Duty, Honor, Country
“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong… No Viet Cong ever called me nigger” was
popularized by Muhammad Ali when he refused to join the American troops in fighting the Vietnam War.
Critics questioned how he easily said “No.” What does this say about his honor and duty for the country?
Although he had different beliefs from other people, as many as 500,000 American troops were deployed
to aid the South Vietnamese government against the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern
allies, the Viet Cong. The military draft increased and many protested against the war. Despite the amount
of ground troops, the United States failed to prevent a communist takeover in South Vietnam.
The U.S. involvement in the war was not due to the desire of winning the conflict. President John
F. Kennedy feared for that a communist victory would prompt communist movements throughout
Southeast Asia which would alter the Cold War balance of power. This so called “Domino Theory”
described that the fall of North Vietnam to communism would trigger all of Southeast Asia to follow and
react the same way. After Kennedy was assassinated, President Lyndon Johnson gained congressional
support for an unlimited U.S. military deployment. As the war in Vietnam worsened in 1966, the U.S.
drafted troops into the conflict. These men and women who accepted fought with honor as they
accomplished a difficult task that was given to them immediately. “Duty, honor, and country” is the motto
of the U.S. Military Academy and many of the Vietnam veterans exemplify these values.
Duty is defined as a responsibility, a moral or legal obligation. As Americans, we are obligated to
serve our country in the time of need. The U.S. was not...
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...ck it
out until the end. We can apply this lesson to our future soldiers so that they continue to have high morale
and continue to feel comfortable when completing the tasks that they are assigned to do. I am inspired by
the Vietnam generation to venture out and accomplish something that not everyone achieves.
Works Cited
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war, "I never figured out what you guys who got me into all that trouble were saying." In
(Press conference, April 7, 1954) President Eisenhower would start laying out his first major defense of the domino theory. President Eisenhower was referring to the battle between French forces and the Vietminh (the communist led forces of North Vietnam), and which he began explaining how economically and geographically important Vietnam was to the United States and Asia. This first step is the first step towards preventing what he called the “falling domino” principle. President Eisenhower went on to explain that if South Vietnam falls to communism, then Laos would be next; and after Laos then Thailand and straight to Burma and that would lead communists to India, at the time very strong and important ally of the United States. Even Japan, President Eisenhower warned, could be in danger of toppling, another domino in that row of
...ritten about Brown. It was entitled, "John Brown's Body". Union soldiers would chant and sing this song as they marched. After the worst defeats they would use it to cheer themselves up.
The Vietnam War led to what is currently the largest anti-war movement in American history (Skarda 4; Dunn). With over 500,000 participants, the protesters in the fall of 1969 all marched on Washington to show their opposition to the war (Skarda 4; Herbers). Protests got so vast and expansive that the FBI got involved (Miller). The FBI went as far as forging a letter to the newspaper as a “parent” who complained of “immoral character” (Miller). This incited many prestigious and well known people to step in and voice their anti-war statements and opinions, such as the speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” by Martin Luther King Jr (King Jr). In this speech it's clear Martin Luther King Jr. did not support the war, as he called it immoral and said that it only leads to a growth in hatred (King Jr).
The Vietnam War (1965-1975)was fought between the North and South Vietnam. The North was called Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. On August 2nd, 1964 the USS Maddox was on a secret intelligent mission on the North Vietnamese coast where in the Gulf on Tonkin they were attacked by torpedo boats. The USS Turner Joy was attacked in the same area two days later. Due to the second attack Congress declared the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which led to air strikes.In 1959 there were 5,000 guerilla fighters and in 1964 the numbers jumped to 100,000. At Pleiku on March, 1965 U.S Marine barracks were attacked causing the three stage escalation bombing of North Vietnam to begin. The 3 year lasting bombing was used to force North Vietnam to stop supporting the "National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam" by destroying their industrial infrastructure and Vietnam's air defenses. Unfortunately this did not stop the North's support for the NLF. The U.S. Air Force bases were constantly being attacked so the U.S. on March 8, 1965 the 3,500 U.S. Marines was deployed to South Vietnam. At this point in time, the U.S. public supported the dispatch because the Vietnam War had been portrayed to the American people as a war against the spread of Communism. Johnson was president at the time and he kept adding more and more troops as the war went on. As the draft quotas increased, the American public protests started. When Nixon came into presidency his policy towards the Vietnam War was "peace with honor" in other words he wanted to widen the war. After more bombing and fighting, on January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords was signed, restoring peace in Vietnam and U.S. forces pulled out. Nixon stopped all American attacks on Vietnam. The condensed summary of the Vietnam War is to see what presidents were involved in this war (Johnson, and Nixon) and what foreign policies were taken towards Vietnam mostly before the protests began.
