The Anti War Of The Vietnam War

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

The Anti-war movement started during the 1960s and shaped America’s public opinion on conflicts for years to come. As in all American conflicts, the will of the people controls the actions of the military. Without Homefront support, the American war machine dies. American pop culture during the 60s and 70s, sought to change public opinion against the Vietnam War. Through blatant Anti-war lyrics to their actions, the popular artists and musicians of the era changed the mindset of a generation to oppose the military actions in Vietnam.

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

Through life’s phases, many develop perfunctory habits. Many start to lose that site of creativity and enthusiasm that can bring forth positive results. However, this is not the case for everyone when their republic is funded on principles of faith, liberty, and justice. It is not the case when an individual knows he is equally as good as his companions without the comparison of skin color. Frederick Douglass’ speech titled, “What the Black Man Wants” and the speech of Ralph J. Bunche titled, “The Barriers of Race Can be Surmounted” are 84 years apart. However, both display a few of the same philosophies that can even be found in today’s modern speeches. Both speeches understand the African-American affliction/disadvantage, lack of knowledge

The Vietnam War affected the United States politically and culturally. Lyndon B Johnson, the 36th

The Vietnam War was one of the least supported wars in American History. It faced an immense and inexorable sum of social outcry that, while initially ignored, could not go completely unnoticed and unacknowledged by the government. While the majority of American citizens supported the war, they remained silent, most likely to protect themselves from the scrutiny of the minority that opposed the war. This minority of Americans were opposed to the war for moral reasons. They argued that the war was not any of the business of the united states and that it would be morally unjust to intervene because the North Vietnamese “were fighting a patriotic war to rid themselves of foreign aggressors.” that “Innocent Vietnamese peasants were being killed

The antiwar protest movements that took place throughout the Vietnam War were one of the most divisive and tumultuous internal forces during twentieth century U.S. history. The divisive nature of the antiwar protest movements becomes multiplied, because instead of a social conflict where there are two dichotomised “camps”, (those who are pro-war and those who are antiwar,) we are instead presented with antiwar sentiment which is largely segmented, and not a “unified” movement. The antiwar movements comprised of a number of independent groups, such as the Students for a Democratic Society, the War Resisters League, and the Committee for Nonviolent Direct Action. These groups all had varying motives, ideologies and tactics associated with their method of antiwar protest and resistance to the Vietnam War, making it impossible to give sufficient detail to all the separate movements in this paper. The myriad of movements were often only vaguely allied and for the most part, united only in their opposition to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. For the majority of this essay however, I intend to focus on the youth cultures movements, as many key events of protest took place on campuses, or were predominantly orchestrated by the American youth.

The Vietnam War struck the United States with a wave of shock in 1955 when the threat of communism became a reality. The war was between North Vietnam with the help of the Soviet Union and South Vietnam with the help of the United States. The government in the U.S put all efforts towards the war to eliminate communism, but soon people began to doubt the end of the war. The politics of the counterculture during the Vietnam War had many changes in the U.S. The anti-war movement, civil and equal rights for everyone, and many peace movements influenced the government throughout the war. The war has continued to be impacted by the voices of the people.

American soldiers arrived in My Lai on March 16, 1968. These soldiers were members of

It is a known fact that soldiers endure experiences that can only be felt by seeing through one’s own eyes. The Vietnam War was especially one of the wars that had a major impact on soldiers, as their lives became significantly more difficult and dangerous. The soldiers were young and thrown into war, not knowing who they were fighting. Tim O’Brien was one of the soldiers that was placed into Vietnam’s danger. O’Brien stated that he still carries “the memories or the ghosts of a place called Vietnam, the people of Vietnam, my fellow soldiers. More importantly [he carries] the weight of responsibility and a sense of abiding guilt. [He carries] joyful memories, too, friends [he] made and the conversations at foxholes

War is something of a desideratum and an atrocious entity. It sparks contentious discourses, and is often declared following such events. The Vietnam War is notably one war that has enraged many American citizens thereafter. It is understandable that President Kennedy would want to become involved in a war that is governmentally motivated; we have war to overthrow regimes and conquer land. Moreover, a possible cause of the Vietnam War could have been to overthrow the Communist regime so that no more people would be forced to live in the sphere of a homologous influence. (Source E) In due time the question became: what is more detrimental, having engaged in war, or having remained pacifistic? Both have consequences, both have casualties.

According to a lecture from POSC 458 - the Vietnam Wars, President Gerald R. Ford, perhaps not in any fault of his own, faced a fierce Congress who continued to reject funding the war in Vietnam. This is perhaps because of the Watergate scandal that essentially forced a president of the United States to resign the presidency for the first and thus far only time in the history of the United States. Perhaps, the United States Congress could no longer ignore the ever loud disapproval of the American electorate in their opposition to the Vietnam War. Regardless of the Congress’’ reasoning to stop funding the Vietnam War, which is their responsibility to do so, President Gerald Rudolph Ford was forced to declare the Vietnam War over.

Though it may have ended in 1989, the Vietnam war is still being fought, but on a different battlefield, one of public opinion. Some call this war an atrocity, a war the United States should never have joined. Others call it a crime, committed by the power hungry politicians of the U.S. Now that new information from both sides of the war has surfaced and the wounds of battle have had more time to heal there is yet another opinion emerging. The Vietnam War was in fact only one of many proxy wars fought under the umbrella of the Cold War. While some of the actions of people involved in the Vietnam War were questionable at best, the decision the lawmakers of the United States made to enter the war was in the best interests of Americans and in line with the ideals they upheld at that time.

Remembered as one of the most controversial wars, Vietnam had more casualties in the short three day battle of Ia Drang, than in the worst week during the Korean War. Entering this war, neither side could have predicted how this battle would play out. With numbers in the thousands the Vietnam leaders must have believed victory was theirs for the taking. Whereas the opposite could be said for the 450 brave American soldiers who faced incredible odds. It seemed as if only death awaited these men in the valley of Ia Drang, yet they managed to secure the first American victory in the Vietnam War.

The topic I selected was the Anti vietnam war movement. I selected this topic because it was one of the most interesting topics available. Also this topic was a very important part of history. These movements helped make women a more important part of american history and proved that they weren't just supposed to be stay at home wives. This topic also was the one my grandma choose to be interviewed over because she knew a lot about the anti war movement. In conclusion this topic was the one I felt would be the best to learn about and see what it was like to be around during the Vietnam War.