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San Mateo Middle College High School

Robert Butler, Businessman

(Now retired in California, Robert Butler was in his early 40's when he first heard about the war in Vietnam. He was a college-educated businessman, married with three kids. Today Robert lives alone and does wood work in his spare time.)

“I went to work everyday, my wife attended junior college, and my kids were in middle school. There had been talk on the news about conflicts in Vietnam. A few days d was against the war fully. We had heated discussions in the office with a bunch of us being pro war and others being against it. I on the other hand was luke warm in favor of it. I became disenchanted with the government. My wife and I had discussions about the war. Since she was in school, she on the other hand was upset, not only with the war but also with what was happening at her school with sit-ins and things like that. A couple of times she could not even get on to the campus because of all the police and security guards, trying to bring peace and order to the school. We both thought though, that if our country had to be in the war they should win it. I was against all of the demonstrations and thought that “Hippies” were only trying to attract attention to them selves. I and many other people in my office thought that they should get a job. Many of us also believed at the time that any true blooded American had to be against communism.”

“When troops started to come back from the war, people did not show them any respect. The troops were not viewed as doing a good thing, for putting their lives on the line. “It was not like WWII where there were parties for the troops returning home.” I had heard on the news that some troops were taunted and spat at. I would have never done anything like that; most of the people fighting in the war had no choice they were drafted in. I though very highly of them representing their country and not fleeing to Canada.”

“Our next door neighbors the Wilson's, had a son that had be drafted into the war. He was a machine gunest that loved his country. His parents did not talk much about their son being in the war since there were so many people opposed to the war. People used to through bricks through windows of people that showed support to the war.”

“I remember Vietnamese refuges that had migrated to the US, the church I went to and my others in the community would take them in and help them find work. What was really sad is that one of the refugees I talked to told me how he had, had a very successful business that he had to leave behind in order to keep his life. Here he had nothing living in a motel room and being a janitor at our church. Many of the Vietnamese immigrants were poor but happy to be alive.”

“Mostly I kept informed about what was happening in the war by reading newspapers and watching television. I would hear about (rubs head and sighs) people getting killed while demonstrating.”

“Military is truly a necessity today, my son who has just retired from the service has gone all over the world, he has never been on the front line thankfully, but he has gone to Korea and Saudi Arabia but that is as close as he has come to a real life war setting. His wife on the other hand is still in the service and is on a military base in Florida.”

“The war did not directly affect me or my family but we saw and heard how the war changed many people. Now that I look back at the war, I can see that many people lost their lives fighting to stop communism, a form of government that eventually falls apart on its own.”