The War Of The Vietnam War

This logic led many to flee to Canada or simply resist the draft. Protesters felt that the United States should not be involved in another nation’s civil war especially a war that uses tactics such as saturation bombing, the killing of civilians, and the use of toxic chemicals. David Harris, a draft resister, wrote, “The war was an extraordinarily obvious violation of everything that I had been led to expect from the country I was a part of….when my generation’s war showed up it turned to out to be a propping up of petty dictators so they could keep a good portion of their population in servitude” (Handout page 9). Mass protests occurred all around America. The New York Times wrote about just one protest that had occurred, “A vast throng of Americans, predominantly youthful and constituting the largest mass march in the nation’s capital, demonstrated peaceably in the heart of the city today, demanding a rapid withdrawal of United States troops from Vietnam….There were a number of arrests and minor injuries, mostly the result of tear gas” (Handout page 10). These protesters understood what the war was really doing to America and how immoral our actions truly were, but many others were in support of the war, thus causing a division in the United States.

The political instability in Vietnam from 1950 to 1975 between the communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam during the Cold War era has led to the United States’ inevitable intervention in Vietnam. The main motivators for the United States’ incremental decision to intervene and commitment in Vietnam can be viewed as an accumulation of socio-political, political and economic catalysts. In recognition that there were many other factors that may have contributed to the U.S’s involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, this essay will largely focus on these three factors. As the cold war resonates, the American’s crusade was propelled by the fears of the domino theory and perception of Communist threat and expansion affected the

During the Vietnam War, approximately 200,000 young men and college age students avoided the draft by fleeing the country, outright ignoring the draft notices or started protests. The most famous protest took place in 1967 at Central Park in New York City. Approximately 500,000 war protesters of varying age and gender showed up and chanted “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” (Tindall 1353). This led to the anti-war protest movement of men burning their draft notices who were supposed to go to war. President Johnson implemented the draft during this time because the United States was in dire need of more troops due to the casualties and injuries suffered in Vietnam (Vietnam).

Because the first date drawn was September 14, all men born on this day between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six would be the first conscripted (“The Vietnam Lotteries” 1). Almost instantly, riots erupted all over the nation as people protested the draft, but their reasons for objection varied wildly from one person to the next. For some, it amounted to a matter of life and death; they apprehended combat due to very high risk that they would perish (Davidson 2). However, most people objected to the entire war itself on moral grounds and responded with rage at the mere thought of being forced to serve. Some cited the appalling war crimes and plain brutality committed by the Americans as justification for their opposition while others argued that the United States had no right to interfere with the private affairs of other countries (Maxwell 439). Whatever the reason, defiance to the draft developed in more methods than just riots and protests. Many men issued draft notices began to actively evade their call to action or circumvented it

The Vietnam War changed the culture of the United States. Many Americans viewed the Vietnam War as the most useless and ignoble fight the United States had ever entered. It was long, it was horrible, and there never seemed to be a good enough reason why America was involved. Although the majority of the United States support the war at its birth in 1965, it eventually gave rise to what could be described as the most wide-spread and outspoken anti-war sentiment in the history of the United States. Young men called draft-dodgers would avoid service by traveling north to Canada (Source B). Protest groups formed on university

The Vietnam War was, and still is a difficult topic to discuss, not because of the battle itself, but because of the unfamiliarity of the subject most present-day students have. Five years after World War II, the war for Vietnamese independency began, which is also when textbooks for some reason strayed away from world history and lingered toward United States history instead – the economic boom and "race war" is far more recognizable to modern day students and the fear of Communist tendencies assisted in altering the curriculum to avoid the problems outside of the United States. However, soldiers continued to fight on unfamiliar grounds during the time, many have lost their lives, and George Crumb’s composition Black Angels represents the true, raw emotion of what it felt like away from home. “In Black Angels, Crumb fulfilled the command to reinvent music, not by writing a piece that reflected on the war, but by making music as the embodiment of war and thus assume…mythic qualities” (Ho). Although the music can be audibly heard as a battle within itself, the titles of each number in the three-movement program can assist the surfacing discomfort of what “war” should bring.

This essay is about talking and analysing the Vietnam War. This civil war was between the Communist North and the Democratic South because of the fear of communism spreading to the South. Other Western countries also helped in this war because they too were afraid of communism spreading, and so they sent money and troops to aid South Vietnam. Some of these countries included America, Australia, and New Zealand. This war was one of the most divisive events in history and I am going to talk about why this is so.

