As many as two million Vietnamese civilians were killed during the Vietnam War(Spector). Would this number have been different if certain things off the battlefield in the United States did not occur. The Vietnam War was a war between the communist regime of North Vietnam leaded by Ho Chi Minh, and the non-Communist South Vietnam. The United States fought with the south in fear that if all of Vietnam became communist then the domino effect would occur and all of Asia would turn to communism(“Vietnam, War”). The war began in 1954 and ended in 1975 when communist forces took over the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon(“Vietnam”). This was two years after President Nixon, the thirty seventh President of the United States ordered the withdrawal …show more content…
of U.S forces in Vietnam(“Vietnam”). More than 58,000 Americans were killed during the Vietnam War, and towards the end of the war many Americans questioned the involvement of the United States in the war(“Vietnam”).
Many things occurred on and off the battlefield during the eight years that the United States were involved in the war, but three main things off the battlefield in the United States impacted it the greatest. The events off the battlefield in the United States that impacted United States involvement in the Vietnam War were, anti-war protests, the analysis of the Tet Offensive, and the resignation of President Nixon.
Anti-war protests were one of the things off the battlefield in the United States that impacted U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The movement against the United States involvement in the Vietnam war began among peace activists, and college students across the country, but gained national prominence in 1965(“Vietnam, Protests”). This was when the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest, which made many Americans angry and question U.S. involvement in the war. As the United States became more, and more involved in the war, and the American soldier death toll began to increase, anti-war protests were becoming more common, and larger. On October 21, 1967, one of the largest anti-war demonstrations took place(“United”). More than 100,000 protesters gathered at the Lincoln
Memorial to protest U.S. involvement in the war(“United”). The rally started off peacefully, but things began to get out of hand when protesters began to wave the red, blue, and gold flag of the Vietcong and marched towards the Pentagon(“United”). As the second round of protesters gathered around the Pentagon things got out of hand. Protesters began to clash with soldiers protecting the Pentagon, making the soldiers look bad. On Television people saw protesters being gassed and hit with batons, which made Americans want out of the war even more. Anti-war groups were being made all over the United States, but one of the most impactful groups that were made was the Vietnam Veterans Against the War group. On April, 18, 1968, the group began a five-day demonstration where about 1,000 veterans were televised throwing their combat ribbons, helmets, and uniforms on the capitol steps(“Vietnam, Protests”). This made even more Americans question involvement in the war. The sight of Vietnam veterans throwing some of their most prized possessions away touched the hearts of many Americans, and made them question U.S. involvement in the war. As more years past anti-war protests were a common occurrence, and in January of 1973, President Nixon announced the effective to end U.S involvement in Southeast Asia, and anti-war protests played a big role in that decision(“Vietnam, Protests”). The Tet offensive marked a turning point in United States involvement in war, and it started the slow, painful American withdrawal from the Vietnam War. Tet is the Vietnamese New year festival(Samuels). It starts on January, 28, and lasts for seven days(Samuels). In the first three years of war between the United States and North Vietnam, Tet was marked by a truce, but in 1968 that changed(Samuels). On January, 31, 1968, The North Vietnamese military commander, General Vo Nguyen Giap, coordinated a series of surprise attacks on more than one hundred cities in South Vietnam(“Tet”). In military terms, the North Vietnamese Army was crushed by the Americans. There were an estimated 50,000 North Vietnamese troops killed compared to the 2,000 american, and 4,000 south Vietnamese troops that were killed(Samuels). The Tet offensive still sent a shock wave through Americans on the home front. Months before the Tet offensive occurred, President Lyndon B. Johnson had been saying things like, “ The end of war is in sight now”(“Tet”). However the Tet offensive proved that the United States involvement in the war was far from over(Samuels). The Johnson administration now asked for 200,000 more troops, and many Americans saw that as an act of desperation(“Tet”). The U.S. audiences on the home front were shocked to see grinning South Vietnamese soldiers searching american soldier’s dead bodies for valuables. The photos and videos scared Americans and changed their minds on how close or far away the end of United States involvement in war was. Although the communist, North Vietnam did not succeed in the Tet offensive militarily, It caused many of President Johnson’s advisers to change their minds on how they felt on the war, and it led President Johnson to make the decision of not going up for reelection. This decision then brought in a new president who ended the war, President Nixon. Ultimately the analysis of the Tet offensive was one of the biggest factors that led to the United States withdrawal from the Vietnam War. The dramatic change of party from Republican to Democratic in the elections in 1974 impacted U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War greatly. In January of 1973 President Nixon said that the United States would stop bombing the north if the North Vietnamese would attend the Paris peace talks that they had left earlier(Herschensohn). The North Vietnamese agreed, and the United States stopped the bombing as promised. At the Paris peace talks an accord was made saying that the United States would pull out of the Vietnam War, but if South Vietnam needed any military aid because of aggression from North Vietnam then they would give it to them on a piece by piece basis(Herschensohn). This means that for all things lost there would be replacement. On national television, President Nixon announced that these accords had been initialed by the United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the biggest allies of the North Vietnamese, the Vietcong(Herschensohn). This deal prevented South Vietnam from being forced into communism from the north. Only one year after this deal was made, President Nixon resigned his office as result of what became known as the Watergate Scandal(Herschensohn). With the resignation of President Nixon came the elections and within them the democrats won an easy victory for the new congress. The new members of congress used their new majority to defund the military aid the United States had promised. The commitment that the United States made to the South Vietnamese in Paris was broken, and this new democratic congress of the United States did not keep the word of the United States. On April, 10, 1975, President Ford delivered a speech on national television where he literally begged the congress to keep the deal with the South Vietnamese, but during that speech many of the congress members walked out of the room because they opposed the United States staying in war so strongly(Herschensohn). Without the aid of the United States, South Vietnam surrendered, and reeducation camps were placed all over Vietnam. When the North began their invasion all American soldiers had already evacuated Vietnam, so they had no protection. The North Vietnamese took one village and then another and then cities and provinces. The United States did not resupply South Vietnam with things they needed as they had promised, and it affected the outcome of the Vietnam War, and the lives of millions of Vietnamese civilians greatly. On July, 2, 1967, Vietnam was known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam(“United”). 250,000 Vietnamese civilians died when they were moved to reeducation camps, and they were victims of executions, torture, disease, and malnutrition(Herschensohn). This number could have been different if the United States had stayed involved in the war, and some of the blame must go towards the anti-war protests, the analysis of the Tet offensive, and the dramatic change of party in the 1974 United States elections. Without those things the United States most likely would have stayed involved in the Vietnam War, and would have saved millions of innocent civilians lives. The United States wasted 58,000 American soldiers lives, and lost one hundred seventy three billion dollars for absolutely nothing(Spector). If anti-war protests, the terrible analysis of the Tet offensive, and the dramatic change of party in the United States elections of 1974, then the withdrawal of United States forces from Vietnam would most likely not have occurred, and many Vietnamese lives would have been saved.
