (Paratrooper), LRRP Operator, and Army Ranger. Upon leaving military service, Thomas Paul Chambers worked for the LA Unified School District for thirty years. Tom has recently retired and is finishing his first novel. He remains proud of his service to this day. |
Profiler bio | Basil Ballard is a senior majoring in political science. He has a long term interest in the politics of the Vietnam War - as well as a lifelong interest in military history and statecraft.; David Laughton is a Junior majoring in business. |
Subject |
Combat Profile US Army US Special Forces |
Profiled by | Ballard, Basil; Laughton, David |
Profile date | 2016-03-26 |
Geographic subject (country) | Vietnam |
Coverage date | 1966; 1967; 1968; 1969 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/thomas-paul-chambers/ |
Type |
images video |
Format | 1 image; 8 videos (00:22:13); 8 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 | chambersthomas |
Description
Profile of | Thomas Paul Chambers |
Title | Perception of the Anti-War Movement |
Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
Filename | chambersthomaspaul-vid7_tr7.pdf |
Full text | Perceptions of the Anti-War Movement Interviewer: Were you bothered by the anti-war movement and public perceptions of the war? They didn’t know the truth. And I don’t really know what you can say about that. You can tell people, but I guess I’ve always kind had a short fuse. I never really took the time sit down and try to explain things or have a conversation with these people. I just was very angry with them and would have been more confrontational. But fortunately I wasn’t really around people like that very much. The day I got back at the airport, the day I was leaving. I left military service from Vietnam – so they flew me back to the airport in San Francisco and then I had to make my own way home from there. As I came out in uniform there were protestors there. And I was angry about that because I thought of the people who died both on their side and ours, the Vietnamese and ours, and it just uhh – these people had such a good life. They can go to movies, they can sleep safe all night, they don’t have to sleep in the rain, they don’t have to climb hills. And they are disparaging the people who made that possible and that kind of hurt. The Vietnam War is very misunderstood, very often you hear people saying that the Vietcong defeated the Americans. Well the decisions that were made were political, militarily we were not defeated. There was no American Dien Bien Phu, the enemy lost far more people than we did; and if you look at the occupation of Saigon at the end of the war there weren’t a lot of little men in black pajamas walking in, there were North Vietnamese regulars riding in on their Tanks. That’s who defeated the South Vietnamese when we left. They didn’t defeat us. |
Archival file | Volume3/chambersthomaspaul-vid7_tr7.pdf |