Antiwar

859 Words2 Pages

In the novel, Passing Time, Ehrhart experiences change. For instance, Ehrhart begins to realize that the war was a huge mistake on the government’s behalf. Ehrhart believed that the government shouldn’t have taken part in the Vietnamese war due to the innocent deaths that developed over the years. Many of the soldiers, including Ehrhart, were traumatized by the killings during the war. Ehrhart often questions the events that take place during the war. For example, when Ehrhart witnessed innocent civilians being killed from both Korea and America. In war, Ehrhart, was taking part in some of the killings because of a “kill first and ask questions later” mentality. Reflecting on that mentality is what lead Ehrhart towards the notion that the war was pointless, which made Ehrhart join the anti-war movement. People were dying for no reason and the antiwar movement caused people in America to die as well. During the 1960s-1970s people such as Ehrhart had many rebellious views about the war. The anti-war movement was a war within its self because America was divided in half by civilians who were for and against the war, which caused a lot of violent events to emerge. The American-Vietnamese war proved to be a time of great conflict and disruption for the American people due to the violence of the war and the anti-war movement. Ehrhart’s involvement in the anti-war movement played a major role in other Americans lives because, as a spokesperson for the anti-war movement, Ehrhart mentioned how everyone didn’t agree with the antiwar protest. The anti-war protest became violent because older veterans from the war or rednecks would refer to Ehrhart as a coward, fraud, or sell out because Ehrhart was a veteran who no longer viewe... ... middle of paper ... ... problems… perhaps even suicidal feelings (Goodwin 1).” Soldiers were traumatized by the war and the trauma caused many soldiers such as Ehrhart to stress for change. In regards to the role of the antiwar movement was depicted in ways to exemplify how it effected the people in Vietnam and America. In both countries citizens suffered because of the war. The war had traumatic effects on both countries. The bombing of North Vietnam was devastating for the vietnamese. Americans were also effected because citizens were dying in Vietnam and citizens were dying in America due to some of the anti-war protests. Ehrhart described the horrific scenery that he witnessed during the war and during the anti-war protest in Washington D.C. The effects of the war caused people in both Vietnam and America to rebel and do things that resulted in unnecessary civilian casualties.

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