Mohr, Richard, oral interview by Emily Freilich, Garden Grove, CA, April 25, 2015. Digital recording.
Richard Mohr, though not Latino, is a Vietnam veteran from Fountain Valley California. Vietnam has been a presence in his life from when he heard about the Vietnam War in high school continuing to his life now living near Little Saigon in Orange County.
Mr. Mohr first learned about the Vietnam War on the news as it increasingly gained more coverage in the American media. Everyone knew about the major events. He says, “It became a constant thing, almost like wallpaper in someone’s living room,” showing how pervasive the idea and the news of Vietnam were. Early in the war, most Americans thought the US government was in control: “I remember thinking “Nobody is going to push us around, right?” And I had no idea that five years later I would be there myself.”
He quit college for personal reasons and decided to enlist in the Army in November 1967 to avoid being drafted and assigned a unit. By enlisting, he was able to choose what unit he would work with; he chose the Army Security Agency and went into language school. He was trained at a 47 week Vietnamese course at Fort Bliss, and then went to the Goodfellow Air Force Base for interpreter training.
His unit landed in Vietnam in May 1969 and immediately found out it was not like the Vietnam shown on TV.
This is what you are seeing with your own eyes. We saw these buildings that had big holes in the walls from rocket propelled grenades or who knows what, little kids running around with no pants on, and the people that were there didn’t look like the Vietnamese that we had for teachers… And then we see the barbed wire around places where Americans were and the barbed wire would have these aluminum cans attached to the barbed wire and inside the cans there were little rocks or something so if something started rubbing against the barbed wire the rocks would make the noise inside the cans. And we knew about this stuff, but now we were seeing it with our own eyes.
Mr. Mohr talked many times to the bodily experience of being in such a hot, humid environment. He sweat constantly and never felt he could drink enough. He remembers waking up with his sheets damp and feeling so great showering to get the sweat and dirt off and then immediately starting to sweat again as soon as he left the shower. This plays a major part in how he remembers his personal experiences.
Though uncomfortable at times, Mr. Mohr genuinely enjoyed his time in Vietnam. He was an interpreter translator with a Radio Research unit. It was interesting work and he even described his time in Pleiku as, “one of the happiest times of my life because all I had to do was my work.”
Mr. Mohr re-enlisted because he enjoyed his work and the many benefits. He says he was safe, didn’t have to pay income taxes, got an extra $65 a month for being in a hostile fire zone, had great camaraderie, and got free 30 day leave every six months after reenlisting and free round trip ticket anywhere. His first 30-day leave he went home and the second he went to Australia to sightsee. He values these benefits and the chance to travel as he would have had those opportunities without the military.
Even with these personal benefits, Mr. Mohr did gradually come to feel the war was futile and a waste. He first identified a shift in how he felt about the war when his unit translated a message from a North Vietnamese unit saying where and when they were going to attack South Vietnamese installations. They sent it out, but later heard on the news that 59 ARVNs had been killed in that place. An American officer had read the report but did not give it to the South Vietnamese. After that Mr. Mohr, “never felt the same about his job again.” Towards the end of the war, he was more disconnected from the war. After the Kent State shootings, there was no hope they could win the war, but he still tried to do his work the best he could.
He now thinks of the war in a historical context, going back to B.C. to explain how Vietnam developed and how Cambodia gradually lost its power. Mr. Mohr thinks it is essential to understand the history around the Vietnam War and shows that the American actions just delayed the historical conflicts in Vietnam. He believes that the war was a political action for Johnson to both push through his domestic policy and deflect criticism for letting South Vietnam become communist sooner. The main lasting effect of the war was that the American people became disillusioned and skeptical of the government and protest military action in order to avoid another Vietnam. As he said in parting after the interview, he does not believe the war was justified: “What a waste. All those Vietnamese killed, all those American lives lost.”