What is war good for? Absolutely nothing. The vietnam war wasn’t a necessary war. All of those innocent lives were lost because of America’s attitude toward communism. People need to look past their views into how it affects other people. The war was a economy ruining, life taking, horrible mistake. The Vietnam war did not even have to happen. Vietnam was all the way across the world and it did not even matter if it was a communist country, at least then we would have it for a ally. When we started to fight with them we became not on the same side anymore. The TV’s showed us being the good guys down at Vietnam. John Kerry wrote an article explaining Vietnam’s war. “We saw America lose her sense of morality as she accepted very coooly a My Lai and refused to give up the image of American soldiers who hand out chocolate bars and chewing gum” (p.3). The idea of what we were doing in Vietnam was twisted to make it seem as gentle as possible. The soldiers that were in Vietnam were subject to horrors that they should not have because it was useless and their time in Vietnam turned to communism anyway. In the book Fallen Angels the soldiers in it had to …show more content…
The people that we were fighting against have been in war after war since they were born. They knew how to survive. They had something that Americans did not. The dire need to be free from all foreign influences and wars. The civilians over there were mostly just siding with whoever was winning. John Kerry wrote an article explaining how the soldiers were feeling. “We found most people didn’t even know the difference between communism and democracy” (p. 2). They just wanted the people out of their country and the vietnamese were going co cooperate with whoever was going to get everyone out of there fastest. Although Mackubin Owens wrote an article disproving his entire campaign for president. The statement that Kerry made was never able to be proven
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.
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
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.
In the middle 1960s, every male in America had to register for Selective Service Draft at age 18. He would then be eligible for the draft and could be inducted into the Army for a period of two years. If you were a college student, you could receive a deferment and would be able to finish college without the fear of being drafted. However, once finished with college, a students name would be put to the very top of the draft list and could be deployed at anytime. The anti-war movement was about young men being drafted and then sent into war that most Americans did not believe threatened the security of the US. The Vietnam War was America’s rebellious war, a war without popular support
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.
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
The United States involvement in the Vietnam War was practically pointless, and very unnecessary. The cons out way the pros for waging war, because it left our country far devastated than the victorious. It drained the United States economically, and caused tremendous amounts of casualties that soon shifted the nation against the war, leaving no public support for the continuous war raging for two decades. The US should be criticized for its involvement in the war, not praised.
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in
Valuable resources was lost in the Vietnam war. Most important of all of the resources are the human lives that were lost. Around 58,000 soldiers died fighting the war efforts, or “police action”. Soldiers died for a pointless war, in fear that a domino effect would happen if they lost the country to communism. The domino theory is that when one country falls to communism more and more will fall
The Vietnam War had been last for about twenty years. Sadly, the American soldiers did not defeat the communists. The U.S. troops had suffered in terrible conditions in Vietnam, such as swaps, jungles, and humid weathers. There were more than 58,000 Americans soldiers had been killed in the war. The USAF claimed that the United States spent mostly 100 billion on this war for the military aids. Therefore, the economy of the United States decreased. Majority of the veterans came back to the America didn’t get respect from the citizens because they were “anti-war”. The sacrifice of the soldiers was not important in those citizens’ minds.
During the Vietnam War, between 1955 and 1984, fifty-eight thousand Americans lost their lives, as well as over three-million Vietnamese lost theirs. The financial cost to the United States comes to over one hundred-fifty-billion dollars. The causes of the Vietnam War were derived from the symptoms, components and consequences of the Cold War. The Vietnam War revolved around America’s belief that communism was a threat to expand all over South East Asia. With this being said the Vietnam War was both a nationalist and communist movement, unsuccessful in America’s regards, comparable to the war in Iraq, a poor man’s war, led to the downfall of Lyndon B. Johnson, and overall stood as an unpopular war. Let’s take a look at what damage the
The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Vietnam. Vietnam use to be a peaceful country until the idea of communism started spreading across Vietnam. Many wanted to stay democratic but saw what happened to the Germans and started to lean towards communism. Many also wanted to stay democratic and still had it hopes high that it will soon get their lives and economy back on track.
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.
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
The vietnam war produced many outcomes which were more negatives overall for both countries. This war made a mark because it was a prolonged war where the essential use of the helicopters it was used like never before. The helicopters were one of the essential transportation in the difficult terrain of Vietnam. In this war the whole population of Vietnam was involved in a indirect and direct way . The civilian population was mobilized to any active participation and suffered the war situation almost in the same circumstances as military forces.