While some ISU students may have a hard time imagining the turmoil people go through during war, a discussion today will try to give them some perspective.

“Vietnam Revisited: A Young Person’s Perspective,” will be at noon today in Room 236 of the Memorial Union. The program is part of “Wednesdays with the Y” sponsored by the YWCA of Ames-ISU.

The discussion will feature two speakers, ISU professor George McJimsey and Nguyet-Thu Nguyen, sophomore in biochemistry from Vietnam.

Natalie Allen, coordinator for the YWCA, said one speech will be more cultural-based while the other will be based more on the history of the Vietnam War.

Allen, junior in child and family services, said Nguyen came to the United States from Vietnam when she was five years old.

Nguyen’s speech will be about the experiences of living through the war and about the stories that were passed down through the generations in her family. Nguyen will also explain what she saw, how things changed and what her family lost, Allen said.

McJimsey, professor and chairman of history, said he will also be speaking about his experiences during the war and how they are different from Nguyen’s.

“[It was a] very demoralizing time,” he said. “Many [students] were afraid that they would be drafted.”

McJimsey said he “got involved from a political standpoint” during the war and eventually “realized no satisfactory outcome was likely.”

“The Vietnam issue was very divisive,” he said. “I don’t think we had any cards to play in establishing an influence there [against Communism].”