Coming of Age in the 60s: Surviving the Cold War

Rating:
Summary: Thanks for the Memories
Review: All too often people fade away with out ever sharing their life experiences, thankfully, Wayne Papp shared his. This book is a history book, this book is also an autobiography, this book will offer insight to those who think they know what the 1960's was all about...and forgot. This is a story of a young, sometimes wild, young man who grew up during an explosive time of both love and hate and war and assissination. This book tells a story of a soldier sent off to a far away land to defend his country for reasons that were more confusing than his initial arrival on the frozen Korean soil. As a history teacher, the most telling descriptions and testimonials were of Wayne's time as a non-combat soldier within a supply depot in Korea. These were the men who anonomously supported our troops and defended our country, these are soldiers who should not go unappreciated or forgotten. Wayne is a proud American, and a man who loves his country, who defended it during one of the most fragile stages of our country's still young age. Join Wayne and recollections of the period and of his service during the Vietnam War, his youth in Clifton, N.J., and his family time now. This book is a great read and should inspire many people that lived during this time to share their memories. Thank you for sharing yours, Wayne.
Stephen Laird, BA History, Teacher of Social Studies, NJ.

Rating:
Summary: Thanks for the Memories
Review: All too often people fade away with out ever sharing their life experiences, thankfully, Wayne Papp shared his. This book is a history book, this book is also an autobiography, this book will offer insight to those who think they know what the 1960's was all about...and forgot. This is a story of a young, sometimes wild, young man who grew up during an explosive time of both love and hate and war and assissination. This book tells a story of a soldier sent off to a far away land to defend his country for reasons that were more confusing than his initial arrival on the frozen Korean soil. As a history teacher, the most telling descriptions and testimonials were of Wayne's time as a non-combat soldier within a supply depot in Korea. These were the men who anonomously supported our troops and defended our country, these are soldiers who should not go unappreciated or forgotten. Wayne is a proud American, and a man who loves his country, who defended it during one of the most fragile stages of our country's still young age. Join Wayne and recollections of the period and of his service during the Vietnam War, his youth in Clifton, N.J., and his family time now. This book is a great read and should inspire many people that lived during this time to share their memories. Thank you for sharing yours, Wayne.
Stephen Laird, BA History, Teacher of Social Studies, NJ.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and Insightful!
Review: As a college student, I found this book extremely interesting. The book provided a great insight to the Cold War, and I truly learned a great amount about the turmoil that faces us today. During all of my schooling, the Cold War and the happenings of that era were barely touched upon. It was very intriguing to read about the author's experiences during this time period. I highly recommend this book and look forward to future works by Mr. Papp.

Rating:
Summary: Serious stuff in Laymens terms!
Review: As a subject and time period that I enjoy trying to gain personal perspective on, I applaud Wayne R. Papp's working life story for the insight into that time period that I gained from reading this book. A look back at the time of the Vietnam and Korean war(s), from his point of view, was fascinating reading and contained valuable information on the relationships that define the Cold War now and then. His sharing of personal trials and troubled times, gave the book a much needed touch that is missing from most others I've read. I would reccomend it greatly to any American yearning to expierience the 1950-60's political turmoils and Cold War policies, which were taking shape at that time, and dictating the flow of war. Great Story!

Rating:
Summary: Informative and Insightful!
Review: In addition to enjoying reading about an area I grew up in, several years after Mr. Papp, I enjoyed very much reading about the honest feelings and perceptions of a soldier away from home in a world much different from where he came. This book is a must read for Americans today and particularly our young men and women who are serving our country today in the middle east.

Rating:
Summary: emerging from the Cold War...
Review: Wayne R. Papp, Coming of Age in the 60s: Surviving the Cold War

Wayne R. Papp's first book, Coming of Age in the 60s: Surviving the Cold War, is a satisfying memoir of a thoughtful yet rambunctious young man growing up in a quintessential New Jersey suburb (Clifton) during the 1950s and 1960s. The writing, which is somewhat raw but nonetheless very readable, reveals a sensible common perspective that is often missing from more widely known titles in the genre regarding this particular topic. The author's views and opinions encompass more than forty years of his life experience, most of which he connects to the specter of the Cold War and communist threat. Papp's sensitivities on the subject precede his own indoctrination to the military: one memorable escapade he recounts involves the theft of a Cadillac (in 1962 at age fifteen) in order to go speak with President Kennedy in Washington. The prank landed him in jail, which gives him the opportunity to recall one of his encounters with the American penal system. This section does not compare with Caetano Veloso's tale of imprisonment in Brazil slightly later in the decade-published in Veloso's recent memoir Tropical Truths-but rather Papp exposes something like continental truths and the elementary level of existence and bureaucracy in which the incarcerated subside.

Frank and honest reminiscences of being a soldier stationed in Korea in the late 1960s bolster Papp's book. At the book's most robust points the psychological, domestic, and cultural turbulence faced by men in his situation (and their families) are vividly and contemplatively discussed. In the chapter, "My Hardship Tour of Duty in the Republic of South Korea," Papp is particularly skillful at lucidly portraying the confusion and overall frustration of being placed in an unfamiliar and perilous situation without the proper preparation and training. The inter-soldier conflicts described-reflections of the widespread racist ontology in America-become as telling as the intercultural (superpower) battle being waged. Because the author had developed an open and liberal mind about (and contact with) race before his years in the Army, and his beliefs on the subject are passionate, the valuable dimensions of such a stance are celebrated.

In the chapter, "Making the Transition from Military Life to Civilian Life," Papp also deftly portrays the experience of returning home from a war zone in a strange land on the opposite side of the planet. For him it was a shock into maturation, one that enabled him to develop a new type of wisdom. The final two chapters, "Changes and Improvements in Society Since My Youth" and "Changes in the Cold War Status of Today," Papp ruminates on both his personal and global advancements alongside a geopolitical framework. He salutes all aspects of our participation in the demise of the Soviet Union and voices his views on our current "battle of survival" in the Middle East.

Coming of Age in the 60s has distinct value on several levels and resists negativity, disillusion and pessimism. It bluntly provides an under-chronicled cultural history of the Cold War and the Sixties in general, from "a real person, an ordinary person who constitutes the backbone of America." The author is a high school dropout who has made his living as a mason rural New Jersey for thirty years. Papp should be widely applauded for making the substantial effort to collect and compose his knowledge and viewpoints. His book should serve as an inspiration for others to write down their stories, and reflections on their lives in the context of world powers as Papp does here.

-Chris Funkhouser