The Vietnam War was a controversial time for the United States. We were a divided country, especially at the beginning. The Truman Doctrine and containment were the two largest reasons America decided to go to vietnam. We wanted to help other countries and to stop the spread of communism. The biggest problem at home was the reaction to the war in America, people went as far as to separate themselves into “hawks” and “doves” or people for the war and people against the war. The Vietnam war was the first major war to receive this amount of backlash from American citizens and because of this backlash, men who were drafted made up one third of the military at the time. The draft was controversial because it was mostly poor men from working class …show more content…
For most of the war, the man who was calling most of the shots for America was President Lyndon B. Johnson and for Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh. In one of the first years of the war, 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave American congressional approval to escalate the war on North Vietnam and the Viet-Cong, backed by Robert McNamara, after American and North Vietnamese ships exchanged fire. Four years later in 1968, arguably the most important year of the war, the Tet offensive began. This was a major turning point in the war because it was launched on a holiday and was the largest escalation of the Vietnam war. In this year, the Flexible Response Policy was created which in turn created the green berets as a way to strengthen and modernize American forces. During 1968, General William Westmoreland presented the idea for a War of Attrition leading to America’s withdrawal from Vietnam. This war becomes the first war that America has participated in and has not won, leading to the veterans coming home to be treated terribly. They were spit on, called murderers, most became homeless, and more veterans committed suicide than were killed in the war itself. This has shaped how we treat our veterans today, by welcoming them home and helping them to integrate back into
..., the draft ended and the U.S. converted to an All-Volunteer military. Many people were not in high spirits about the Vietnam War, and thought we should not be involved in it. Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, laments “[w]e are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves” (Vietnam-Facts.info). There is a popular picture of a draft protests sign displaying the words “hell no, we won’t go.” I do believe Americans should have a right to choose to go to war or not. Many young men lost their life fighting a battle they didn’t even have faith in. Many soldiers endured personal hardships, loss of income, and leaving family behind. Most of drafted soldiers complied with the draft and served; however, many middle to high-class young men found ways to avoid combat.
The Vietnam conflict has been known for being the most unpopular war in the history of the United States. The war of 1812, the Mexican war and the Korean conflict of the early 1950's were also opposed by large groups of the American people, but none of them generated the emotional anxiety and utter hatred that spawned Vietnam. The Vietnam war caused people to ask the question of sending our young people to die in places where they were particular wanted and for people who did not seem especial grateful.
The Vietnam War was the most publicized war during its era; moreover, this was the most unpopular war to hit the United States. All over the country riots began to rise, anti-war movement spread all over the states begging to stop the war and chaos overseas. This truly was a failure on the political side of things. For the public, all they saw was a failed attempt in a far away country. Events such as the Tet Offensive where the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong established an all out attack on key locations around Vietnam, and although the Viet Cong was virtually wiped out, this still had a large affect psychologically on the troops as well as the populist back in the United States.
The Vietnam War took place in between 1947- 1975. It consisted of North Vietnam trying to make South Vietnam a communism government. The United States later joined this conflict because of the stress North Vietnam was putting to South Vietnam to become a government that America did not want. The main reason why America joined was because of a theory called the Domino Effect. America and Russia were going through what has been dubbed the Cold War. The Domino Effect is the theory that communism will spread form one country to another. United states does not want this because our government is a democracy and communism opposes everything we stand for. America fearing communism was growing, stepped into Vietnam with America’s interest in mind, instead of Vietnam’s. There are several reason why American should have not gotten involved with this war. The most important reason was that America government officials made to much of a big deal about communism. This might sound cynical, but America to a certain degree did over react. Let it be said that it is much easier to say this after the fact. By looking back at McCarthyism, we can see the silliness of this fear. There is a serious side though. Thousands of people dies for a government that has no impact of their daily life. What regime Vietnam was going to change over to had no effect on the every day cycle of the United States. So truly, one can say, this can not one thing to do with America, its government and people.
Engaging in the war in Vietnam brought a whole different set of "American Views" to the topic of war. This time the country did not support the war like we've seen in the past. Mostly by young people, the war effort was criticized and Americans staged massive protests. The Vietnam War's controversy spurred a great many sources of protest, against our government's use of power, how far we could stretch the rights of free expression, and primarily against the violence of the war itself.
