The Vietnam War was one of the most unpopular wars in American history from the beginning. There are many reasons why the Vietnam War was one of the most unpopular wars in America, but a few will be focused on. The government’s deceptive motive of the war and the hypocrisy regarding the government’s motive was exposed, the horror stories from Vietnam War veterans themselves painted a gruesome image, and the view that the Vietnam War was unwinnable are reasons why this has come to be known as one of the most unpopular wars. One of the main reasons why this war was so unpopular was because the government’s motive was hypocritical in a sense. The government’s reasoning for the Vietnam War was “for the freedom of the Vietnamese people” (http://cbcpp.com/202/readings/vietnam_reading.pdf), however, people of color were still battling for their own freedom in America. On top of this freedom hypocrisy situation, America was squandering resources and money on the war. The GIs United Against the War in Vietnam wanted that money to be spent to make America an example for all countries: “free of poverty and hunger, free of racial oppression, free of slums and illiteracy, and the misery they produce” ( http://cbcpp.com/202/readings/vietnam_reading.pdf). America had a lot of work to do on its own grounds before helping other countries “free” their citizens from corruption. Another reason why not many people supported the Vietnam War was because of the stories that Vietnam veterans
The opinion of the public in the United States’ government was affected from the Vietnam War. In the beginning, most of the Americans supported the war but when more conflicts occurred and more troops were shipped the support started to decrease. What began is that some college student movement against the war then it became as a national protest. By the end of 1965, most of the soldiers who had been fighting in the war were drafted into war. Some Americans opposed the draft and believed it is unfair. The Vietnamese war was the first war to be televised instead of writing down news in newspaper
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.
The Vietnam War made impacts on the movement back home. As in 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. even went against his own beliefs of not speaking out about the war he began preaching that it is truly sad to see African American people and the poor who can not make a living, being drafted (Doc C). Not only were they being drafted they were also dying at a much higher rate then just about every other group in society (Doc C). MLK also stated that these individuals were fighting to establish peace and rights over in Vietnam, while they did not even have these for themselves (Doc C). During the Vietnam years there still was some of the American population who supported the war, but would not speak out publicly about supporting the actions. This group was given the name the silent majority. Richard Nixon while in office spoke out about the group saying that the silent majority needs to speak out publicly as all the messages going around about the war are negative (Doc G). He also said in his speech that even though some people may not like the war everyone should help in the mind of creating peace in South Vietnam and that without everyone coming together in the nation that the US military could be defeated in the war (Doc
Anais Moss The Vietnam War was a very devastating war. There were many negative aspects that came along with this tragedy. Figuring out whether or not your against or for the war. The war on vietnam started in 1954 and ended 1975.For the United States of America the Vietnam War lasted for 11years. The United States originally got involved to help stop the spread of communism. Can you believe it saw two presidential terms? During this war the Civil Rights Movement was going on full force. African Americans were volunteering to go fight for a country that wasn’t even willing to give them basic rights. Such as getting de-segregation abolished, non- discrimination, and the right vote. Despite how America felt they were still willing to risk their lives. There were many aspects that came along with this war. A lot of people supported the war out of ignorance. They didn’t know the full intentions and actions that were taking place. Violence was a major downside to the war, many lives were lost during this period. With the Guerilla Warfare tactics that were taking place--the dropping of Napalm on the Vietnamese civilians was devastating because this toxic chemical was being dropped regardless of if there were men, women, children or enemy soldiers being involved. The use of unrestricted force and violence, gave Lyndon B. Johnson authority to do as he pleased when passing the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. The amount of American Soldiers lost to this war is an unimaginable number. Young
1)"Although the some Americans still supported their government policy in Vietnam in 1965, as the war went on, more and more Americans turned against it. The Vietnam War had been described to the US public as one where the richest and most powerful country would have a lot of problems defeating one of the smallest and poorest countries in the world. The protests against the war started
The Vietnam war was one of the most disliked wars that forced many young men to report for duty and fight for their country. The war called for men all around the US to head out to war to fight in Vietnam. This war was very disliked by US citizens all over the state. When the Vietnam soldiers returned back to their country after about a year of fighting everyone was giving them shame and despising them. Adding on to that these soldiers didn’t even want to go to war they were forced to. Even though these soldiers risked their lives for our country, the vietnam soldiers were treated unfairly when they returned home from war.
Was the Vietnam War an unpopular war? The soviet union winning a war caused a greater separation between communism and democracy or capitalism. The Americans joined the Vietnam war to support southern Vietnam in fighting against the communism in northern Vietnam. The Vietnam war was a very unpopular war because of economic, political, and social reasons.
The Vietnam War was the longest war in U.S history and the most unpopular American war, which resulted in about 60,000 American soldiers losing their lives. As public became more aware of the war realities, a large section of public felt that there was no need for this war and America is not going gain anything. However, despite the growing protests and self- realization none of the three Presidents under whom this war took place showed the courage to declare the war close.
The Vietnam conflict has been known for being the most unpopular war in the history of the United States. The war of 1812, the Mexican war and the Korean conflict of the early 1950's were also opposed by large groups of the American people, but none of them generated the emotional anxiety and utter hatred that spawned Vietnam. The Vietnam war caused people to ask the question of sending our young people to die in places where they were particular wanted and for people who did not seem especial grateful.
A reason why opposition expanded over time is because the American people frequently seen the results that the war caused. There was an abundance of deaths and the federal government was contributing a great deal of money. The war endured and the U.S. forces were still not defeating the Vietnamese forces. Due to this fact, American citizens viewed the Vietnam War as avoidable and irrelevant. In my personal opinion, I believe that the criticism of the war was
The Vietnam War was marked by brutality, death, protests, and psychological tolls. No war caused such great division among the American people like the Vietnam War. The war was extremely costly, and it left long-term effects on people all over the world. As a whole, the American people agree that the Vietnam War was a waste of time, money, and life.
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.
Majority of the American public criticized the war because they believe that as powerful as the US is, bombing an underdeveloped small country like Vietnam
“The American people were pro war due to Cold War propaganda against the US; however, due to conscription of young men the support decreased” (Bottaro, 2012:52). Americans supported the involvement of the US in the Vietnam War because of the propaganda which was against the US due to the Soviet Union. Also, they supported the fact their country was preventing communism take over in Vietnam. However, things changed after conscription of young men to fight and media coverage of the war. “The Vietnam War was complicated by factors that had never before occurred in America of a war, because the American media had come to dominate domestic opinion about its purpose and conduct” (Hallin, 1986:3). Since the Vietnam War was the first ever televised war, Americans and the world were able to see the destruction caused by the US soldiers on Vietnamese land and people. Americans did not understand why the US government allowed soldiers to continue a war America was clearly losing. “Along with the Civil Rights movement campaigns of the 1960s, the anti-war movement was one of the most diverse forces in the 20th- century in US history” (Halstead, 1973:22). Despite the increase in anti-war protest, poverty decline in the economy and the Civil Rights movement situation were happening in the US during this period in America, the government still did not
The Vietnam War was one of the most hated wars in United States history, for the primary reasons that we did not win and the draft destroyed countless men, physically and mentally. The end result of the war did not justify the means and this made a lot of people very upset. This war was also the most televised war, showing incredibly gruesome, uncensored images on the evening news at dinner time. The political protest for the