Eileen D. Simmons, Director, Everett Public Library

The Vietnam War was fought by people I didn’t know. The guys I knew in high school went on to college, and therefore, at least until the lottery, had deferments. I spent the war years more interested in my friends and my classes than in politics. Of course I knew that U.S. soldiers were fighting a war in Vietnam—but it just wasn’t real to me. During that most controversial and divisive of wars I was old enough to have been aware of what was going on, but I was clueless.

Since then I have tried to make a dent in my appalling ignorance. For me that means reading books and watching films. One of the first books I read about Vietnam was Tim O’Brien’s National Book Award winner Going After Cacciato. Since then I’ve watched feature films such as Full Metal Jacket; Deer Hunter; Good Morning, Vietnam; and Apocalypse Now. I’ve seen documentaries such as Vietnam: A Television History, The Fog of War and Regret to Inform. And now I’ll be reading The Things They Carried, another book about Vietnam by Tim O’Brien.

I hope you’ll be reading it, too, and joining us throughout the month of May for book discussions, films, and even a play based on O’Brien’s book. Thirty-five years later, as we send a new generation of young men and women to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Vietnam War still has lessons to teach us about what we ask young people to do for their country.

Eileen D. Simmons
Director, Everett Public Library


Photograph courtesy of Eileen D. Simmons. All rights reserved.