OPINION: Making up for lost time

History has always been one of my favorite topics to learn about. As a child, I preferred the days our social studies class focused on the past and took extra history classes in high school and college.

Despite this love for history and constantly seeking out new ways to learn more, it wasn’t until I was out of school that I actually learned any history past World War II.

How did this happen? How did I get through 16 years of school and never learn about the Vietnam or Korean wars, or even anything not war related? I have a couple of theories.

One just relates to the timing of school. Whether we were talking about American or world history, we generally followed the same path, with much of spring dedicated to the two world wars. While each year added more information, we still always ended with VE and VJ days. Maybe the teachers didn’t know how to squish some of this history together to get us further than the 1940s.

The other thought revolved around the proximity to this history. For the most part, all my teachers were old enough that either they or their parents had been around for this part of history. Sometimes I think people forget that just because it was common knowledge for one generation doesn’t mean the later generations will know about it.

The truth is, aside from the annual lesson on 9/11, any history past World War II I had to find myself. I did take a college class that delved a little bit into the race issues in the 1950s, but nothing else.

This year marks 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War. That means more than 70 years since the Korean War ended and about 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. To make you all feel really old, really anything that happened in the 1900s is history to my generation. As someone born in 2000, I’m not going to know what happened before then without someone sharing their story.

Thankfully more and more people are stopping the loss of these important stories and histories. Veterans are able to talk about their time in Vietnam without fear of hatred and ridicule. A person’s willingness to fight for their country and people can be honored and respected without endorsing the actions of the government.

Since I never got these stories in school, I searched for them in different avenues. One amazing example is “The Women” by Kristen Hannah. This historical fiction novel focuses on the women who served as nurses in Vietnam and the struggle to get the help they needed when they came back.

Another great book for some background on Vietnam before the war is the historic fiction “Twilight Territory” by Andrew X. Pham. It starts in a post-World War II Japanese-occupied Vietnam and follows the young woman Tuyet and her family as they are drawn into the battle between the French and Viet Minh.

Some may balk at my suggestion of historical fiction to learn about real history, but just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean real life didn’t contribute. For example, Hannah had been doing research for “The Women” since the 1990s, interviewing countless veterans and their families. While the main character of her book might not be real, everything that happened to her happened to real people.

While these are both fiction, there are plenty of non-fiction books out there too. I enjoy memoirs or autobiographies the most for these situations, but regular old history books work too. Though I haven’t read them myself, “When I Turned Nineteen” by Glyn Haynie and “Kill Anything That Moves” by Nick Turse are both highly-rated non-fiction books, a memoir and history respectively.

While I’m always one to jump to books for learning and education, we’re lucky enough to have plenty of people around who have lived through many of these experiences. From my experience, the VFW is an easy place to get first-hand accounts of the past. While some people might not feel comfortable sharing their stories, there are many who are just happy to see someone who cares.

I’m still working to make up for lost time in my journey through recent history. I don’t come from a military family, so even history from the past 30 years is something I need to do more research on. I’d welcome any suggestions on other media to consume as I attempt to abolish my ignorance.