University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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18 Vietnam CONCEPTUAL PLAN SOLEMN MOMENT: Pat Bennet, ex U.S. Marine, par- ticipates in the pledge of allegiance at the Texas Association of Vietnam Veterans meeting, Dec. 10. PLANS IN PROGRESS: The Vietnam Veterans Bouldin Creek Park was unveiled in September. The park was to serve as a recreational facility for all veterans and community residents. IN REMEMBRANCE: Special ceremonies occured at the State Capitol Rotunda for all veterans of war, Nov. 1 1 .

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, MOliTHAN ; Daniel Byram CRUISIN ' : Gearing up for the game, students drive up and down Commerce Street supporting their favorite team. BEVO ' S FAN CLUB: Longhom supporters carouse on Commerce Street the Friday night before the football showdown at the Cotton Bowl, Oct. 10. GO, SPUDS, GO! While Spuds looks on, fairgoers sample the sights and sounds of the state fair in Dallas. OU Weekend 17

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Vietnam. The word silences some, evokes curiousity in others and embitters many. Eighteen years had passed since the capitol city of Saigon fell to the communist North Vietnamese, yet the Vietnam War emerged in 1987 and 1988 as one of the most talked about subjects in American history. With the 1982 dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (a wall inscribed with names of those killed or missing in the war) and the recent release of films such as Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Good Morning Vietnam, and award- winning books like Pace ' s Story, and even a television series, Tour of Duty, the generally avoided topic of Vietnam surfaced. Riding the wave of media attention and discussion about the war, Austin Vietnam veter- ans, residents and university students worked to keep the memories of those killed, or still con- sidered missing, alive. Plans for a living memorial in South Aus- tin were unveiled in September as part of this effort. The Vietnam Veterans Bouldin Creek Park Foundation was developed to serve as both a meditative place for veterans of all wars, and as a community recreational facility to remember those still living, Don Dorsey, vice president of the project, said. Vietnam veterans, Dorsey said, needed in- volvement, as with the community park. We help the community, and that helps the vets. Activity of Vietnam veterans was low until recent years, when media attention turned to- ward the war, according to Dorsey. Platoon opened the door for Nam vets, Dorsey said. He and members of Texas As- sociation of Vietnam Veterans, of which he was the 1987 treasurer, were part of a special screen- ing of the movie at the Arboretum, when it was released in Austin early in 1987. Counselors were present to discuss any anger and pain the film evoked because of its realistic quality. Platoon, Dorsey said, isn ' t about what ' s right; wars aren ' t right people get caught in the middle. A pharmacy major at UT from 1966 to 1968, Dorsey said he joined the Marine Corps because he ran out of college money, and wanted to be an infantryman fighting for his country. After Nam, though, I wanted to do more drugs than sell them, he said. The war was different from anything he could have imagined, Dorsey said, and once there, he found he disagreed with what was happening. I never agreed, I just knew once I got there it wasn ' t the place to protest . . . You see what you ' re made of, he said. You didn ' t know anyone very long; you just marked those days off that calender. Returning to UT after the war, Dorsey re- ceived an an degree, which he has used to design products for his Vietnam veterans- oriented company. As chairman for the awareness committee of TAW, which began in 1985 as a non-political, community involvement organization, Dorsey, with other members, visited Austin high schools, describing the Vietnam experience in an effort to dispell the myths of Rambo. Dorsey also said university students seem to be showing more interest, but, young kids are more enthusiastic than the college kids two years ago. Lack of interest about the war by college students may have been because the contro- versial subject was avoided in high school ed- ucation until recently, Thomas Philpott, UT history professor, said. Vietnam 19