Where Trouble Comes Vietnam War, one of the most controversial war of all time, it is best known as the American War, a war between France who had claimed Vietnam as their territory against the communist forces Viet Minh. The year of 1947 when the Truman Doctrine was passed, to send United State trooped across the globe to oppose any communist force. Also countries gathered in Geneva to issue a peace agreement among French-Indochina and Korea. The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th Parallel. The war broke out as the Vietcong attacked the Diem (South Vietnam’s President) government, killing thousands of people, which caught the attention of U.S. to send troops to aid South Vietnam. Thus began the production of many movies about the Vietnam War. The goals of Hollywood films are entertaining people and making money, There are times where they focus on entertaining people more than portraying the reality of war. Many Hollywood movie directors distort the truth of historical events such as the Vietnam war in order to profit and appeal to the audience emotionally as well as influence the viewers to be patriotic. As can be seen in the film “The Green Berets”(1968) is an example of what a distorted Hollywood film about what the Vietnam War looks like, from depicting Vietnam in terms of cowboys and Indians, fantasy heroic actions, and praising the American soldiers as heroes to glorify the war. Wayne as a “conservative patriot” (Davidson+Lytle) stated that he
During 1946 to 1991, an era enveloping the Cold War, America was waging war against communism, willing to take drastic measures in an attempt to contain this ideology from spreading to every corner of the world. Vietnam was an example of a country under the rule of a communist government. Communism began to seize Vietnam when war broke out in 1945, after Vietnam declared its independence from France. By 1950, the country was divided by the 17th parallel; North Vietnam was lead by a communist government, while the South lived as a republic. The Geneva Accords, outlined by eight countries, were intended to allow France to withdraw peacefully after almost a decade of fighting. However, the United States refused to sign the document, in fear of “a communist
The Vietnam War was perhaps one of the most controversial and disputed wars in American history. Initially sparked by a communist uprising in northern Vietnam, the war quickly became a scramble for the containment of communism by America and other anti-communist nations. After the communists in North Vietnam defeated the French and relinquished their control over the country, a now independent Vietnam split into two opposing sides, with South Vietnam fighting alongside numerous anti-communist nations in a struggle to prevent the spread of communism. During what seemed to be the final stages of the war, efforts were made to restore peace and temporarily appease North and South Vietnam until some more solid decisions could be made about the fate of the country. These efforts included the Geneva Accords, which were later thwarted, and the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.
On 15 January, Porter continued to be in position to provide their most massive bombardment yet in preparation for the attack. At noon, 1600 sailors and 400 marines executed the ground assault along the beach about a mile and a half north of the fort. By 1500 the marines’ new position was now unable to effectively provide cover for the ensuing assault and failed to keep the Confederate riflemen off the fort’s parapet. As 1500 passed, the sailors quickly became restless for the army’s attack signal. Not waiting for visual confirmation of the army’s attack as directed, 1600 sailors ran across the open beach, and the naval attack very quickly became a rout. The sailors with only their pistols and cutlasses were no match for the Confederate riflemen, canister, and grape. After only 20 minutes the assault was repulsed, with the men retreating in droves, leaving over three hundred dead or wounded sailors and marines. Many of the wounded were left to drown in the rising tide. This was not the outcome Admiral Porter’s had envisioned.
Confederates enter the war with a belief that would also sustain them during war years and ultimately shape the south after the war, a durable belief in their invincibility. Even after major turning points of the war, diehard Rebels continued to express a resilient belief in their invincibility. They were unconquerable and they truly stuck it about because they expected to win. Their ethos; beliefs of being highly favored children of God, attitudes of invincibility (homegrown and those spread through propaganda), patriotism, masculinity, and veteran comradery - on many different levels help to shape the war and the New South.
While reading history, we typically see that wars were typically fought with soldiers in close- order formations with a musket that would be fired in unison on command. Everything changed after the American Civil War, a conflict to determine the fate of slaves in the Union, erupted. Today many historians consider the Civil War as the first modern war because it depended on: heavy industry, fast communication and transportation. But this time all of these new technologies were used to its full potential. As a result new weapon technology was mass produced which inflicted heavy losses on both the Union and the Confederate sides and resulted in
The armies of the United States of America varied greatly from the beginning of America 's independence in 1775 to the end of the War of 1812 in 1815. Different presidents holding office during this period brought different political views towards managing the army. These views affected the size and capability of the army in war and peace, with varying effectiveness. Effective in this case refers to the ability of the army to perform tasks given to them by the government. Opinions differing from the actions performed by the government provide insight into alternative ideas for the military, which had varying degrees of viability.
