Monmouth College
Department of History 

INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT DEAN 

Conducted in the fall of 2001 by Jesse Chandlee, Monmouth College '03 

Chandlee: When did you first hear about the Vietnam War?

Dean: I was pretty well familiar with the Vietnam War through high school, probably around 1960.

Chandlee: So you heard about it basically pretty much from the beginning, it wasn’t a surprise thing like some people in 1966 realized we are in a war.

Dean: We knew where we were headed, in high school, most of us at that time.

Chandlee: What kind of town did you live in? Did you live in a small town?

Dean: Small town about the size of Rio, farming community.

Chandlee: Did that have any impact in your decision to go to Vietnam?

Dean: I don’t think I even thought about it twice. We were just raised in the time and era that if the government called on you--the military, the army--and we are in the draft period, I never thought of it differently.

Chandlee: So you enlisted then?

Dean: No, I was drafted.

Chandlee: What years were those?

Dean: I went in  August of 1967 through June of 1969. I actually ended up serving twenty-one months. After my Vietnam service and duties after that, I got an early out to go to college.

Chandlee: How long were you in Vietnam?

Dean: I happened to be there during leap year so I was in there one year plus one day.

Chandlee: One year, one day. OK, how old were you when you went in?

Dean: I think about twenty-one.

Chandlee: Where were you stationed at in Vietnam?

Dean: I was stationed at Cu Chi. Cu Chi was the main base for the twenty–fifth division.

Chandlee: You told me that you spent a lot of time in the field. When you were in the field, what kind of things did you do? What were your assignments?

Dean: We were mainly a reconnaissance unit. We went out looking for the enemy forces. Basically that was the number one job. We did a lot of night operations. We got involved in search missions, stuff like that. 

Chandlee: Was it pretty tense out in the field?

Dean: Not really. I think that your very tense moments are probably through the first six weeks that you are there.  You are learning the new way of life and what you are there for.

Chandlee:  How often were you in the field?

Dean: Almost every day

Chandlee: Where you ever in any cities? Like South Vietnamese cities?

Dean: We were in Saigon during TET of 1968 basically as a fighting force at that time. The only time period that I was there was during the action. It wasn’t a leisurely trip of any kind.

Chandlee: How did the South Vietnamese civilians treat you?  Were they always friendly?

Dean: Excellent, we had a great relationship. The unit that I was with had only seventeen actually assigned to it.  We were assigned to a Vietnamese unit and we worked side by side so when we were in the field, it wasn’t just with American soldiers. We had our own group of Vietnamese that were pretty much assigned to the same banks we were. In most cases, there was about fifteen of them.  With that relationship, I think that it [made for] a more positive relationship with the overall Vietnamese people. 

Chandlee: Were the South Vietnamese soldiers that you guys fought with good soldiers? Because we have read books and articles about them kind of lagging back and forced to be there.

Dean: No, I didn’t see that at all. They were excellent soldiers and they have quite a bit different philosophy than the American soldier probably had. You have to really go back into the history of Vietnam and their generation plus a number of generations prior to them [to understand them].  All that they know is a war-type atmosphere.  Their philosophy in many cases was if they came across forces too large to handle in a very positive fashion, they would opt to turn around and go the other way. And it was actually kind of nice for us because we had to go with them.

Chandlee: There has been some talk about Vietcong sneaking in and being in the South Vietnamese army units or in the villages like spies.  Did you ever see a lot of that?

Dean: Oh, differently. I mentioned the fifteen member Vietnamese group that we worked with. It so happened that it occurred within that particular unit.  We had a Vietcong that was with them. This person had a number of contacts throughout our whole operational area and he used to inform different individuals--as we went through some of our operations--where we were going, where we are heading. They found him passing information probably seven or eight months after I was there and they literally killed him on the spot for doing it. But as I look back at it, probably in many ways, his being with us may have saved our unit--for the simple reason that we were assigned to go to places in a reconnaissance mode and in many of these places, we found no one where we could have just as easily found an ambush.  As a sit here thinking today, it might have been just as good that the Vietcong was in there.

Chandlee: When you were in the country, at war, were you guys kept well informed about what was going on in the United States as far as the politics of the war.?

Dean: No, we had the Stars and Stripes, that was the major newspaper that was put out by the armed forces. But as far as the activity within the States of people rebelling against what was going on or riots of different types, we knew very little about what was going on.  We did have that communication from our loved ones back home more in letter writing.

Chandlee: When you came back, how were you welcomed? Was it a friendly or non friendly welcome?

Dean: Friendly probably in relationship with the people I knew.  The people I didn’t know, there probably wasn’t too much of a high or a low. I think that the only real disgusting moments that I did have when I came back was when I landed in Los Angles at the airport itself because of the rallies against the war. It was hard to accept as you are coming back after a year. But once I got into the interior of the country, I seemed to see no negative. I did go to Michigan State University and I know that there were some rallies that I attended there and I thought that they were very misinformed about what was really taking place at that time.

Chandlee: So what did you think about the counter culture and the anti-war movement?  You didn’t really agree with them?

Dean: Oh, I definitely didn’t agree with them.  It was a society a little different than what I grew up in and what I was used to. The long hair and the culture that was probably more in the inter cities, we didn’t really see that in a small community such as Rio.

Chandlee: In 1975 when Saigon fell, how did you feel about that?

Dean: I think that we were probably fighting a losing battle the entire time we were over there.  It was kind of disappointing to see that but it wasn’t unexpected in any way.  As long as we were fighting the war on their terms instead of what we were capable of doing…  The way that they lived their lives…  The Vietnamese, the North and the Southern Vietcong, were a people who had actual cities underground and they were there for eternity.  It didn’t really surprise me, but after you are involved in a conflict such as that, you hate to say the words “we lost”.

Chandlee: What effect did the war have on your life?

Dean: I think that it was a two- year commitment that I put in. I think that it had a positive impact in many ways.  It let me see a more of the world, including what they were doing in China because I had an opportunity to go to Hong Kong and many different places while I was in the service.  Again, it took me from a farming community without a lot of outward thoughts of the world.  It probably increased my worldly awareness a lot.  The negative part was just being there and not knowing whether I was going to be alive ten minutes from now.  And that was a possibility for many of the people that I was with. The unit that I was with, I really wasn’t supposed to be assigned to it, but they did run into a massacre as I was flying into Vietnam.  There were seventeen in the unit and fifteen were killed and one was wounded.  So we went in there pretty much to replace a complete new unit.

Chandlee: Were you ever injured?

Dean: Yes, I was wounded probably about eight months over there from enemy mortar fire.  I spent ten weeks in the hospital recuperating in country.

Chandlee: Have your views of Vietnam changed any over time?

Dean: You know, when I was there Vietnam was a gorgeous country. It is very tropical. I think that while we were there we got involved with the people--what we were trying to do was keep them out of communist North Vietnam, we were positive about that. And if you can be positive about the people, you can be positive about the country.

Chandlee:  How did the war affect your community? You said it was small town and didn’t really have much change in it. Did you sense any changes before you left and when you got back?

Dean: Not really. As far as the impact of the war on the community itself, I saw little change. I think that it was more a change in myself than the community. For those people who weren’t actually involved, it was the same. You planted your crops and milked your cows.  But we had the misfortune of having two killed from my high school class so that definitely had an impact on the local community. But as far as the big picture of the war-- don’t think that it had a major, direct impact on the community.

Chandlee: Do you have any additional comments?

Dean: I think my only other thought on the war is that I have a more positive outlook about it than a lot of people. But it was probably due to the opportunities that I had within the country to be more involved directly with the people.  I had some fun time and I had some bad times.        

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