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By the winter of 1969, Sean O’Reilly, now 69, knew at least two things: He didn t want to have anything to do with the heroin and meth drug culture that had taken hold of the Bay Area where he lived, and he didn t want to fight the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.
During high school, O’Reilly participated in protests against the war, worked for an underground newspaper called The Bay Guardian and helped with a documentary called High School Rising, a film about the effects of segregation at San Francisco s Mission High School.
His father and uncles all served in World War II. On the rare occasion they talked about their experience, they had nothing good to say about war, according to O’Reilly. By the late 60s, he was convinced the government was lying to the public about the county’s role in Southeast Asia.