Tulsa World: Oklahoman's book project archive Harvard-bound

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Oklahoman's book project archive Harvard-bound
It consists of letters by famous people on lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War.

Bill McCloud of Pryor poses for a portrait. Harvard University's Houghton Library recently bought the archive of letters generated for and by his book about the Vietnam War. MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World

By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Published: 9/7/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 9/7/2009 3:54 AM

Harvard University opens its doors to a select few — and typically for only a short time.

Bill McCloud of Pryor has a permanent place there.

The university's Houghton Library recently purchased the archive he developed for his 1989 book, "What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam?"

"It is still hard for me to believe that something that came from my head and hands will end up being preserved forever between the walls of such a great institution," said McCloud, himself a Vietnam War veteran.

When McCloud, now 60, was teaching social studies at Pryor Junior High in the late 1980s, the principal urged him to incorporate the war into his lessons. McCloud wrote to scores of Americans, soliciting their response to the question, "What should we tell our children about Vietnam?"

The feedback floored him.

McCloud received provocative letters from more than 120 people, including Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Barry Goldwater, William Westmoreland, Robert McNamara, G. Gordon Liddy, Kurt Vonnegut and Garry Trudeau.

Fifty-two of the answers appeared in a cover story for American Heritage magazine. The project grew into a book, which was published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

"Once the book came out, other people began writing me unsolicited, answering the question themselves," McCloud said. "It felt like they wanted to be a part of it, not the book, but the whole thing going on."

Leslie Morris, the curator of modern books and manuscripts at Houghton Library, praised McCloud's work, which includes the letters he received, teaching materials and student papers, and publications on the topic. McCloud received $10,000 for the collection, and he retains the copyright for his content, Morris said.

"It's not an area that we've collected much in, so you can consider this the beginnings of our collecting," Morris said in an e-mail to McCloud.

Houghton is considered Harvard's primary rare book and manuscript library, boasting collections of about half a million rare books and an estimated 10 million manuscripts, Morris said in a telephone interview. It probably is best known for collections of 19th-century American literature, including the personal papers of New England authors such as Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson and Ralph Waldo Emerson, she said.

"This was really an excellent collection in the way that it not only got to what the people associated with the war, the decision makers, were saying about it, but also how students reacted to it," Morris said of McCloud's archive.

"I have an 11-year-old and it made me realize, 'Well, what does he know about the Vietnam War?' Not much. Those were all good reasons for it to come here."

McCloud's letters had sat in a closet for more than two decades, surviving three changes of address. Pinched by the current economic downturn, he originally wanted to hawk some of the famous autographs that accompanied the letters. But after consulting with Ken Lopez, a Massachusetts dealer in books and autographs, he sought to place the project in an educational setting.

"It's an amazingly humbling thing to think that I was able to put together something because of the people being willing to answer the questions," McCloud said.

The book is rich with anecdotes.

Ken Kesey, the author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," sent his response on a postcard.

The famed broadcaster Paul Harvey's response was excluded from the book because the editors considered it too "flip," McCloud said.

What had Harvey written? "We were offsides."

Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, "was considered to have broken his silence on the war with what was said to me," McCloud said.

McNamara's entry: "The United States must be careful not to interpret events occurring in a different land in terms of its own history, politics, culture and morals."

McCloud now works part time as a Wal-Mart cashier and teaches American history at Rogers State University in Claremore. His next literary goal is to write an authorized biography of Marine Master Sgt. William "Spanky" Gibson, who McCloud said is the only full-limb amputee to return to combat in Iraq.

McCloud, who taught Gibson in junior high, is working to gain the financial support necessary to devote himself to the project full time.

"The book about Sgt. Gibson is about him as a representative of what our servicemen and -women are like," he said. "What I'm doing with this is the most important thing I've ever done in my life."

Rhett Morgan 581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer

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not your friend 2,,,, missy, no thanks (9/7/2009 8:56:29 PM)

Such a hard subject to discuss.

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