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Social movements around vietnam war
Reactions of the public during the Vietnam war
Social movements of the Vietnam War
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The Anti-Vietnam War Movement in United States was a collection of unrelated groups all opposed to US involvement in the Vietnam War. It began in 1964 with nonviolent demonstrations and protests by college students, but later gained support from hippies, mothers, women’s rights, Black civil rights, the Chicano movement, and even military veterans. There were three main reasons Americans opposed the Vietnam War: the draft, use of caustic herbicides, and the war expenses. By 1975, the war and the federal lost almost all support from its people.
The Vietnam War began as a skirmish between North Vietnam—supported by China and the Soviet Union—and South Vietnam—supported by the United States. North Vietnam was brutally suppressing South Vietnam, trying to impose Communism upon unwilling citizens. The United States—who after World War II made it their duty to protect free peoples against dictatorships—made it a priority to protect South Vietnam from invasion, and supplied them with food and weapons. President Eisenhower hypothesized the Domino Theory, declaring that one Communist state would begin attacking adjacent countries and continue in a domino effect until world domination. Used as justification, the Domino Theory was irrational, because North Vietnam only intended to reunite the country under Communism. Full-scale fighting by the US began in 1964 based on the Anti-Communist hysteria that existed at the time. Disillusioned after two years, the majority of Americans participated in the anti-war movement.
Protesting first began in 1964 by college students, a group affected by the draft. President Kennedy reinstated the draft, but included Selective Service, a law prioritizing who would be drafted first. Single, unmarr...
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...uction toward military equipment rather than consumer goods. US currency lost value, and price inflation and interest rates increased, leading to the economic crisis of the 1970s. War costs were left to taxpayers, which was of course, unfavorable.
The Anti-Vietnam War Movement ended in 1975, the end of the Vietnam War, and a humiliating loss for the United States. The Vietnam War was the longest in US history, the most expensive during the Cold War era, and arguably, one of the least popular wars in America. In culmination with the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate Scandal, the American people had deepened suspicions and mistrust in the federal government. Since then, American’s have never had the same level of faith in the government, and fear that another war like Vietnam will happen—if it hasn’t already. As for the anti-war movement, it no longer exists.
James A. Baldwin once said, “The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose” (BrainyQuote.com). In the 1960s, “the man” was youth across the country. The Vietnam war was in full force, and students across the country were in an outrage. Society needed an excuse to rebel against the boring and safe way of life they were used to; Vietnam gave them the excuse they needed. Teenagers from different universities came together and formed various organizations that protested the Vietnam war for many reasons. These reasons included protesting weapons and different tactics used in the war, and the reason the U.S. entered the war in the first place. These get-togethers had such a monumental impact on their way of life that it was famously named the Anti-War Movement. When the Vietnam War ended, The United States did not have a real concrete reason why; there were a bunch of theories about why the war ended. Through negative media attention and rebellious youth culture, the Anti-War Movement made a monumental impact in the ending of the Vietnam War.
North Vietnam came under the control of the Vietnamese Communists who had opposed France and aimed for a unified Vietnam under Communist rule. Vietnamese who had collaborated with the French controlled the South. For this reason the United States became involved in Vietnam because it believed that if all of the country fell under a Communist government, Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia and further. This belief is known as the domino theory. The decision to enter Vietnam reflected Americas idea of its global role - the U.S. could not recoil from world leadership.
It consisted of North Vietnam trying to make South Vietnam a communist government. The United States later joined this conflict because of the stress North Vietnam was putting on 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 from one country to another.
The end of the Vietnam War was not the end of the issues that the war brought up within the United States. The 1970s became a period of violence and distrust of government. The Watergate Scandal was the peak of the speculation of government and ended in the impeachment of President Nixon. This mistrust has spilled into the current state of American society and politics, where the people constantly feel they are being cheated and lied to by government officials. In addition, there is a huge separation between those who are for or against government intervention in other countries. Public support for operations in the Middle East is divided, much like during the middle years of the Vietnam War. One can only speculate about whether the public and government will rally around one stance like Americans did during the Vietnam
Schreiber, E. M.. "Anti-War Demonstrations and American Public Opinion on the War in Vietnam." The British Journal of Sociology 27, no. 2 (1976): 225-236. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.rollins.edu:2048/stable/590029 (accessed March 4, 2014).
