- Professor Fred Bergerson in Vietnam
As I enter my 38th year of teaching at Whittier College, I am about to be involved in an adventure I never imagined possible. I will be returning to Vietnam, where I served as a Captain in the First Cavalry Division (Airmobile); My wife, Renie and I will be participating in a tour built around historical sites, environmental projects, extraordinary museums, and learned insights by Vietnamese staff. Most distinctively, I will be sharing recollections and analyses of my experiences during the period of my service there, which included the Tet Offensive and the relief of Khe Sanh, and attempting to put them in context.
Because so much of this trip is intensely personal, I glad I will be surrounded by supportive and constructive people, such as alumni and friends of Whittier College.
We will visit some places I never saw during my tour of duty. For example, we will begin our journey in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the onetime capital of South Vietnam. We have planned to visit My Lai, the location of the notorious massacre of civilians in March 1968, ended by the heroism of other American soldiers. Our travels will end in Hanoi, the current capital of Vietnam.
The middle of our tour will largely trace the movement of the First Cavalry division from 1967 to the first part of 1968, when the division moved from the Central Highlands to Northern I Corps as the Tet offense began, and remained after its conclusion, featuring the breakout of the Marines from Khe Sanh during Operation Pegasus, which immediately followed President Johnson’s announcement that he would not run for reelection.
I am not sure what we will find there: I am certainly not sure what I will find there. I know that when I left graduate school in 1966 after being called to active duty in the Army, I was a grad student focused on the politics of Indonesia. When I returned how I vowed to never return to South East Asia and definitely to stay away from Vietnam. Geographically and intellectually, my life has taken its twist and turns, and now I find myself on the way back.
I hope you will follow us on this journey through this blog that will chronicle our 12-day visit.
Ana Lilia Barraza