In the United States, we learned about how we beat the British during the Revolutionary War, even before we were a country. How we jumped in during WWI to help bring it to an end. Also, how we raided the shores of Omaha to save Europe from Hitler, and drop nukes on Japan. We learned how we beat the Soviet Union so hard during the Cold War that they don’t even exist anymore. One war that America does not seem to talk about is the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was a proxy war during the Cold War, but it is always swept aside. The Vietnam War divided the U.S. as the war continued throughout the years. The U.S. shouldn’t have been involved in the Vietnam War because the Domino Theory was not correct.

Rita Ghatourey once said, “Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.” Sometimes bad decisions can lead to a broken finger nail or a scratch, while others can cause millions of deaths and psychological tolls. Throughout history, multitudinous countries and leaders have made deplorable decisions, causing lives to be lost. For example, during the Vietnam War, Presidents of the United States made many unethical decisions, which only further exacerbated the war. The war occurred from 1965 through 1968 in mostly Vietnam, but also in Laos and Cambodia. The war was fought between the communist North Vietnam and their communist allies and South Vietnam, supported by the US and a few other countries. The Viet

To this day, the Vietnam War remains as one of the most controversial subjects in modern American history. The main question that revolves around the Vietnam War, or any conflict that took place during the Cold War for that matter, was whether or not American efforts did actually help prevent the spread of Communism not just in Europe, but throughout the world. While other controversies around this time heavily revolved on whether or not the Americans were acting for the sake of others, or to fulfill their own intentions on preventing the spread of Communist rule on the other side of the world. This period in American history proved to be an interesting one given how you had men fighting abroad, yet at the same time you had your own set of

The American people were stationed in Vietnam because there was soon to be a communist takeover of the south. Being opposed on the ground by the Vietcong.

The years that the United States participated in the Vietnam war were some of the most

When the War first started the United States claimed that the reason behind the war was to contain communist aggression and expansion. The U.S. claimed that the war was caused by outside aggression from the communist North Vietnam and that South Vietnam’s independence was being threatened by the North. This was what the public was led to believe and what policy makers did believe. The United States was the defender of the world against communism. They were the knight in shining armor that would come in and save not only Vietnam but any country from the grasps of communism. It felt as if it was their duty to protect the world from such evil, at least that is what it felt like at the beginning of the war. So based on the readings and class lectures there was a difference in what United States officials were telling the American people and the reality of the Vietnam war, in order to hide the gruesome behavior towards the Vietnamese people, hide that the officials were wrong, conceal the actual progress in South Vietnam, and distract the people of the issues in their own nation.

The 7th of August 1964 saw the start of the Vietnam War where fatalities escalated as war arose. This once civil war since 1954 became an international Cold War as the US conducted military operations to the now, politically unstable Southeast Asia overrun by the Viet Cong. This turn in the civil war, saw one of the world’s most infamous events, The My Lai Massacre take place. December 1967, the 23rd Infantry Division’s fist battalion’s C Company, also known as Charlie Company arrives in South Vietnam. There they encountered 23 incidents of mines and booby traps resulting in 5 deaths followed by more deaths by Mid-March 1968. Morale was fading as anger and resentment rose amongst the remaining troops. In search of the Viet Congs 48th Battalion, C Company were sent to the village of Son My, specifically the hamlets of My Lai and My Khe in March 1968. The 16th March 1968 saw the first platoon’s Second lieutenant William L. Calley lead C Company into My Lai, where there were no findings of any VC. However it was believed that they were being hidden by the locals. As a result of this assumption, between 347-506 Vietnamese women, children, infants and elderly were killed as C Company carried out their gratuitous “search and destroy mission”. Unarmed civilians were killed on the spot, others were grouped, lined up in drainage ditches and executed. Some were clubbed, stabbed to death, tortured and some even had “C Company” carved into their chests. This

The Vietnam War was one of the most deadly wars in history, taking over three million lives during the 20-year war. It began in the mid 50’s, between Northern and Southern Vietnam. The United States joined the Vietnam War in 1965, and by 1969 there were about 500,000 U.S. soldiers involved with the war. The war began to slow down in ‘73 when President Nixon pulled the American troops, and the long hard war ended in 1975 after the Communists seized control.