Fighting in Vietnam started well before the actual “Vietnam War”. The Vietnamese people had been under French rule for several decades until Japan invaded in 1940. In 1941, when Ho Chi Minh came back from his travels there were two foreign powers occupying the Vietnam territory, the French and Japanese. Ho Chi Minh established the Viet Minh in hopes to rid Vietnam of these two powers. On September 2, 1945 the Viet Minh established the Democratic Republic of China after getting support in northern Vietnam. This action spawned the French to fight back to keep control of their colony. Ho Chi Minh wanted support from the United States against the French; he went as far as to supply the United States with information about the Japanese during WWII. The United States kept with their Cold War foreign policy of containment as to prevent the spread of Communism, fearing the “Domino Theory” that said “if one country in Asia fell to Communism then surrounding countries would soon fall”.
Tensions grew between the North and the South causing what is known as the worse war tragedies of all time. The American Civil War was the bloodiest war in our history of the United States killing over 620,000 American soldieries. Many African Americans around 1861-1865 lost a family member or someone close to them. This war effected both sides of the nation, for both the North and the South. African Americans also were killed in this war being that they fought in it too. Slaves, southern people and northern people were effected mentally and physically after this war. The southern economy became a one crop economy because as the cotton gin was invented factories depended on the cotton during slavery. On the other hand, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture by ++purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. This disagreement between the North and the South made a major difference in the economy.
The date is July 6, 1944. A young Solider in his early 20’s armed with a pair of wire cutters, a rifle, and explosives makes his way through Omaha Beach, through countless obstacles (Kennedy, 2012). This young Solider has a very important job. Behind him are thousands of infantrymen, desperately fighting their way up a hill; it is up to him to clear the way. However, In front of him are rows of mines, hedgehogs, wire obstacles, and barricades. He must complete these tasks all while receiving heavy fire. You see he is no ordinary Soldier, he is a Combat Engineer, and what he does here today will change the tides of the war forever (Kennedy, 2012). This engineer is well trained and comes from a long line of warriors who have paved the way for him, laying down the groundwork for what he must accomplish here today.
This paper will be discussing the two movies The Green Berets (1968) and Apocalypse Now (1978), and argue how The Green Berets is a propagandist pro-war film depicting the unrealities of the Vietnam War while Apocalypse Now is an ambiguous anti-war film that shows the social and political absurdities of the Vietnam War.
Currently, the United States military is drawing down from thirteen years of sustained combat operations in two different countries: Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Throughout this period of time, millions of veterans, as well as support personnel, have been deeply influenced by the dramatic effects of modern warfare. These individuals have knowingly and willingly sacrificed a tremendous amount – in thousands of cases, their lives. For those that do return, a vast number face difficulty regarding their mental health; however, this is not solely due to exposure to combat. As these individuals return home from the combat theater and separate from active duty military service, they often find
The British has welcomed the American entrance into the European front. Along with troops, the United States was backed by the american war machine, what almost seemed like an endless supply of industry, manufacturing, and the capital for both. This represented the power shift to the other side of the Atlantic. Britain’s financial resources were in a desperate situation, and their unquestionable international supremacy was going along with it. Going into the end of 1941, XXX reflected on this shift on the horizon. “‘Our War’ had become the world war, in which we were a tremendously important unit, but no longer in control of the decisions.”
All through the 1960s and 1970s Americans got to be uneasy not just about the pained position of the United States in world undertakings, additionally about the issue created at home by remote ensnarement’s. Vietnam, either on account of the singing war experience itself or in view of the lessons Americans later drew from the experience, radically modified society amid the1960s and 1970s. The confidence in the privilege to impact the inside issues of different nations prompted fiasco in Southeast Asia. This fiasco would everlastingly be known as the longest war in the country 's history (kept going 25 years), in which the world 's most capable military (United States) spent itself in a purposeless endeavor to quell a laborer individuals.
“I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it” - George McGovern. There are numerous controversial topics dispersed among the subject of American history due to the amount of unethical decisions that have been made in order to improve the lives of the people or keep America out of the clutches of war. Throughout American history, historians have debated the ethical impact that the Vietnam war had on the United States. Prior to the war, the Geneva Accords divided the Vietnamese into two sides long the 17th parallel line where the North was predominantly communist and the South was fairly democratic. The split between the two sides inevitably led the United States to intervene
The Vietnam War was the longest war in the history of the United States it lasted from 1959-1975. Billions of dollars was spent trying to win and unwinnable war. Countless of lives were lost and America failed to achieve its objective. The origins of the war stem from the Indochina wars that occurred in the late 40s and early 50s. After many years of colonial war, the Viet Minh a communist group led by Ho Chi Minh sought independence for Vietnam. The French were not reluctant to let go of their crowning jewel without a fight. The French were aided militarily by the Unites States who sought the membership of France to the NATO and were willingly to provide as much aid to ensure that they won the war and Vietnam did not fall to communism. This led to an eight year war which culminated with the defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. A cease fire was issued and peace agreements known as the Geneva Accords where drawn during the 1954 Geneva Conference. The agreement issued a temporary division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel which created a Communist North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh and a democratic South Vietnam led by prime minister Ngo Dinh Diem. Vietnam was supposed to unify after the nationwide election of 1956 which Diem refuse to acknowledge.