The Apartheid Of The Vietnam War

Many of the anti-war groups that formed were ones with college students and young adults. One of the largest student anti-war groups was the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The SDS believed that “It is the responsibility of the city administration to see that an effective agency is created to handle the problems of the poor. Such service is becoming increasingly essential to the city of this size [New York].” The Kent State protests, later called the Kent State Massacre, took place on May 4, 1970, “when twenty-eight guardsmen opened fire on a crowd, killing four students and wounding nine… Almost five hundred colleges were shut down or disrupted by protest in result.” The shooting took place during an anti-war rally that was organized in response to President Nixon announcing that the United States had invaded Cambodia, trying to defeat the Viet

He feels Yanagi’s pain through the connection but he does not draw attention to it. To be in the heat of a powerplay game such as the one boiling over in Konoha right now is a moment of extreme delicacy and ruthlessness; attachments are withheld, persons numbed down. The rampant mentality is this: eliminate those who are likely to get in one’s way, even if they are friends, or valuable allies. Nobody who lived through the Warring States Era would be unfamiliar with this tenet: do what must be done. And if Tobirama was forced to choose among the Yamanaka twins, he would keep Yanagi alive, simply because she is now the more valuable of the two, even though Yanagi herself and most definitely, not Osamu, would admit it. For to dabble in politics is to know who has value, worth and utility, and who do not.

The Vietnam War is widely regarded as the lowest point in the history of U.S. foreign affairs. It mercilessly dragged an unwilling country on a fatal ride for twenty years, all while receiving low approval ratings and high funding. The Vietnam conflict served as an optimum environment for the virus of controversy. No one has more experience with controversy than Heinz Alfred Kissinger. He is the ultimate pragmatist, as embodying his philosophy of realpolitik, a diplomatic ideology based on utilitarianism rather than international ethical standards. When one’s political calling card downplays the role of ethics in diplomacy, that individual is bound to garner a high profile reputation. Kissinger himself has lamented the national predicament during this conflict—squeezed between the ultimate rock, his duty to keep peace, and hard place, his duty to act with the approval of the American people. This predicament was rooted in an omnipresent opposition to Communism, as was America’s role in the entire Cold War. Cold War politics were politics of fear. That fear drove competition, which bred a certain variety of leader – a logical, calculating politician with regard for nothing but his country’s success. To avoid an uncontrollable spread of Communism through the westernized world, some moral casualties were strewn about the wayside. However, the American public had no trouble rolling up their collective sleeves to back this forward-thinking activist. In more recent years, some

Throughout history, instances of genocide, mass murder, and extreme acts of violence are widespread and pervade through every culture and society. As demonstrated by Panh, Lifton, and O’Brien, similar examples of excessive violence can occur in widely different situations. In order for such violence to occur, there first must exist certain systematic factors. In this paper, I will argue that conditions of instability within a country allow for changes in belief and perception, and these changed perceptions leads to dehumanization and the loss of human rights. The Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide and the Vietnam War, all follow this pattern to some extent. First, I will compare and contrast the ways in which the Holocaust and Cambodian genocide follow this pattern, as well as explore the separate factors within each and possible solutions to these factors. Next, I will discuss the dramatically different Vietnam War, compare and contrast it to the other two, and explore how the uniqueness of the Vietnam War impacts the possible solutions for the loss of human rights within this situation.

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.

In the late sixties and early seventies, the anti-war moment peaked during the Nixon administration. In October of 1969, the Weatherman, an ultra-left splinter group of SDS (which had become a revolutionary organization), held its infamous ‘Days of Rage" demonstrations in Chicago. Many young protesters attempted to fight police in the streets. The same month witnessed an outpouring of dissent unprecedented in U.S. history. More than two million people joined in Vietnam Moratorium activities around the country. Many were protesting against the war for the first time. For the first time, the press sympathized with the antiwar protesters. The following month more than 500,000 people demonstrated in Washington, 150,000 protested in San Francisco,

The Vietnam War was certainly controversial. There were many protests that erupted across college campuses and throughout numerous town and cities. Many individuals viewed the war as unnecessary and unwinnable. The draft was also very widely criticized and seen as a negative point in the war. The draft was forcing young college students to go fight in dangerous territory. The most controversial aspect of the Vietnam War is certainly that it was deemed unwinnable by the US government, but they still chose to remain in Vietnam and fight. Why was the Vietnam War unwinnable though? Was it actually unwinnable or did the US government

It was a white, radical, New Left organization. The group started off mainly as a white male group against communist, but it became a critical point for the student movement. The Students for a Democratic Society disapproval of the Vietnam War made it a symbol to the New Left. The New Left referred to the generation of Americans in the 1960s who were of age and opposed of the Vietnam War and wanted to make change within the civil rights movement. The New Left was largely made of college students and the Students for a Democratic Society was the first group to be established for those principles. Two years after the SDS was formed, fifty-nine members met in Michigan for a political platform that said universities should be the focus point of “participatory democracy.” That goal set in Michigan made the SDS want to help with transferring power from representatives to individuals. The SDS’s ideas got the attention of many college students, with most of them being influenced by the efforts of trying direct democracy. In 1963, the SDS established the Economic Research and Action Project to start practicing participatory democracy. The SDS then turned to be antiwar and in April of 1965 it held the first of several protests against the Vietnam War. Then in 1968, the students protested on the campus of Columbia University due to their participation in war related help. The protest was soon ended by New York police who injured over 200 students and arrested about 700. By the late 1960s SDS divided into a Marxist-Leninist group and an organization called the Weathermen who favored violence. By 1968, the SDS rapidly kept growing which created chaos and hectic for the group. Then in June of 1969, the Progressive Labor party, a small group from the Old Left which took it over and made the SDS collapse. After that only the Weatherman remained but in 1970 it disappeared as a New Left political

