The year was 1967 when Charles Haug returned home from Da Nang, Vietnam. Charles is a veteran of the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, Charles Haug was a mechanic who worked on different types of heavy equipment; such as forklifts, cranes, and military vehicles. While in combat, he was moved from Khe Sanh, Vietnam to Da Nang, which was his home base in Vietnam. At that moment he was moved between those two locations, Charles had confidence that he was going to make it back home to Indiana after being away for nineteen months. During those nineteen months, he experienced more things that someone else could learn in a lifetime living in peace. The Vietnam War was an event that occurred between 1974 and 1975. The United States became involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to help their ally, then South Vietnam, to help them prevent North Vietnam, which was Communist, take over. However, it was a loss for the United States, and North Vietnam took over South Vietnam to make it a Communist nation. Many citizens did not support the Vietnam War. Haug remembers that people were very negative when it came to discussing the Vietnam War. Several reasons that citizens were not in support of it is due to the fact that the United States should not have spent the money on the war, since the Korean War led up to it, and one other reason is …show more content…
When the war caused the United States to be involved, Haug said it did not created any publicity within the country. One reason that the war occurring in Vietnam was not a big deal to citizens yet was that people were more concerned with the war in Korea. However, since Charles was eighteen, he knew there was a possibility that he could be drafted to serve the United States in the Vietnam War. The outcry began when more and more men kept on being drafted into the war to fight another country 's fight. After high school, in 1965, Haug joined the military and was sent to
Mark Atwood Lawrence’s The Vietnam War: A Concise International History shows readers an international affair involving many nations and how the conflict progressed throughout its rather large existence. Lawrence starts his book in a time before America was involved in the war. It starts out with the French trying to colonize the nation of Vietnam. Soon the United States gets involved and struggles to get its point across in the jungles of Indo-China. Much of the book focuses on the American participation in helping South Vietnam vie for freedom to combine the country as a whole not under Communist rule. Without seeing many results, the war drug on for quite some time with neither side giving up. This resulted in problems in Vietnam and the U.S.
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.
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.
Robert S. McNamara's book, In Retrospect, tells the story of one man's journey throughout the trials and tribulations of what seems to be the United States utmost fatality; the Vietnam War. McNamara's personal encounters gives an inside perspective never before heard of, and exposes the truth behind the administration.
The Vietnam War was a war over communism that started in 1950, when Ho Chi Minh, the national leader of Vietnam, introduced a communist government into North Vietnam. In 1954 it was decided to split the country at the 17th parallel, and was ruled under opposing governments, Bao Dai leading the south and Ho Chi Mihn the north. North Vietnam went to war with South Vietnam with the north being supported by Russia and China, as they were also Communist countries, and the south being supported by Britain and the USA.
Vietnam War (1954-1975) is considered as one of those big wars of the modern world that has been acknowledged and studied by countries in the world. Especially, in regard to the United States, starting and ending war in Vietnam was an unforgettable experience that has left a priceless lesson in its foreign policy, and of course a lot of loss, physically, mentally, and property. “The Legacy of Vietnam” article of George Herring basically summarizes how the Vietnam War led to an end in failure of America and what consequences it left behind.
The anti-war movement regarded the Vietnam War which began in 1946 when Vietnam wanted to gain its’ independence from French rule. Eventually the U.S involved themselves and went to war against the communists. “The United States entered the war against the communist, but even American military might could not save the South Vietnam government.” (Britannica). United States had given South Vietnam military and food for such a decent amount of time and still had not made any progress throughout the war. The war took place for nearly thirty years with little success.
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 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 longest being 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being an 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.
The Vietnam War was a war that changed America forever. It was a long, costly war between Communist North Vietnam, with the aid of the Viet Cong, and Capitalist South Vietnam, aided by the United States. It was a controversial war at the time, but today, it remains embedded in America's history as a war to be remembered.
“Going through high school I remember talking with my friends about the Vietnam War. I had the friends who were gung-ho for the war, and I had friends who, like myself, felt the Vietnam War was unnecessary and not worth fighting for. I remember back in 1967 hearing about the protestors at the Lincoln memorial. Over 100 thousand protestors were there, and I remember thinking how great it was that so many people had the courage to march up to leaders in D.C. and voice their frustration. Then there was my father who said how all those protestors were un-American. I guess I could not blame him, he fought in World War II and served his country with honor, taking great pride in that. To me though, war is not always the answer. That’s where the difference was between people at the time, you either were fully supportive of American involvement in Vietnam, or you were opposed to it, I do not remember much in between. As for me, I could not support the Vietnam War” (Lalonde). The protests of the Vietnam War were opportunities for disgruntled Americans against the war to make their voices known, speak out against the injustice of the draft, while also helping to contribute to the end of the war and being a beneficial spark to an end of the draft.
A famous quote by Tim O’Brien “Each morning, despite the unknowns, they made their legs move.” O’brien is saying that no matter how indifferent their mission was or what they had to do, the soldiers of Vietnam completed their missions without a sound. Though many Soldiers went through very traumatic ordeals while they were there in the war. This war was unlike any other, there were no fronts, the war was all around you. This brought a constant fear of death to the war, causing mental problems among the soldiers. The war also required many supplies to be prepared for an ambush, as well as prepared to stay and camp wherever they were, but the weight on the back was not light. The combat side of the war was very difficult, the terrain in
The Vietnam War would end up splitting the United States in half. The tension between anti-war groups and the people for the war were building more and more each day because this war was dragging on. Many people thought that the war was only going to take less than a year. However, what we didn’t know is that we were fighting a war that could not be acquired. The Vietnam War events from 1964 to 1975 created tensions in politics, economics, and social aspects of American life.
“The Vietnam war was a costly and very long conflict that eroded the communist regime of North Vietnam and its allies against the South Vietnam and its ally, us the United States of America (Unknown Source).” The Vietnam War began on the eve of 1959, causing a struggle between two of our major national forces. These two forces were attempting to unify the country the both love, Vietnam.