The Vietnam War changed my life forever.
I was the mother of three young girls in 1967. We lived in a South Shore town south of Boston. Our home was located down the road from a state park. During the War a quickly assembled military facility was built to furnish cluster bombs to be used in Vietnam.
These small cylindrical weapons were designed to injure rather than kill as that was thought to result in a
greater consequence to the North Vietnamese as it tied up more rescuers and medical people than just killing did. Often there would be explosions up the road and ambulances would race to the site but we never heard what happened or anything that would admit such a facility even existed. My safe suburban life was shattered by the knowledge of these terrible weapons my country was using.
I wanted to know everything I could about why we were in Vietnam and how I could help end this terrible war that was actually right next door. I went to my local library and read every book on the war I could get. I learned so much I then felt compelled to show others what I had learned and asked the town to allow me to run a seminar on the war presenting both sides. I contacted the State Dept and many others and was able to bring military members, politicians and historians to my small town. I contacted the MIT scholar, Noam Chomsky, who agreed to come. The seminar was a great success with almost a hundred people attending. We all learned a great deal and I had every hope that the collective new knowledge would help end this disastrous war.
I actually have come to believe that kind of local interaction turned many people against the US position and was a factor that did actually finally stop the fighting.
I learned that I could be an activist and the experience turned out to be a personal push that keeps me now, in my late seventies, dedicated to learning and involving myself in state, local and national affairs.