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Episode details

Radio Scotland,27 mins

The Vietnam Veteran Inspired by The World War One Poets

John Beattie

Available for over a year

A century after the end the Great War, some of the poets who described its battlefields are still influencing writers of more recent battles. John Musgarve was 17 when he enlisted with the US Army in 1966 to fight in Vietnam. Less than a year later, he was critically wounded in a gun fight in Con Thiem in 1967 and nearly died. After returning from the conflict he experienced severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He read the likes of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon and began to write poetry as a way of dealing with his condition. He also joined the anti-war movement in America and demonstrated against the Vietnam War. John featured in the Documentary Series, 鈥渢he Vietnam War鈥 which was shown on the 麻豆社. He talked to John Beattie about his experiences in Vietnam and why writing poetry helped save his life.

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