Paul Potter’s speech took place on April 17, 1965 although 20 years after the war began in 1945, it was time to take a challenge and overcome the system. It had involved the Americans, the hippies, South Vietnam, and the American troops fighting in the Vietnam War. The biggest movement in...
America and the Gulf of Tonkin: Before the US sent combat troops in 1965, they had been supplying thousands upon thousands of military advisors, such as the Green Berets, to help train the South Vietnamese. Speaking of the Green Berets, they are forever immortalized, or vilified by many, in the song The Ballad of the Green Berets. The song, written by a former Green Beret, was received quite differently depending on who was listening. To some it was a patriotic march. To many others it was an over glorification of a death that didn’t have to happen.
From the year 1955 when the United States vowed to help support the South Vietnamese fight off the Northern communist, a total of about 60,000 soldiers dead and 300,000 wounded. The soldiers who offered their lives were on average the age of 23 meaning many gave up education and a family to fight for the lives in the bloody massacre we call the Vietnam War. At the beginning the United States only gave minor assistance to South Vietnam, but as the years continued and the Northern Communist began crippling the South, the United States offered more military aid. In 1961 after President John F. Kennedy sent a group of officials to assess the progress of preventing the spread of communism. It became evident that more military support was needed. “Working under the "domino theory," which held that if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, many would follow, Kennedy increased U.S. aid, though he stopped short of committing to a large-scale military intervention”(History 1). After a group of generals over threw Ngo Dinh Diem the president of the government of the public of Vietnam the South Vietnam government become very unstable. Three weeks later President John F. Kennedy was assassinated befo...
The French were forced out of Vietnam and Vietnam was divided between communists and anti-communists. The communist regime controlled North Vietnam. Those that supported the French and were against communism controlled South Vietnam. Then trained Communist supporters from the North, the Vietcong, started coming to the South. America decided that they wanted to stop the spread of communism by stopping communism in Vietnam. The United States believed in the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory is the theory that communism will continue to spread around the world unless it is stopped. America sent soldiers over to Vietnam to help the South fight against the North. Then American ships were supposedly attacked of the coast of Vietnam. This is when the United States officially entered the war.
Duty is a word defined in several ways by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It is used to denote “a moral or legal obligation; the service required under specified conditions; and obligatory tasks, service, or functions that arise from one’s position”. It is a word used to speak of the performance of obligations to others in some fashion. In the poems, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden; “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen; and “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, duty to family, to a nation, and to ancestors will be discussed and its effects on the characters in the poems.
“In July 1965, Lyndon Johnson chose to Americanize the war in Vietnam.” Although Johnson chose to enter America into the war, there were events previous that caused America to enter and take over the war. The South Vietnamese were losing the war against Communism – giving Johnson all the more reason to enter the war, and allowing strong American forces to help stop communism. There were other contributing factors leading up to the entrance of the war; America helped assist the French in the war, Johnson’s politics, the Tonkin Gulf Incident, and the 1954 Geneva Conference. President Johnson stated, “For 10 years three American Presidents-President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and your present President--and the American people have been actively concerned with threats to the peace and security of the peoples of southeast Asia from the Communist government of North Viet-Nam.”
At the time of the songs release the Vietnam War was in full swing, and became popular to the “silent majority”. The
The Vietnam War is one of the most controversial issues in American history. It is no secret that the American public was not in favor of this war, which is why the government’s decision to keep the US involved for over ten years created such a disconnect between America’s people and their government. In the third verse the Temptations sing, “People all over the world are shouting 'End the war.'” The Temptations bravely attack the government, addressing their continuation of a war no one wants. Although The Temptations avoid explicitly naming the war, or the government as the guilty party, it is evident that this is a criticism, or at least an acknowledgement of a predicament America found itself in.
Willbanks, James. "Vietnam War: United States (Opponent Overview)." United States at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2010. .
The plan of the Americans backfired when South Vietnam preferred a united communist Vietnam over a colonialist driven