Where my interest in Vietnam got yet another nudge

Where my interest in Vietnam got yet another nudge

Posted by Bob Keith at 4/12/2006 1:30 AM 

Categories: Vietnam: The study there of

     After I finished my bachelor's degree one of the first classes I took in grad school was titled Mass Communication in Society.  - Nice segue since my undergrad studies were in sociology and criminal justice.  The professor was Dr. Norma Coates.

     While I was plugging away at the end of my undergraduate studies the study of Vietnam had once again gotten lost in the shuffle.  Not to mention 9-Eleven had knocked the Vietnam War off the map.  But in this class I found my self doing a paper about movies - more specifically, Vietnam War movies.  I don't know why I choose the subject, but as an older student I had learned to weave into many of my papers the strategy of "write about what you know about already - don't reinvent the wheel." 

     To my surprise, as she handed the papers back Dr. Coates said, "there is a hint of a thesis in this somewhere.  Dr. Coates where ever your academic journey has taken you I don't know whether to thank you or to cry.  The resurrection of the subject has however taken me to Vietnam twice, Laos and Thailand once, Little Saigon near Los Angles once, and now another pending trip back to Vietnam in August of 2006. If nothing else it has gotten me out of town.