Vietnam Propaganda; Planting a Seed in the Mind of American Soldiers

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.

Vietnam was an entirely new type of war for the United States. It still remains morally and historically problematic in today’s society. The Vietnam War had a tremendous impact on American society and culture, primarily because it was the first war to be televised. The American press played a significant

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.

Shorting after the United States became involve in the Vietnam Conflict, many Americans began to realize the reasons behind the U.S. entering the Vietnam Conflict was based on falsified facts. One such falsification is the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Many America’s begin to form Antiwar organization such as The Vietnam Day Committee and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which severed to education the population on the Vietnam Conflict and the lie that lead to the U.S. involvement in conflict. In the Vietnam Day Committee’s pamphlet, I found it disturbing and unjustified that they would make a comment such as, “A growing number of GIs have already refused to fight in Vietnam and have been court-martialed. They have shown great courage.” The last

The Vietnam War, once called “the most disastrous of all America’s undertakings over the whole 200 years of history” by George Kennan (Brinkley, p. 773) was a war where the United States entered to support South Vietnam. The goal was to help South Vietnam maintain an anticommunist government. What began as providing aid, turned into intervention, and then full-fledged involvement. In the beginning, few Americans protested America’s involvement in the war, however this drastically changed as time continued. Peace

Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, portrays stories of the Vietnam War. Though not one hundred percent accurate, the stories portray important historical events. The Things They Carried recovers Vietnam War history and portrays situations the American soldiers faced. The United States government represents a political power effect during the Vietnam War. The U. S. enters the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. The U.S. government felt if communism spreads to South Vietnam, then it will spread elsewhere. Many Americans disapproved of their country’s involvement. Men traveled across the border to avoid the draft. The powerful United States government made the decision to enter the war, despite many

America is a country which always told the citizens of their country that they will do anything to save the citizens of any country; they had the belief in spreading freedom and democracy internationally. Meaning that when they intervened the situation in Vietnam, they were actually stopping the elections, because it would cause too much harm to the people of Vietnam, but instead the United States were not protecting the Vietnamese people, rather they were harming them. Not only did the U.S. prevent the Vietnamese from taking part in elections, but during the course of the war, civilian fatalities were treated as horribly. Because the North-Vietnamese forces were peasants, just like the civilians, they were very difficult to tell apart. There are recorded cases of entire villages of being examined because of suspicion of the communist from North Vietnam. America’s commitment of saving citizens was not as pure as it seemed, they caused a lot

The years precluding the Vietnam war, there was a war taking place in Vietnam. It was known as the Indochina War, where the Vietnamese waged war against the colonial rule of France. The French were defeated in the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Following this defeat, there was a peace conference in Geneva, which resulted in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to receive their independence. The Geneva Accords officially divided Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh and his communist forces led the North. A French backed emperor led the south until elections in 1956. These elections were supposed to reunify Vietnam.

In terms of the reasons for America to join the fight in Vietnam the movement was “right but for the wrong reasons.” (p.346) “The war’s sources had nothing to do with the sinister face of corporate capitalism, but the war was a mistake.” They had been a constant argument that “...the anti war movement saved American lives but did not sacrifice Asians because the war was unwinnable.” (p.346) And that whatever was going to happen would have taken place regardless.

The Geneva Accords that took place in 1954 put an end to the First Indochina War and the beginning of two Vietnamese territories separated by a line of demarcation at 17th parallel: The Communist North or Democratic Republic of Vietnam with its capital in Hanoi and

Following the Geneva Accords in 1954 Vietnam split into two different countries, the North and South, with two different rulers, Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem. Ho Chi Minh consolidated his power up North after the Vietminh, the revolutionary group defeated the French in the first Indochina War. Diem was the South nationalist leader and had been elected by the French with much US support for he was

The turning point in history for Vietnam all began in the year 1954 during the Geneva Conference, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland. The Geneva Accords both put an end to the Indochina War and began the divide of the Vietnam territory. The Geneva Accord was an obligatory agreement stating Vietnam was to be separated into two distinct territories divided by a line of segregation at the 17th parallel. Vietnam was now separated into North and South Vietnam, the communist north and the anti-communist south. Ho Chi Minh controlled North Vietnam, better known as the Democrat Republic of Vietnam, with its capital in Hanoi. Whereas in South Vietnam, better known as the Republic of Vietnam with it’s capital in Saigon, the south Vietnamese was

The turning point in history for Vietnam all began in Geneva, Switzerland during the year 1954 in the Geneva Conference. The Geneva Accords both put an end to the Indochina War and set in motion the divide of territory in Vietnam. The Geneva Accord was an obligatory agreement stating Vietnam was to be separated at the 17th parallel, a line of separation, into two distinct territories. Vietnam was now separated into North and South Vietnam, the communist north and the south, which was anti-communist. Ho Chi Minh controlled North Vietnam, better known as the Democrat Republic of Vietnam, with its capital in Hanoi. Whereas in South Vietnam, better known as the Republic of Vietnam with Saigon as its capital, Ngo Dihn Diem commanded the South

This began the conflict procedures involving the French and Viet Minh known as the First Indochina War. Fought mainly in northern Vietnam, this conflict ended when the French were defeated decisively at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. War was finally settled by the Geneva Accords of 1954, which temporarily divided country section in parallel with the 17 with Minh Nam in control in the north and the non-communist state to be formed in the South under the leadership of Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem. This division was to last until 1956, when national elections will be held to decide the future of the

Contrary to their ideological diversity, their goal setting was single, to stop the war in Vietnam. Their three main slogans were simple, “Peace in Vietnam,” “Bring Back Vietnam to the people in Vietnam” and