The Vietnam War : A Survivor 's Story

The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or ‘Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.

My father Jack Lyons was a soldier in Vietnam and had experienced the war to its fullest. His tour in Vietnam started in 1965 lasted for six months. He has not told many detailed stories about his time in the war, and I 've heard that Veterans who 've experienced war first hand and understand the true meaning of it never really talk about their experiences to anyone. I think this reticent ness is a way to help them, the Veterans of the war, cope with their near death experiences. When I interviewed my dad last week for this essay, he was a little shy at first to tell me about his tour in Vietnam. We discussed in the interview about the many physical affects the soldiers encountered in the war. My father stated, "The heat and the insects were one of the major problems he and his fellow soldiers had to adjust to"(Lyons PI). The heat and insects might be a terrible thing for one to encounter, but it was not as bad as being shot at, shot, or killed in action. "US Forces were embroiled in a vicious guerilla warfare with the Viet Cong"(Wikipedia 2). The Viet Cong never really met the US Army on an open battlefield and that aspect of their fighting made them even more

Among those are the Veterans but most of them they are still fighting the battle physically and mentally they are trauma of their battle experiences or their physical disability it shattered their life the worst for the veterans were coming and trying to adjust civilian life. A lot of them committed suicide because they couldn't take the trauma anymore but most of them did when the war was over and they first got back to the US everybody hated them the soldiers when they got back a lot of them were throwing stuff at the soldiers cussing them out calling them cowards. The Defense Department reported that the overall cost of the Vietnam war was about $173 billion. The credibility gap was mostly used in Vietnam era because public skepticism about Lyndon B. Johnson administration statements and policies on the vietnam war the politicians were telling lies to the

Another major economic blow to the U.S. was the injured soldiers returning home without limbs and with severe disabilities. According to Autor, Duggan, and Lyle (2011), after remaining stable, at about nine percent in the late 1990s through September 2000, Disability Compensation (DC) enrollment among Vietnam era veterans has since increased rapidly, and it stood at 15.1% by September 2010. They went on to say, during that same period, the average annual benefit received by Vietnam era DC recipients increased by 44%. Furthermore, costs were increased as a result of prosthetic limbs needed and rehabilitation costs for injured soldiers (over 300,000) (Szczepanski, n.d.), soldiers affected by Agent Orange/dioxin (an herbicide), and drug addicted soldiers. U.S. soldiers were either, addicted to morphine (the painkiller of choice when injured during the war) or heroin, in view that they could not handle the mental strain of living at home. A number of soldiers also suffered mental illnesses because of what they saw and what they did during the war. Many soldiers suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). That number has tripled since 1998 to 2010, from more than 98,000 to more than 268,000 (Autor, Duggan, & Lyle, 2011). It was a very difficult transition from the war to everyday civilian life for many soldiers. Not many veterans speak of what it was like on the frontlines,

US should not have been involved in the Vietnam War. For one, the US should not have been involved in the Vietnam war because protest were turning violent. They started peaceful and then they turned violent. Movements and protest are now violent because the American Society feels as if their opinions are being ignored or do not matter. Another reason that people don't trust the government now is because of the propaganda and false advertising. The president is telling the people of the US that everything is okay and the war is almost over when it is nowhere near being over. Lastly, war is very costly. The money going to cover the cost of war could be given to innovations, welfare, housing, and many other beneficial things to the people of the US.

When I first got put in the challenge program I was very scared. I only knew a handful of people and I didn’t know if it was the best fit for me. However, the past 4 years have proven me wrong. I would have been bored and in challenge when you have teachers like Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Hill, you wonder why you questioned yourself.

The United States lost more soldiers fighting in Vietnam than fighting in World War II. The Vietnamese jungle was fraught with danger. Many U.S. soldiers died getting caught in booby traps and ambushes by the Vietcong. Soldiers sometimes lost limbs and had some parts of their body immobilized. Not only were there many American casualties, but there were also a large amount of civilian casualties. The U.S. military targeted civilian villages as well as military targets. Many of our own soldiers died from friendly fire and Napalm strikes.

After war hit, virtually everything was deteriorated. In a four-mile radius from where I stand, not a single architecture except for the government buildings and makeshift shops are still structurally sound. Families are forced to survive, father's craft shelters for their families out of the detritus that remains. Children, including ages of even six years, sleep deprived due to labor, desperately attempt to rest on empty, dented, bed frames. The only people that have real, formal shelters are the aristocrats that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire a room in a government shelter and the government families.

I was running around from tent to tent and it was chaos I was scared, but I needed to help the people that were hurt it was my job. As a German plane buzzed overhead I, nurse Helen Doyal dropped face down in the mud. As an American nurse serving at a British Army base hospital near the Western Front in 1918, it's my job to help the wounded people and soldiers who fight.

The thought of the defeat screen plagued my mind. It took over all other emotion and drowned out even my extremely heavy breathing. Panic and doom rode their dark chariots led by the mares of carnage over the chaos in my mind. This was it. I attempted diverting from thoughts of the devastatingly disturbing gameplay on my screen to something positive. As the enemy team led by Lux charged the mid-lane, my mind raced to find something to improve my decaying self-esteem. I watched their tank, Darius, absorbing the little resistance provided by the last of the crumbling turrets. Fixating my glance on my re-spawn time I stretched my fingers in anticipation. A game plan was beginning to form in my mind. Eight lengthy seconds passed as I waited in

So when he told me that the end of the war would be a peaceful and glorious time I believed him with all my heart. And so did everyone else. But as time has gone on I’ve learned that to only be halfway true.

In May of 2007 I was a recently promoted Specialist with 20 months in the Army and 11 months in Iraq. I was assigned to B Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment; a member of the 2nd Infantry Divisions 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. As part of President George W. Bush’s “Surge” our 12 month deployment was extended to 15 months. We had spent the previous months moving around Iraq to support multiple areas of operation (AO), but in March of 2007 had moved to the volatile city of Baqubah, where we had begun the long and arduous task of clearing the city of insurgent forces.

Do you know how many people died in the Vietnam war? 58,200 American soldiers died during the Vietnam war. 1.1 million Vietnamese war soldiers died during the war. This war was pointless for America to get involved in. The only reason America joined the war was because the government thought it was a way to prevent the communist takeover of Vietnam. This was a part of the “domino” theory. The Vietnam war was a very bad thing that happened and it was bad that we got involved.

The U.S. involvement in Vietnam was a failure and should not have been a war the US fought. The United States main objective was to stop communism within Vietnam, considering that Vietnam is still a communist country shows that the involvement did not help to stop communism in Vietnam. The Vietnam War was not only a disaster in Vietnam, the United States was getting a lot of backlash from its citizens. The US was split with pro-war and anti-war opinions that created a lot of protest amongst the citizens. The covering up and lying about the war by president Johnson also caused a lot of distrust between the US citizens and the US government grew. The United States involvement in Vietnam did not only not fail in its main objective, it came at a huge cost in casualties to American and Vietnamese citizens.

The Vietnam war had many effects on the countries who fought in it and the soldiers that fought for their country. One of the reasons the United States should not have participated in Vietnam is because of the horrible effects it had on our soldiers. Many soldiers that fought in the war came home with injuries both physical and mental. One discovery doctors made after our soldiers came home was of a mental illness called post traumatic stress syndrome also known as