Vietnam
The Repeopling of New York City by Vietnam War Veterans
Produced by: Alcina Kung, Sun Mei Liu, Tumpa Mira, Lashika Yogendran.
Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, Class of 2012.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Our project focuses on the demographic of Vietnam War veterans in New York City and their process of re-assimilating back home. We look at the various components that make up the shared war experience the veterans gained in Vietnam and illustrate the effects these had on their return home to New York City. Vietnam veterans often stuck together as a result of this shared experience, as others who didn’t have such knowledge couldn’t understand what they had gone through. As a result, these veterans formed one distinct population of the many existing in New York City at the time.
Even though these veterans had an experience unlike any other, they still successfully integrated themselves back into New York City and now lead successful lives, something that should definitely be appreciated.
In order to gain an understanding of our topic, we interviewed four Vietnam War veterans. These four veterans were instrumental in the production of our finished project, and we are extremely grateful for the time they spent with us for this project. For more detailed information on the four veterans we interviewed, please check out our Vietnam Veterans page.
The main centerpiece of our project is the following documentary video we created. However, we also have separate pages full of supplementary information about the History of the Vietnam War, PTSD, and Agent Orange for your perusal.
We also stuck in a page documenting the Creative Process behind our video and research, so hopefully that will give you more insight into what we tried to communicate through our work.
An integral source of information for our project came in the form of an important historical institution, the Brooklyn Historical Society. Located on 128 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn, its oral history exhibit on Vietnam War veterans, put together by our very own Professor Napoli, gave us valuable insight (as well as possible interviewees) into what the Vietnam War was like for these New York City veterans.
Ideally our goal is that, as a result of our work, you will gain a better understanding of the Vietnam veterans’ return home as it was an event often overlooked in American history. We hope you enjoy our project!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Coming Home: The Vietnam Veteran Population in New York City
Produced By: Alcina Kung, Sun Mei Liu, Tumpa Mira, Lashika Yogendran.
Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, Class of 2012.