What should we tell our children about Vietnam?: The Bill McCloud Collection
Aug 5th, 2009 by houghtonmodern
In 1987, Oklahoma junior high school teacher and Vietnam veteran Bill McCloud wanted to begin teaching his students about the Vietnam War. After conducting a survey to determine what Oklahoma students already knew about the war (and finding that they knew very little, and that little was taught), McCloud began writing letters to a number of individuals involved directly and indirectly with the war. He asked each person what he or she thought was the most important aspect of the war to teach young people.
Those who replied, sometimes at great length, included U.S. presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush; secretaries of defense and members of Congress; high-ranking military officials; reporters; writers of fiction and non-fiction, including Kurt Vonnegut, Tim O’Brien, Philip Caputo, and Ken Kesey; folk singers Pete Seeger and Country Joe McDonald; and many more, totalling over 100 respondents.
In 1989, McCloud published a book, titled What Should We Tell our Children About Vietnam?, which included some of the responses he had received.
McCloud’s archive has now come to Houghton, and includes the letters McCloud received, along with his teaching materials and student papers, and McCloud’s publications on these topics.
Pictured here is an image of McCloud’s initial survey of students’ knowledge:
McCloud’s “Essential topics for teaching a short unit on the Vietnam War”:
McCloud also spoke to elementary school students about the war. His papers contain letters from a group of the children he visited:
2009M-2. Houghton Library, Harvard University. Images may not be reproduced without permission.
