Osgood shares lessons from decade-long Vietnam War oral history project
Professor emeritus Ron Osgood’s multiplatform oral history project — a decade in the making — tells the stories of 150 Americans, South Vietnamese, North Vietnamese and Koreans living during the Vietnam War.
He talked about his ongoing project in a Feb. 8 research colloquium presentation, “The Vietnam War/The American War: Stories from All Sides.”
The project includes an interactive website and two documentaries.
“This started as an oral history interview process,” he said. “I wanted to tell stories of commonalities amongst people.”
Among his many interviews, two — one with an American sketchbook artist and one with a Vietnamese sketchbook artist — stood out to him.
Their sketches of the war provided perspectives that photographers did not always catch, he said.
“They both had these similar themes, and one of them was card games,” Osgood said.
Osgood discussed challenges he faced interviewing people and producing the documentary.
He sometimes struggled to find footage to go along with the interviews. Osgood said he tried to use photographs of the people he interviewed whenever possible.
“I’m a firm believer in doing all you can to use the real footage that goes along with a story,” he said. “If there’s a person in the scene, it’s got to be the real person, or it’s just not right.”
About 80 percent of the photos used in his documentary were provided by his interview subjects. When he could not get photos, he sometimes used illustrations to maintain authenticity.
Osgood also faced challenges finding interview subjects. While almost no Americans turned down his proposal to interview them, he said persuading Vietnamese soldiers came with more difficulties.
Trust is key to interviewing, he said, and one way he facilitated this was through a simple gesture. When he first met potential interviewees in Vietnam, he handed them a postcard he created.
On the front was a picture of the American flag and the Vietnamese flag. On the back were maps of Vietnam and the United States. He wrote his name on the state of Indiana and handed them the postcard.
“It was a really good way to get started,” he said. “It shared this common bond, I think, of humanity.”
He ended his interviews with a final question: “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”
“People will share their better stories if you just give them the time and keep the tape rolling,” he said.