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.
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.
The taxpayers were upset because the cost of war was approximately $100,000,000,000 dollars and the American taxpayers had to pay for it. Students were against the war because of the African Americans. they were the next to be drafted. The students saw the Vietnam War as something they could fight against. They held peaceful Archer 10 demonstrations and protests at universities all across the country.
The first United States involvement in Vietnam began in the late 1940's, long before it escalated to include the United States Military. Because of the basic terms or the Truman Doctrine, the United States was drawn into the Vietnam conflict. The Truman Doctrine dealt with fears of Communism, the domino theory, and a feeling there was a need for containment. All of Vietnam was in danger of falling into the hands of Communism. The threat of Communism that was unfolding could end with the United States worst fears coming true, or a successful effort of containment and the spread of democracy.
There were a lot of movements during the 1960s like the Civil Rights movement or the Feminist movement. However the Anti-War Movement was the most popular one during the 1960s due to the lack of support towards the war. Protests across the U.S against the Vietnam War started small. Nevertheless, they became popular among young people as groups like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) started protesting in Washington, D.C. The organization of nonviolent protests was the best way to fight back the injustice made by the government for drafting people into a war that was totally unrelated to the country.
The reasons for the Vietnam War took place long before the war even began. For years, the Vietnamese had been under French colonial rule. But, when Communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh came back to Vietnam, he established a group called the Viet Minh, the goal of which was to remove all French occupation from Vietnam. So, the fighting started, and Ho Chi Minh tried to get the US to support them. But, being true to their policies of containment, the US started supporting France. The United States' thoughts about Communism's potential growth can be summed up in one basic idea: the Domino Theory. This theory stated that if one country in a region fell to Communism, the surrounding countries would soon follow. Because of this, the US committed to keeping the North Vietnamese contained once the French withdrew from Vietnam. But, the thing that really pushed the US into sending troops into Vietnam was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. On August 2nd and 4th, 1964, the North Vietnamese fired upon two US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Following this, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964, which gave the president authority to send military troops into Vietnam without declaring war. So, President Johnson sent troops into Vietnam, which had already erupted into civil war, to aid the South Vietnamese.
Guttmann, Allen. "Protest against the War in Vietnam." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 382.1 (1969): 56-63. Print.
As president, it was too difficult for Johnson to please two issues, social or military. Since Johnson tried to stay neutral and attempting to make both of them work, the United States economy suffered because spending was clearly increased. “President Lyndon,” he said. B. Johnson’s decision to finance a major war and the Great Society simultaneously, without a significant increase in taxation, launched a runaway double digit inflation and mounting federal debt that ravaged the American economy and eroded living standards from the late 1960’s to into the 1990s”(Oxford Companion 766). It is impossible to avoid economic problems with major spending increases without some tax increases.
During the war in Vietnam, Americans growing opposition towards the war increased especially in 1967. By 1967 close to nineteen thousand soldiers had died so far and each month, another thirty thousand were drafted into the military. Also, Americans were once again agitated when, in order to meet the costly war expenses, President Johnson requested the creation of new taxes (Keene 792). The Americans who opposed the war included working- and middle-class people, college students, working-class women, and African Americans and they were all apart of the antiwar movement. These college students, African Americans, and middle class members recognized the problems with the war, were affected socially and culturally by the war, and helped shape the general response to the war by the American public.
The draft took more and more people in as the years went on, and in1968 it peaked to over 500,000 soldiers involved in Vietnam. The government was so desperate for troops that even men with poor eyesight fought, and no education was needed. The people began to strike out and a revolution took place to restore peace to the nation. Some key ways to get the movement attention included student activism and anti-war messages present in songs and literature.