The events leading up to the Vietnam War included a recently recovered United States from World War II, a booming economy that aided war involvement, nuclear threats and the government’s attempts to contain and abolish communism, while in competition with the world’s other superpower, Russia.
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?
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.
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.
It was a very bloody war, with more than 58,000 American soldiers having perished in combat. Also, during the decade of direct U.S Military participation in Vietnam, during early times of the year, 1964 the U.S treasury spent over 140 billion dollars on this war. “This was enough money to fund urban projects in every major American city” (history.com). As this war affected the American’s, it affected the Vietnamese people too. This war affected both the American’s and the Vietnamese, because in the year 1973 the United States began withdrawing troops.
One of the most violent protests of the Vietnam War took place in May of 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio. Protests were common across America during the war but this was by far the most violent. On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University protesters, killing four and wounding nine of the Kent State students. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that caused many colleges and universities to shut down . This deeply divided the country politically and made ordinary citizens take notice of the protests that were taking place across the nation’s college campuses.
As a result, the Geneva agreement was set up to try and keep order in
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.
In conclusion, the Tet Offensive changed the US's attitude towards the Vietnam war by leading to further anti-war protests, a credibility gap in America, and for President Johnson to negotiate peace and not seek reelection.
In May 1961, John F. Kennedy sent investigators to Vietnam, thus turning the tide in favor of the United States and South Vietnam. Unfortunately, with the flow of infiltrators and weapons from North Vietnam, the United States and South Vietnam lost their upper hand (Tucker). Conclusively, 2.5 million Americans served and about 58,000 lost their lives in Vietnam (Vietnam Veterans Memorial). On April 30, 1975 Vietnam was finally reunited under a communist government. Once the war ended, Vietnam was devastated. Both the South and North Vietnamese economies were in shambles and they suffered from the chemical pesticides. The Vietnamese also lost about 3 million soldiers and civilians during the war. The United States also suffered due to the fact that the military was completely shattered and had to be rebuilt. The inflation was at an ultimate high from the failure to fact the actual costs of war. These situations forced Washington D.C. to reevaluate the power of the United States
In 1968, the United States of America was participating in a violent war that some of the general public greatly disapproved of. Tension between political parties was rising and this did not help efforts with the war. Anti-war sentiment was growing in popularity amongst the younger generation; they wanted to get their voices heard. Protests and riots were occurring more frequently and growing larger in size all throughout the United States. This was the case for eight Chicago men who protested peacefully.
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.
There were many events that lead up the Vietnam War, it started in 1945 with the hostilities between the French and Vietminh. “Geopolitical Strategy, economics, domestic US politics, and cultural arrogance shaped the growing American involvement in Vietnam” (Anderson 1). As a matter of fact, the Vietnam War was several wars, but it was not until 1962 that America had their first combat mission, however, Americans were killed during ambushes by the Vietnamese before the first combat mission. There is much controversy over the reasons for the Vietnam War, supported by the several different books and articles written about the war. “The most famous atrocity occurred in a tiny hamlet called My Lai in March 1968” (Detzer 127). History shows that the reaction of many Americans to the attack by US soldiers on the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War was opposition, and the actions of the US soldiers during the My Lai Massacre will be forever remembered as a significant part of the Vietnam War and American History.
This is why the anti-war movement was so successful. Everything that the anti-war movement did was broadcasted by all of the major news companies (“Vietnam Television”). One such example of the media unintentionally helping the anti-war movement was the Kent State Tragedy. Kent State, a university in Ohio, was home to a large group of anti-war student protestors (“Kent”). On May 4, 1970, while protesting the decision to invade Cambodia, 28 National Guardsmen opened fire on a group of protestors (“Kent”). Four students were killed and nine were wounded (“Kent”). The National Guardsmen had been dispatched because protestors had set the university’s ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) building on fire (“Kent”). Journalists flocked to the scene, and what followed was a nation wide furor over the unjust shooting (“Kent”). Local student-activist leaders were suddenly in the spotlight to share their views, and in a time of revolutionaries, the anti-war protestors took center