The Sixties
The sixties era is either forgotten or under appreciated. The only prior knowledge I had learned about the sixties was in my AP US History class in high school. The truth is this was the era that was most revolutionary. The sixties era was a major push for greater movements. Feminism was on the raise and women were now not taking no for an answer. Vietnam was the first televised war and this type of media led to the antiwar. Afro-American’s experienced a revolutionary change within them trying to stand up for social justice. In the previous week I had read a various archives on the Vietnam War. I had read a letter that stuck out to me, this letter was written to Senator Biz Johnson from the Committee on Behalf of POW-MIA’s wives and families. This letter had asked senator Johnson to please find the father of a little boy (Todd) who was later marked as MIA.
Initially after reading the letter sent to Biz I was overwhelmed with emotions angry because this little boy and his mother did not know the whereabouts of their loved ones. I had found myself hopeful to see senator Biz find where Todd’s father. In the end I was left heartbroken for not just this family but for the many who do not know where their family members are. When first selecting this document the personal reasoning to selecting this one was to hopefully just discover where Todd’s fathers whereabouts are. The research I had conducted to help me gain a better understanding was not as surprising as I thought.
The Documentary The Sixties The Years That Shaped a Generation connected with the letter that had caught my interest. The connection I had made was pretty obvious was that family members, wives, children and even friends were not being informed on the status of their loved ones deployment. Many of those people often never knew at all what happened to them after the war until the octagon papers. Even when women pushed for a better type of clarity in regards to their loved one was never found out. Those who were fortunate enough to hear from their loved one were hearing of either the terrors of the battle field or how they feel much safer over seas then in the seas.
I have not a big change of opinion on what I had before written about when talking about the archives. At most I feel more sympathy towards the families who still do not know what happened to their loved ones in the war.
