Anna Quindlen's We Ve Been Here Before

The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States

The Vietnam War and Iraq wars have many more similarities then the common American would think. Both were fighting gorillas in a foreign land in a way that the soldiers were never trained or prepared for, against a foe that despise America as a whole. However I believe the biggest difference is the American publics view and attitude toward each of the two wars. As well as the attitude of the soldiers in each of the wars in 2001 after the September 11 attacks we had people like Pat Tillman give up a career in the NFL and volunteer for the Army. The uprising of pride and numbers plumped to the start of that war. That is greatly different then the attitude during Vietnam when the US government had to institute a draft to help the numbers in soldiers. While people in the streets chanted “hell no we wont go”

The Vietnam war brought many changes to the United States in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Some of the changes were for the better of the country, take the rediscovered Women’s Rights movements and the ever growing Free Speech movements inspired by New Left, while most of the other changes brought on tensions between government and their people. The Domino Theory pushed our leaders to the edge. In order to stop the Domino Theory in Vietnam, the U.S. invaded. The war was useless for the American government to get involved with. Even Robert Kennedy described our presence in Vietnam as ‘... sending a lion to halt an epidemic of jungle rot.’ (Doc E) From new groups forming to rebel, to inflation and loss of trust in the Government, from 1960’s to

The Vietnam war was an absolutely brutal time in American history. The war lasted for the majority of the 1960s and left many young men dead. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam give us just a glance into the war by giving using the three themes of fear, pressures, and blame/guilt to embody the concept of war and how it absolutely changes a person. War not only destroys countries, but it destroys people.

“War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” ~ Bertrand Russell. The famous quote from Bertrand Russell describes the reality of war. War only lets the powerful and the wealthy side win and not the righteous side. On an average 378,000 people die each year at war while 1,450,000 people died in the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war started on 1 November 1955 and lasted until 30 April 1975. The war was fought between the North Vietnamese Communist government and the South Vietnamese Communist rebels known as the Viet Cong against the non-Communist South Vietnamese government and their ally U.S.A. The war destroyed the life of both, the North and South Vietnamese along with the other nations that took part in it. More than 1 million people were killed including civilians and over 3 million injured. Thousand were wives were left widows and hundreds of kids orphans. After consistent protests by the Americans, U.S.A withdrew from the later stages of war. The Vietnam War is a depiction that wars are murky and filthy and should be circumvented as they bring agony and desolation to the people. To show this I used three different mediums which are - Political Cartoon “Name a

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.

Howard Zinn says it best when he writes that “from 1964 to 1972, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world made a maximum military effort, with everything short of atomic bombs, to defeat a nationalist revolutionary movement in a tiny peasant country – and failed” (Zinn, 460). Zinn does not mince words when expressing his thoughts about the Vietnam War, because as Zinn says, Vietnam was basically a modern portrayal of David vs. Goliath. One could even go as far as to say that Vietnam was in essence a case of mass genocide in Vietnam. Thousands and thousands of Vietnamese and America soldiers were killed along with thousands upon thousands of innocent, Vietnamese citizens. War is an infectious disease and the Vietnam War is a perfect example of how deadly of a disease war can be. Everybody involved in the Vietnam War was affected, whether it was Vietnamese citizens, Vietnamese soldiers, American soldiers, or even American citizens back home. The disease that was the Vietnam War infected the hearts and minds of two countries half way across the world from each other.

For many Americans it is common knowledge to know about the Vietnam War; however, for some Americans the Vietnam War is ancient history, dishonorable, but irrelevant nonetheless. If people do not physically see the many horrors of war it is easy to forget; although maybe it is something we try to forget. However, there are some who may be able to forget there will be some, like politicians, that will not forget. The Vietnam War had a terrible impact on both the United States and Vietnam, and more importantly it would affect foreign policy for many years to come.

Traditionally war serves as an instrument for peace with a defined winner and loser. This was not the case in the Vietnam War. As the longest war in U.S history, it spanned nearly 20 years encompassing 5 different presidential terms. The war in Vietnam served as a limited “proxy war” between the United States and Soviet Union fought to combat the spread of communism, to preserve a democratic state in Southeast Asia, and to limit the power of the Soviet Union. Due to the complexity of the Vietnam war itself one cannot categorize the war in terms of “winning” or “losing”, rather one must look at the political, ideological, and historical causations of the war

Vietnam was a country divided into two by communism in the North and capitalism in the South. The Vietnam War, fought between the years 1959 and 1975, was, in essence, a struggle by nationalists in the north to unify the nation under a communist government. This was a long standing conflict between the two sides that had been occurring for years. It wasn’t until 1959 when the USA, stepped in, on the side of southern Vietnamese, to stop the spread of communism. It was a war that did not capture the hearts and minds of the American people as it was viewed as a war that the US army couldn’t win and so the government lost the peoples support for the war. This ultimately led to the withdrawal of the US army from Vietnam. Some people, like

When discussing the topic of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the toll it had on America as a whole, it can be rather controversial. Many people wonder what the war was even about and some even bring up that the Vietnam War could be considered another Civil War for America. An example of this is how Marilyn Young argues in her article, “The Vietnam War in American Memory,” how many Americans treat Vietnam as something that happened amongst themselves. I believe what Young meant by this was how throughout the many years Americans fought in the Vietnam War, the America lost sight of who they were as well as their purpose for being in the war in first place, which is supported by examples in the film, Platoon¸ as well as in Kristen Ann Hass’s “Making A Memory of War.”

The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or ‘Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.

In March 2003, prior to the U.S. invasion to Iraq, a reporter noted to then Defense Secretary Rumsfeld that “Calling Iraq an insurgency or a guerilla war brings to mind Vietnam, which most people can agree was not a resounding success.” Rumsfeld replied, “The reporters are asking is it Vietnam yet? - hoping it is. And it isn’t. It’s a different time. It’s a different era. It’s a different place.” Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is correct in that there are many intricacies separating an analogous relationship between Afghanistan and Vietnam. Although it would be over simplification and gross negligence to say that military operations in Afghanistan is today’s version of the Vietnam war, there are similarities between both wars that are worthy

The war in Vietnam was a very contestable event for America and an overall major impact of the cold war. Fear of the spread of communism was on the rise again as Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam wanted to unite the country under one communist leadership. The United States entered into the war to prevent this spread of communism to further their reputation of containing it as they have done in the past. While there are positives to the war in Vietnam, it seems as if there are more negatives in the situation which include massive casualties on both sides, chemical warfare, and a divided nation back home.

George Herring 's article " The legacy of Vietnam" talks about the military clash between the communist North Vietnam, backed by its allies and the government of South Vietnam, backed by the United States and other countries that are anti-communist that happened in Vietnam during Richard Nixon 's presidency. The Vietnam War was a terrible war, especially for Vietnamese because a millions of them died during the war. The author not just describes the war itself; he also analyzes the killing and the attack that occurred during the war. In general the Vietnam War was the most costly war contrast to other wars and it was the most shocking eras in American history. The Vietnam War had an impact in American history. It brought fear from the war