Analyze The Causes Of Public Opposition To The Vietnam War

Secretary of State John Kerry once said “I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.” The Vietnam War was a conflict that lasted from 1956-1975 which the United States participated in along with the South Vietnamese who fought against the Communist North Vietnamese. Many Americans strongly disapproved of the war which caused many protests and riots. The war lasted 25 years killing many people and eventually the North Vietnamese won. The Vietnam War was important to Americans back home because it tested the citizen’s right to free speech, effected future foreign policy, and created many issues for returning veterans.

more money to spend on music and fashion, and so they had more say in

The Vietnam War raged on from 1954-1975, taking over three million lives with it. Conflicts rooted in the cold war resulted in the United States sending troops to defend South Vietnamese democracy. However as the war became more lengthy and expensive, many civilians began to protest the United States participating in the war, creating the Antiwar Movement. Though the movement had lasting effects on society, it did not immediately cause the United States to retreat from Vietnam. The antiwar movement of the 1960’s, which is deeply connected with the transcendentalist belief of Civil Disobedience, protested the involvement of the United States in the infamous Vietnam War, and has had numerous effects on the American Military and Government to this day. However, the movement that strived for peace did not completely accomplish its goal of ending the United States’ involvement in international armed conflict.

The Vietnam War was a major controversy for the United States compared to World War 1 and World War 2. With both of the previous wars that the United States had been a major part of they had brought the people of the country together to fight  and work hard to show their support to the soldiers that were fighting. During these two wars we saw the rise of women in the workforce as they came into the picture of taking the jobs that the men held while they went away to fight in the way. And then there was the avid signing up to fight. Men as young as teenagers signing up to fight in both of these wars. The difference is that with the Vietnam War it was met with disdain from the public and also the soldiers as well. With this war people

Many people felt that this was a war of money that the U.S. didn’t need to interfere in and was being fought by North and South Vietnam, therefore we had no business getting in the middle of it. The United States should've thought of themselves and done what was best for them as a country. When Dwight D. Eisenhower left office, a new President came in with the name John F. Kennedy. JFK warns the American public about “Military Industrial Complex”. This affected Americans because we didn’t want all of Vietnam to become communist. From the beginning, the United States was not aware of what they were getting themselves into. Furthermore, they didn’t understand the nature of the war on who and why they were fighting.

Many of the democrats within the legislative branch turned against Johnson’s war. Scholar’s conflict on the reason why Johnson’s own party turned against him, some scholars attribute it to the growing number of antiwar constituents, while other scholars such as E.M. Schreiber, Burstein and Freudenburg cite the numerous deaths of American soldiers in combat. One democrat by the name of Eugene McCarthy labeled the entire Vietnam War as an “error” and describes the Johnson administration as “misguided.” McCarthy decides to run for President, but loses in the primaries by a slim margin to Johnson, further indicating that the antiwar movement was gaining significant momentum. Things were only beginning to get even worse as the Tet Offensive

The goal was to stop North Vietnam from taking over south Vietnam and converting it to

Exploring the Reasons for United States' Involvement in Vietnam 1. US involvement in Vietnam The US wanted to stop communist expansion into South Vietnam after successfully stopping them from capturing South Korea but President Eisenhower could not get the support of the people. Therefore he used a different way i.e. sending a team of 12 intelligence agents under Colonel Edward Lansdale to win over the South Vietnamese people by spreading lies about the Ho Chi Minh government killing political opponents and the presence of Chinese communists in South Vietnam. Besides that colonel Lansdale also employed mercenaries to sabotage North Vietnam and boost up the image of President Diem.

has adapted to the jungle and the way of life in Vietnam, he would be

Why was Australian society divided over the issue of our involvement in the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1975? (750-1000 words)

In the past 40 years, the United States have been involved in many revolutions throughout the Middle East and developing countries. Some of these revolutions have been successful while others have not. Revolutions occur when countries have been under extreme dictatorship from a menacing source. Revolutions since the past 40 years have included the Communist party dictated by Mao Zedong in the 1960s, the most controversial war, The Vietnam War, Khmer Rouge, the overthrow of Taliban rule in the 1990s, and the most recent Jasmine Revolution in 2010.

Public opinion an invisible sledgehammer that can dismantled and shake any politician foundation. Public opinion that played a decisive role in the United States’ commitment to the conflict in the Vietnam War. If it can sway our country’s actions in war, it absolutely can sway the reactions of our congress and President. An essential element of the moral center of gravity for any conflict is public support. (105, Military Review)

American Public Opinion of the Vietnam War At the beginning of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, in 1965, the American Public favored the idea of war because they feared the threat of communism. Polls conducted in 1965, showed 80 percent of the population agreed with President Johnson and were for the war (Rousseau 11). The U.S. got involved with the war to stop communism from spreading throughout South Asia. Americans were afraid if one country on South Asia turned to communism, it would extend to other countries, which is known as the "Domino Theory".

The Vietnam War certainly left a distaste in the lives of many who have been affected by the war; scholars have become increasingly interested in the interaction between war and public opinion. There have been many scholarly works published on the Vietnam War, but the issue that will be analyzed here is how public opinion changed the course of the war. The first article by Scott Gartner and Gary Segura is titled, “Race, Casualties, and Opinion in the Vietnam War,” it examined how the diverse races within America in combination with the atrocities in the war led to the formation of opinions that were similar in one race but were different in another race. The second article by Paul Burstein and William Freudenburg titled, “The Impact of

Since the Vietnam War, the public's opinion has played major roles in how policymakers operate. Their opinions may not always support to choices which are best for the country, however they are still factored into the decision making. Richard Sobel discusses several cases on how the public's attitudes have affected policymaker's decisions in his book, "The Impact of Public Opinion on U.S. Foreign Policy Since Vietnam."