The Battle Of The Vietnam War Essay

Michael Herr captures a momentous era of American and world history in his book Dispatches. While there are many works that document the Vietnam War, Herr’s writing becomes significant in the way it captures the period. For one, Herr is able to describe major historical moments of the nineteen-sixties in context to what was concurrently taking place Vietnam. Also, Herr offers a unique voice compared to other documentation of Vietnam due to his story being the reflections of a journalists in the midst of action there. This mix of cultural milieu and journalistic perspective turns Herr’s Dispatches into a relevant and substantial testament of the Vietnam War.

This essay will discuss to what degree the media can be blamed for the United States’ loss in the Vietnam conflict ending 1975. It will be based predominantly on key written resources on the subject, but it will also contain - by means of an interview - certain first-hand observations from a Vietnam War veteran.

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

Wars are a difficult place to be. “THE VIETNAM WAR transformed a generation” (Roberts 1). With all that happened during the war such as exposure to

Vietnam was an entirely new type of war for the United States. It still remains morally and historically problematic in today’s society. The Vietnam War had a tremendous impact on American society and culture, primarily because it was the first war to be televised. The American press played a significant

The war in Vietnam was a war against communism that tore apart the US. The United States of America plunged together with its allies and played a tremendous role as far as fight against communism is concerned. A huge number of American soldiers were deployed in Vietnam a practice that coupled with much unpreparedness. The soldiers were not aware what exactly they were up to in Vietnam. Most Americans at the time were very much against the act. It was one of the most deliberating wars America plunged herself into and the only one to have been lost. Most intriguing is the amount of publicity and media buzz created by the film industry. Vietnam War was the topic of many television networks, music and Hollywood. Journalist and veterans and scholar were never left behind and went ahead to produce tones of literature on the legacies and lessons to be learnt from the war (Hochgesang, Lawyer, and Stevenson). The exploitation of the soldiers and rejection of the veterans created just as much interest as the war had created. One such commentary came from George Kennan, who depicted the war as one of the most disastrous mission The United States has ever undertaken (Westheider 155-159).. This essay will establish the effects the war had to the US soldiers.

One of the most defining features of the conflict in Vietnam is the lack of censorship and the resulting public condemnation of the war, which many say was what lead to American failure in their retreat from Vietnam. Due to unrestrained media access and widespread publication of negative information during the Vietnam War, and the consequential public outcry against involvement, censorship could be altered and carried out in a more practical way for following conflicts. The freedom with which the Vietnam War was reported exposed the public to information that had previously been withheld, ultimately affecting the opinions of the government at the time and influencing future politicians to resort back to censorship in order to keep favour within

There are only two comprehensive inferences that can be drawn upon when assessing the impact and legacy of the reporting of the Vietnam War on America and its media; the impact was enormous and its legacy unending. More than thirty years have passed since the American military withdrew from Vietnam, and in that time, the war has continued to permeate the cultural, and political landscape of America, impacting all subsequent war

The Vietnam War was the first televised war. This allowed news stations to bring the battles right to the television screen in someone’s home. The Vietnamese would use the American media to express their thoughts to the Americans. Americans were also able to see the brutal combat that was happening and get a first-hand experience of the war. Reporters had the ability to skew Americans’ views of the war by the way they reported. Since the Vietnam War was televised many people were influenced by the images they saw on their home television and caused them to take action.

The Vietnam War was a period painted by immense bias. Specifically in America, the war raised not only the problem of whether or not it was moral, but the question of how informed citizens were of the actions of their country. Art of all forms became a gateway for Americans to not only learn about what was happening overseas in the war, but also became a tool for them to express their own opinions toward the war. Musicians, photographers, and artists alike all altered their preferred subject matter and set their focus on Vietnam. Beyond being a tool for understanding, art was a vessel for individuals to argue their bias toward the war.

As more and more troops were being sent to Vietnam, and the casualties began to rise, people began to question the government’s involvement. “Even military troops came to mistrust their government’s reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washington’s claims that the war was being won”.(Vietnam War) The Vietnam war was the first war to be broadcast on television. This meant that for the first time the American people were able to see the war instead of just hearing about it on the radio. They were able to see firsthand the soldier’s faces, see the reality of where they were fighting and to see the

This paper will be explaining the similarities, and differences, between the Vietnam War and the War in Afghanistan. There are many topics that bring these two wars together. However, I am only going to be talking about public support, policy objectives, military strategy, weapons, fighting spirit, links to home, and death totals. These topics have a lot of information about them, but there is too much to write about every little detail, so I will cover the broad overview of them. Each paragraph will be about one of the topics. There will also be a discussion about insurgencies and counter insurgency operations. These are two big topics in Vietnam and Afghanistan since almost all of the enemy in both wars were, and are, comprised of insurgents and different types of militia groups.

In the 1950's, the United States had begun to send troops to Vietnam and during the following 25-year period, the ensuing war would create some of the strongest tensions in US history. Almost 3 million US men and women were sent thousands of miles to fight for what was a questionable cause. In total, it is estimated that over 2 million people on both sides were killed.

The Vietnam War was the first war to be televised and this was a shock to the American people. It was able to show the most gritty and realistic side of war, which was very unlike the glorified visions of victory and valor that films had portrayed. The veterans of war were promised a homecoming and instead, they were unwelcomed and homeless. For the rest of the American public, living was becoming uncontrollable and so was the government. Society’s issues such as abandonment and rotting cities were also touching Hollywood and its filmmakers. Old

  For films and media which intentionally incorporated or covered aspects of the Vietnam War, most were interpreted as negative. Films portrayed the war as a “swampy, fiery hell peopled by psychopaths” while mass media portrayed the Vietnam vet as problematic and neglected--“a scraggly and deranged outcast with a rumpled boony hat, a legless victim converted to pacifism, a returning P.O.W. scarred by unspeakable horrors” (Digital). Not only did films and media exert