Vietnam War workshop at the RAF Museum, Cosford, UK



Friday, 30th September 2016.

Some months ago Rolling Thunder had an unexpected invitation from the RAF Museum at Cosford to attend a Vietnam War workshop.

Although it is not unknown for a national museum to seek the active participation of re-enactors, I believe it to be a first for ‘Rolling Thunder’ and a clear indication of the high regard and respect which our re-enactment group is held in.

Whilst details were at first sketchy, with so many more Schools encompassing the Cold War as part of their history curriculum, it soon became clear that the workshop would require the involvement of a Vietnam anti-war protestor and a G.I. with a pro-war stance.

So with much of my anti-war paraphernalia packed, off we trundled into the night for the long journey to Shropshire ready for an early start the next day.

If you’ve never been to Cosford yourself, it is still very much an active RAF base which at it’s heart resides the imposing and award-winning building that houses the National Cold War Museum. And it has to be for not only is it now the only place in the world where you can view examples of all three of the RAF’s ‘V’ bombers alongside one another, (Valiant, Vulcan and Victor), it also displays a huge array of NATO and Warsaw pact military hardware.

Some would say that by setting-up my anti-war display alongside the MAD pod, (see attached image), it says a lot more about my character than explaining the development of atomic and nuclear weapons and the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction!
Inevitably, my presence in the Museum as the elder anti-war protestor looking like I’d just stepped off the set of Sky TV’s ‘Madmen’ drew bemused looks from casual visitors but this soon turned to dismay as I began chanting “Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?!” to herald the arrival of the ‘A’ level Students, (all the way from Barry Island, Wales no less!).
For the next hour or so, they were instructed to interrogate me in an attempt to understand why a WWII and Korea veteran had elected to join the anti-war protest movement yet still despised communism, the complexities of which are far too much to explain here.
As this part of the workshop was so well received, I was invited to join the Students and their Tutors for lunch where over a sandwich or two, we were able to look at period ‘60’s clothing and related material that had been loaned by ‘The Land of Lost Content’ Museum in nearby Craven Arms.
After failing to figure out how I could ferret-away several of the rare counterculture magazines that were on display(!), the afternoon session began with yours truly turning the tables on the Students by posing them the question that if they had been fresh-faced College or University Students in the 1960’s, would they have felt compelled to resist the Draft and join an anti-war protest movement themselves? After half an hour of what at times were heated exchanges, I think I can safely say that I won them over as they each reached for one of my anti-war placards and clutching various (photocopied) items of anti-war ephemera, duly marched off through the Museum chanting “1,2,3,4, We don’t want your stinking war!”

It had been a very enjoyable and worthwhile day for all parties concerned, hopefully this first Cold War workshop will pave the way for others in the future.

Pete our friendly Protestor. 

Rolling Thunder bringing you the many faces of the Vietnam war