Bravery In The Vietnam War

Additionally, bravery is something that is hard pressed to retain in chaotic times of war.

Bravery allows people to challenge new things, or risky things. For example when John Proctor decided to go to the court to save Elizabeth, it required a lot of bravery. He tells Elizabeth “I will fall like a ocean on that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth.”

However, Diem was a poor controller, a bad ruler. He, along with his brother, made brutal policies against Buddhists and eliminated a large amount of them in the Buddhists sanctuaries of Saigon. Diem's brother Nhu was heavily involved in these activities together with his brother's full support and the army trained by American military advisors (Moss, 2010). Nhu's wife even referred to the Buddhists as "barbecue" on a television show. All of this along with the fact that the Buddhists were denied the right to display their holy flags on the birthday of Buddha caused an immediate outburst in South Vietnam. Heavy protests started taking place and several Buddhist monks even burnt themselves to fatality as

     Bravery is the mental or moral strength to venture and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. Fear is what one feels when fighting, knowing that he or she could die. For example, when

Explaining what he once heard to be from Plato, O’Brien uttered that proper courage came from wisdom and nothing else. For one to be a true sublime human being, they must demonstrate wisdom, justice, temperance, and lastly courage. As for a man without wisdom cannot be courageous, something a man without courage cannot contain any of the other three virtues (wisdom, justice, or even temperance). To Plato, wisdom is simply not just knowing what is right and what must be done, but following through with it. Courage, portrayed so perfectly by Tim O’Brien, is “the endurance of the soul in spite of fear” (140). The act of bravery is a battle within itself. Bravery is not about acting upon one’s desires, but instead setting them aside and putting the needs of the people around them first. It is about humbling yourself to your best ability, no matter how much fear one may obtain. There are people who simply just do not understand what is right due to their lack of intelligence, states O’Brien. Then there are so many men who might know what is right, however, they have too much fear to build up the courage to fight for it. As fear so often overtakes one’s whole self without even true recognition, courage is acting against that (136). All throughout the war, soldiers are constantly faced with fear as fear tends to come hand in hand with death.

“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

True bravery is when you’re aware that the odds are against you, however, you have the ability to persevere through it. Even though you don’t want to complete the task ahead of you, an inner force brings you the motivation to do it. Sincere courageousness doesn’t always entail violence; in fact, courage comes from the choices made within that affect yourself or those around you. The outcome may not always be to your advantage, but

Bravery does not measure how big or small the situation might be, but it defines the person who is overcoming their fear. Each

This courage, or rather the opposite, is demonstrated in Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, in particular the chapter entitled “On the Rainy River”. In the summer of 1968, O’Brien was drafted to perform military service in the Vietnam War. He, like many others, thought that this conflict was very unjust and he didn’t really understand what the United States was trying to accomplish. Unfortunately for O’Brien, he felt that if he did not go and perform the service like he intended that not only his family, but also his entire hometown would look at him as if he were a coward. In response, he states “I was a coward. I went to war.” (61). In the traditional sense, the

Movies are a fun and modern source for entertainment that often try to depict events that took place in real life. Many films based on real life events are often criticized for being inaccurate or altering much of the storyline. Others are also praised for being as accurate as possible and portraying the character’s traits in the best way. The 2013 American war film “Lone Survivor” is one of those movies that did a little of both. This is not necessarily a negative thing as I really enjoyed the movie and thought it was overall a good film and a great depiction of the events that happened in the operation in which the U.S. navy SEALs we involved. There are many war films out there that probably give us a better depiction of what war really looks

People’s opinion on the war was greatly influenced by the media. During the Vietnam War, the horrors that were happening on the battlefield were shown to Americans in their living rooms. There was no censorship meaning Americans back home saw dead bodies, Vietnamese children being shot and villages being burnt, all done by American Soldiers. Watching children, babies and old people being killed caused people to label soldiers as murderers and baby killers. Before Vietnam, soldiers had always been shown in a heroic way. But now, reporters would show only parts of a story, the parts that made soldiers look bad. In the Vietnam War, reporters could literally follow soldiers onto the battle fields and show it on television. Also, most photographers were interested in showing the bad aspects of the war such as the remaining destroyed village of Vietnamese or the suffering of soldiers. The media built stereotypes of soldiers at war as part of anti- war protests so photographers would show the parts that benefited anti-war protests and captured only half the story in his photograph. For

From 1954-1963, Diem presided over an increasingly corrupt, devious, and repressive regime. Communist guerrillas backed by North Vietnam launched a new rebellion, but a civil disobedience campaign led by the country's Buddhist monks contributed more directly to his downfall. Brutal persecution of the dissident monks in 1963 damaged the regime's already shaky international reputation. With American support, Vietnamese

For example, Hassan is courageous and challenges the neighborhood bully Assef, when he is making fun of Amir in the streets. In the midst of the fight, Assef begins to swing at defenseless Amir, but Hassan musters up the courage and threatens Assef with his slingshot in order to save his friend from getting hurt. Clearly Hassan strongly entails bravery and courage at the very moment when it is needed the most, and stands up for what is right no matter what Assef could have done to him in the moment, or even in the future. Courage is evidently portrayed through Hassan's character, especially through the measures he takes to protect his friend. Meanwhile, Hassan's bravery manages to ward off Assef, and keeps the two out of trouble; however the bully promises to get his revenge on a larger scale in the future. Hassan and Amir brush off Assefs warnings as if they were nothing, but should have Hassan and Amir taken the future threats more seriously?

One example of bravery is when Jonas took away pain from the giver. “I am brave, I really am.” Jonas helped the giver who was in pain by taking away some of the pain that the giver had. That requires bravery because you have to be brave to ask for pain after not knowing what

The Buddhist riots of 1963 triggered the events that led to the eventual fall of President Diem's government. For the eight years that he was in office, Diem notoriously pursued policies that were largely oppressive. In addition to largely favoring the Catholic religion, Diem's administration according to Isserman and Bowman (2009) also botched up the country's land reform initiatives. Attempts by any of the oppressed groups to stand up for their rights were met with stiff opposition from the country's security forces. Although Diem at first enjoyed U.S. patronage, this changed after it became clear that his administration would not withstand pressure from the masses who were protesting against injustices by his regime. It is however important to note that after Diem was ousted and assassinated, the country was suddenly ushered into a period of instability and unrest as coups and countercoups became commonplace. For the role they played in the toppling of Diem's administration, the Buddhist riots of 1963 represent one of the most significant historical turning points particularly for South Vietnam.