If people do not believe in what they are fighting for and are drafted into a war they do not want to fight, people will not fight with honor for their country. Being drafted into a war someone does not want to fight causes him or her to fight that war to escape with their life, not to earn a victory for their country. The United States intervened into Vietnam to try and stop the spread of communism into South Vietnam (HISTORY.com,. "Vietnam War History). They declared we needed a draft to help supply troops to fuel the war against communism, but in the end the result was the same. The Draft was an unneeded part of the Vietnam War. If the draft would have never been introduced less protestors to the war would have risen and more volunteers would have came forward and sent to Vietnam. When American troops were beginning to be withdrawn from Vietnam, it was not because of a lack of troops, but from a lack of support (Walpole, Andy.). The lack of support and the idea of and unwinnable war was the cause of a slow end to the terrible war efforts. The American ideals changed from the start to the finish of the war, hating the soldiers when they came back. The last troops did not return home from Vietnam until 1973(Walpole, Andy.). This vast difference in time between the first troops to leave and the last troops to leave was the cause of much resentment among the
The Vietnam War lasted from the winter of 1956 to the spring of 1975. The Vietnam War was a domesticated civil war between the communist, North Vietnam, and the democratic, South Vietnam. The North was supported by the Chinese communist, and the leader Ho Chi Minh. The Vietnam War introduced the United States to the Vietcong and Guerrilla warfare. During this time, the United States faced our own battles at home between two social groups called the Doves and the Hawks. This war was very divisive. The Doves protested and Hawks shunned them. Young men without money were being drafted while others went to college, got a medical note, or fled the country. Tensions were already high in the United States when Congress passed Public Law 88- 408, also known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
World War II was one of the most important wars in history. It featured multiple countries at constant conflict with each other. There were several battles that occurred in this 12 year long war. An example of two of the battles would be the Battle of Britain in the European theater of war, and the Attack on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific theater of war. Only one of these wars saw victory, while the other caused great devastation to the American military.
If America decided to let Vietnam be rather than intervening and going to war, Vietnamese men and women would not have experienced the tragedies that they experienced and America would not have such a defined division. This war caused many arguments and there were a variety of protests all around the country in which there were a number of arrests and minor injuries. All of this commotion could have been avoided. However, the United States ended up going to war and thus, as Senator Eugene McCarthy pointed out in 1967; Vietnam became a military, political, and moral problem (Handout page 17).
In the mid 1960’s the United States involvement in Vietnam stirred controversy amongst the Americans and politicians. Across the U.S., the american public became increasingly more opposed to the war. Throughout the
The Vietnam War created one of the most dividing periods of American history. Many saw the war as an unnecessary conflict that cost dearly in both money and lives. The United States’ involvement in the war was also considered to be unjustified. Despite the many difficulties faced during the controversial time, many activists raised issues in opposition to the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War because of its unjust nature with acts such as the high casualty rates, scorched earth policies, and the lack of an immediate threat.
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. Sadly, this is not what happened. The Viet Cong (VC) had far better tactics than the US. The VC was told to 'nibble at the enemy' so that he could 'neither eat or sleep'. This worked very well. Another demoralizing tactic the VC used was their landmines; they were designed to blow the limbs off the soldiers without killing them. This tied up hospital beds and meant the soldiers had to carry the wounded back to the base.
i. Difficulties faced by soldiers due to the nature of fighting in the Vietnam War - Personnel had difficulties with transportation supplied with adapted vehicles back seat faced rear to provide additional fire power (Source A) – It appears as if the government didn't worry enough to supply men with safe and capable equipment - Threat of traps led to fear as vehicles had to be parked on street at night (Source A) o Check for traps each morning became a daily ritual particularly in fuel tanks (Source A) o A request for a locking fuel cap was denied because weren’t entitled to one” (Source A) • What circumstances would have needed to arise for them to be entitled to one? The Offensive full guard was set up (24hrs a day), personnel got no sleep and were constantly on alert (Source A) – How significant would this have been in the personnel’s mental frame of mind?
American citizens during the Vietnam War generally equally disapproved and approved of it; many protesting their dissent, and going out of their way to obtain deferments in order to avoid conscription, while many others voiced pro-war statements (Angrist 584-95). Deferments are a way to postpone your chance of conscription, which is being drafted into the military (Angrist 584-95). Although some were indeed anti-war, there was a rather equal or larger amount who voiced supportive opinions for the war, but as the war proceeded this changed (Gettleman). Such diversified opinions were the direct cause for the continuation of the war (Tomes). Peaceful protesters and radicals came into the spotlight as the war progressed, as more and more people voiced disapproving and anti-war statements towards the war (DeBenedetti 321-86).
The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States approached military action and helped establish the role of the United States within the new world order.