The anti-war protests of the 1960s was a response of resentment by minorities and young educated college students against the nation’s desire to participate in war against Communism in Vietnam and conduct a military draft. The protests, originally began with peaceful public demonstrations by activists, who were nonviolent; however, the peaceful demonstrators were frequently attacked and victimized by the police and other citizens, who did not share their same opinion. Throughout the peaceful protests the activists suffered many beatings in the hands of the police and as a result, many of the activists claimed the right of self-defense and turned to taking offensive actions against their oppressors including the police and other citizens. Later, the scene of violence and mayhem quickly shifted to college campuses, to which college students began protesting the draft (Gurr, 1989, pp. 183-185). At the time the average age of an American soldier serving in Vietnam was 19 and students quickly rebelled after realizing that young Americans were legally old enough to be drafted to fight and die, but were not yet legally allowed to vote or drink alcohol (UShistory, nd.).

Racial gang fights were all too common in the military during the Vietnam War Era. Initially, African Americans thought the military was a safe haven from the Ku Klux Klan, but soon discovered the KKK was a major source of racial violence within the military. “Groups of whites, wearing real or impromptu Klan robes, were reported on numerous military bases in the United States and overseas.” (Westheider 85) The Ku Klux Klan also has similar traditional practices such as burning the cross on military bases. “In May 1969, two white sailors at Cam Ranh Bay burned a twelve-foot-high cross in front of a predominantly black barrack.” (Westheider 85) These Klan practices escalated racial violence even more. Blacks were not accepting to the racial slang and practices of the Ku Klux Klan, which lead to many racial gang fights within barracks, bars, and food service lines at military camps. Much of the racial violence were fistfights between black and whites, which actually caused a lot of damage to the soldiers and any location where a fight took place. “Often these Klan-like activities seemed to occur with the tacit approval of those in command.” (Westheider 85) The Ku Klux Klan was obviously supported by the military, and is one major cause of racial friction and violence in the military.

War may seem like a heroic ideal, but the mountain is very steep. George Washington had us settle at Valley Forge in December 1777. Washington had mostly six and nine-month men that are debating to not reenlist. Reenlisting means to stay at Valley Forge and fight in the war, but I am considering to not reenlist. I will not reenlist due to the amount of deaths, lack of money, and the amount of exposure to the harsh elements.

In “Gimme Shelter”, The Rolling Stones sing, “see the fire is sweeping our very street today”, this shows the frenzy and the extent of war protests in the late sixties. Prior to 1965, opposition to the Vietnam War was primarily a leftist view but due to efforts by returning vetrans and media publications a broad majority of Americans felt indifferent towards involvement in the war. High profile figures such as Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Fonda, Muhhamed Ali, and John Lennon had all been outspoken opponents of the war. American religious groups took a pascifist view and called for peace as soon as possible. In 1968 there were 221 protests at 101 universities as over 16,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam during that year and public awareness of atrocities committed by the United States in Vietnam was heightened. By the end of the 1960’s protesting had become violent as indicated by the line in “Gimme Shelter”, “gimme shelter or i'm going to fade away” which speaks to the feeling of danger and closeness to the war in citizen’s daily lives and the need for escapement. A faction of the Students for a Democratic Society arose with a more militant stance and advocated for the destruction of governemnt property and war materials they were known as the Weather Underground or the Weathermen. The Weathermen were notorious for bombing campaigns in which they would target banks and

In 1967, 64 percent of all eligible African-Americans were drafted versus only 31 percent of eligible whites (Black 2009). This fact testifies to only a small portion of why nearly all African-Americans found themselves protesting against the Vietnam War. The lack of civil rights in the U.S deterred many blacks from supporting Vietnam, a conflict aimed at liberating the rights of another people. African Americans were frustrated with a country who fought for other citizens and saw no purpose in fighting for a peoples’ freedom but their own. Although African-Americans were specifically discriminated against both in Vietnam and America, they were not alone in their anti-war position. The majority of the American public opposed the Vietnam War. As the war dragged on, people found no reason to fight in Vietnam and believed that the United States should prioritize their own citizens first. Many public figures, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Muhammad Ali, held similar claims. Their opinions aligned with the public’s concern and suggested that the U.S withdraw troops and focus resources on the civil rights issues at home. These public figures fought for a specific minority, but, in light of the entire American population, the majority of people opposed the war.

The Vietnam War began, because of Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) being conquered by the Japanese, in 1941. This led to the creation of the Vietnamese nationalist movement, formed by Ho Chi Minh to resist the Japanese. The Vietnamese national movement also known as the Vietminh, was a communist front organization. To stop the spread of communism through Asia, the United States intervened. The war lasted for 19-20 years, and involved countries such as South Vietnam, North Vietnam, United States, South Korea, Australia, Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Khmer Republic, Laos and the Republic of China. The war was known as a guerrilla war, which meant the use of tactics such as ambush, sabotage and petty warfare. Guerrilla warfare is a very unconventional style of warfare. It is when small groups of soldiers use stealthy tactics to inflict damage on the target. The casualties suffered by both sides were immense however, the Communists had the upper hand throughout the majority of the war. Not only was it their home turf, they also had the support of a large percentage of the civilian population. The effective use of guerrilla tactics by the Viet Cong played a very important role on the outcome of the war, and is also the primary reason why the United States lost. The following essay will outline the reasons why the guerrilla tactics used by the Viet Cong played a very important role on the outcome of the Vietnam War. The first paragraph will

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.