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STORY WHEN I GET BACK FROM THE WAR
Us: Could you first introduce yourself a little bit?
Professor Berg: Uhh… My name is Rick Berg. I teach English literature and American literature at USC. I have a PHD, a couple of other degrees. I have taught at other colleges. For a long period of time I worked on and still work on, as a matter of fact, textbooks and movies about the war in Vietnam. So, as a matter of fact, I have been doing that since around 1979…
Us: Right after the war?
Professor Berg: Yeah, actually right after the war. We put together a conference in 1980 that brought together… it was one of the first conference actually on the war in Vietnam. I brought together a group of people to talk about it which ultimately got turned into an addition of an academic journal and turned into a book. So, yeah, I have been dealing with this stuff for a while.
Us: So how come you weren’t serving in the army then, but becoming a teacher – teaching literature?
Professor Berg: Wait, is that two questions? “How come I was serving? And how come I went from a…
Us: No, I mean by kind of transforming your role…
Professor Berg: Ok, got you. Well let me see… My history in terms of the military is that I was drafted into the Marine Corps, which needs to be noted everywhere. And I was drafted because of all that goes around in the 60s because of the draft and between who was drafted and all that stuff. I quit high school when I was in 9th grade and I had been working for years.
Those are the guys who they drafted, partially. Wrong neighborhood… and when I got into the military, I said, “well, there are other thing I could do with my life and maybe I could go to school when I get out”. I wasn’t very serious about it. And when I went to Vietnam, I guess I became more serious about it because at some level I wanted to know, almost naively, why I was being shot at. So, I kind of turned me from “uhh… may I will go to school when I get out – I can do that” to “no, I really want to go to school”. And then when I went to school, I wasn’t going to be a political scientist or historian, but I was interested in culture and literature and stuff like that so I went to UC Irvine and lucked out – I was in the right place at the right time. The degree in literature which allowed me to investigate a new cultural production, which I’m assuming you guys are dealing with in your course.
Yeah, so, I don’t know… I hate to say that went to college because I was in a warzone – that’s not the point – but what it did was, actually I remember the afternoon when I was shot at, but it actually made me more serious about the kinds of things that I didn’t know and I wanted to know. So, yeah… that’s the straightest answer I have. But yeah, it’s not this “I went to war dumb and decided to go to college” – it just changed my attitude towards college.
Us: So, is that the greatest influence about the war?
Professor Berg: Wait, are you asking me “is the war the greatest influence on me” or “is that the greatest influence in terms of the war?”
Us: Yeah, the second one.
Professor Berg: Yeah… Um, no. I mean there are all sorts of things that have come about because of my relationship, not simply to the war and combat and being in Vietnam, which in many ways are kind of like three different things. And there are other things, some negative, some much more positive, some about how you change your perspective and how you change your perspective about the world.
I mean, being there and coming back and being part of the 60s, coming from where I did it, it just changed the way I looked at the world, not drastically change itself, but the things in the world and forced me to kind of want to think about these things. And exactly the same time, it traumatized me and it left me with all sorts of things which were not as bad as some other guys, but you end up with a kind of post traumatic stress syndrome. But, you know, these things are that. So there’s a… what I… I guess what I will say is that there is a… it has been a profound influence on my life.
Now if you would have asked me 25 years ago, I might not have said the same thing, but I’m getting older and further away and I can begin to see how being there, involved in that war caught up in aspects in combat – those three things, keeping those things separate – that had kind of changed my life. So all of that has. Going to school uh… does that make sense?
Us: Yeah, yeah. And what what kind of specific…
Object Description
Description
| Profile of | Richard Berg |
| Title | Story When I Get Back from the War |
| Format | 1 transcript, 3p. |
| Filename | bergrick-vid1_tr1.pdf |
| Full text | STORY WHEN I GET BACK FROM THE WAR Us: Could you first introduce yourself a little bit? Professor Berg: Uhh… My name is Rick Berg. I teach English literature and American literature at USC. I have a PHD, a couple of other degrees. I have taught at other colleges. For a long period of time I worked on and still work on, as a matter of fact, textbooks and movies about the war in Vietnam. So, as a matter of fact, I have been doing that since around 1979… Us: Right after the war? Professor Berg: Yeah, actually right after the war. We put together a conference in 1980 that brought together… it was one of the first conference actually on the war in Vietnam. I brought together a group of people to talk about it which ultimately got turned into an addition of an academic journal and turned into a book. So, yeah, I have been dealing with this stuff for a while. Us: So how come you weren’t serving in the army then, but becoming a teacher – teaching literature? Professor Berg: Wait, is that two questions? “How come I was serving? And how come I went from a… Us: No, I mean by kind of transforming your role… Professor Berg: Ok, got you. Well let me see… My history in terms of the military is that I was drafted into the Marine Corps, which needs to be noted everywhere. And I was drafted because of all that goes around in the 60s because of the draft and between who was drafted and all that stuff. I quit high school when I was in 9th grade and I had been working for years. Those are the guys who they drafted, partially. Wrong neighborhood… and when I got into the military, I said, “well, there are other thing I could do with my life and maybe I could go to school when I get out”. I wasn’t very serious about it. And when I went to Vietnam, I guess I became more serious about it because at some level I wanted to know, almost naively, why I was being shot at. So, I kind of turned me from “uhh… may I will go to school when I get out – I can do that” to “no, I really want to go to school”. And then when I went to school, I wasn’t going to be a political scientist or historian, but I was interested in culture and literature and stuff like that so I went to UC Irvine and lucked out – I was in the right place at the right time. The degree in literature which allowed me to investigate a new cultural production, which I’m assuming you guys are dealing with in your course. Yeah, so, I don’t know… I hate to say that went to college because I was in a warzone – that’s not the point – but what it did was, actually I remember the afternoon when I was shot at, but it actually made me more serious about the kinds of things that I didn’t know and I wanted to know. So, yeah… that’s the straightest answer I have. But yeah, it’s not this “I went to war dumb and decided to go to college” – it just changed my attitude towards college. Us: So, is that the greatest influence about the war? Professor Berg: Wait, are you asking me “is the war the greatest influence on me” or “is that the greatest influence in terms of the war?” Us: Yeah, the second one. Professor Berg: Yeah… Um, no. I mean there are all sorts of things that have come about because of my relationship, not simply to the war and combat and being in Vietnam, which in many ways are kind of like three different things. And there are other things, some negative, some much more positive, some about how you change your perspective and how you change your perspective about the world. I mean, being there and coming back and being part of the 60s, coming from where I did it, it just changed the way I looked at the world, not drastically change itself, but the things in the world and forced me to kind of want to think about these things. And exactly the same time, it traumatized me and it left me with all sorts of things which were not as bad as some other guys, but you end up with a kind of post traumatic stress syndrome. But, you know, these things are that. So there’s a… what I… I guess what I will say is that there is a… it has been a profound influence on my life. Now if you would have asked me 25 years ago, I might not have said the same thing, but I’m getting older and further away and I can begin to see how being there, involved in that war caught up in aspects in combat – those three things, keeping those things separate – that had kind of changed my life. So all of that has. Going to school uh… does that make sense? Us: Yeah, yeah. And what what kind of specific… |
| Archival file | Volume3/bergrick-vid1_tr1.pdf |
