The Vietnam War and Communism

Booker T. Washington once said, “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” In 1776, by David McCullough, this quote truly resonates the fact that it is the little things that count, as not necessarily the big picture. Although there are many pitfalls the Americans go through during the course of this story, the outcome of the war would be a positive success to the Americans. As a result, good leadership is a very important factor in accomplishing a goal. Also, encouragement is a big help when it comes to boosting a soldier’s morale. Furthermore, endurance is vital to an army

were taking everyone they could. They were taking even boys under sixteen which were the easiest to train and without any family responsibilities. Some of the new soldiers stayed at

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.

Each soldier must have seen or experienced something gruelling that they didn't really want to see. This caused bad memories for them making them feel insecure that something that bad is possible to happen to them. This made them abit nervous about staying tin the trenches as people have died in them,

Not only did the soldiers carry heavy physical burdens, they carried heavy emotional burdens of fear and the need to maintain ties to home. According to Evans, “Grief, terror, love, longing—these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight” (Evans, 2015). O’Brien clearly defines one of the hardest things the men had to carry, “By and large they carried these things inside, maintaining the masks of composure.” (O’Brien, 1990, p. 184).

World War II had a lasting impression on not only the countries but on the soldiers and people as well. POWs and internees had to experience things that would make a grown man cringe in fear. In the stories ”Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, and “Manzanar” by Jenne Houston Wakatsuki, tells the tragic story of how these men are stripped away of their human rights. As they try to struggle their way out of insanity, their stories will forever echo in history to show the outcome of war.

The way that this war was fought also had an effect on the soldiers, in a normal war there

In this essay we will cover three topics centered around Vietnam Prisoners of War and will discuss two books that are, in ways, very similar, but very different due to a variety of things. One of the two books being compared in this essay is titled “Defiance” by Alvin Townley and was written quite recently in 2014. The other novel that was chosen for this essay was written in 1971 is titled “Five Years to Freedom” and it was written by James N. Rowe. These two books were focused on the capture and the treatment of American Prisoners of War during the Vietnam War, more specifically based on the lives of each of the men as they meet up in the prison camps and have to survive torture which was brought upon them because they are questioned by the Vietcong and will not give up military secrets. The Vietnam War started in 1954 and ended on April 30, 1975 totaling over twenty years. Each book has its idea of the incidents that happened and in “Defiance” there are several stories of a gang eleven American soldiers that was known famously as the Alcatraz Eleven. This essay will talk about the different accounts the American men endured, the two very different writing styles of each of the authors and the main themes we can see in each book.

During the Vietnam War, United States involvement was for personal reasons and fear of communism. Neither the United States or the Soviet Union should have been involved. The War was just used as a cover up for the actual silent, passive aggressive war between the United States and the Soviet. The Vietnam war was started by the North “Viet Cong” and their desire to unify Vietnam under communist rule. The South was against communism, making tensions grow until eventually, a war broke out on November 1, 1955. Five years later in the 1960s, the war was escalated with the involvement of foreign countries. While the North was supported by its communist allies such as China and the Soviet Union. The South was supported by the United States of America. The Americans wanted to halt or prolong the spread of communism. The “domino theory” compelled the U.S. to get involved as soon as possible because if not, the rest of Asia would fall to communism like “dominoes”. The U.S. involvement only started with Eisenhower administration when Vietnam split in half. This action of the United States was only for their own well being and their main goal was not for the good of Vietnam. During this time period the Vietnamese had just united and established the state of Vietnam. The war ended up lasting 9 years with long periods of bitter guerrilla warfare in the rugged jungles of Vietnam which would eventually result in the victory of the North and longed unification of Vietnam

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.

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.

Pride is the best way to describe the feeling and anxiety of us soldiers: we feel confident that our cause is worth fighting for. The Valley Forge army was supported and cared for by the Congress men which made some soldiers stay. Many of the soldiers were ill, but still had the perseverance to keep fighting. Valley Forge soldiers battled through difficulties of war. We know that life at Valley Forge was rough, but it did not change the fact that this war is worth fighting for. I have decided to re-enlist for three reasons which are: I am fighting for freedom, some soldiers were happy, and the soldiers were motivated to keep fighting.

Already physically and emotionally defeated, they can’t seem to pick up their lives where they left off. Even in instances of supportive partners, the inevitable horrors of the war haunt them in sleep or come back to them in daydreaming. They all came back with multiple disorders, PTSD with the common symptoms. "The war was over and there was no place in particular to go" (131).

It doesn't just stop at physically injuries, many were also affected by mental disorders.. Over 10 thousand people was affected with some kind of mental disorder during vietnam, with one of the most common ones being PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder). PTSD affects the way people experience life after experiencing dramatic events, like war. It affects people differently, and our triggered by different things. Loud noises, flashing lights, are just a couple examples of things that can trigger people that have

Soldiers lost their innocence the moment they stepped onto the battlefield. They become so numb to the horrors of the war, which no longer feel a sense of