Vietnam War Dbq Essay

Alongside these soldiers, there was a reporter sent out as former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Average Citizen” in battle. Walter Cronkite was a journalist who filmed and recorded different events in the Vietnam and reported them back to the states through CBS Evening News. According to Walter Cronkite, “it was increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out … will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could.” (Document D). Soldiers fought, killed, and died in this war but as Cronkite stated, the war was a lost cause in a sense that there was no way out except a stalemate, or a draw, on both parties in order to halt the casualties

of military personnel and civilians in Southern Vietnam.

As Cronkite reports this back to the U.S., it reveals yet another reason to be against joining the war. Many people have gone and fought in this war, but too many lives have been lost without any gain. Too many lives were put on the line for a war to end on a stalemate, though, that is what the proceeding President Richard Nixon, is forced to do. With millions of lives lost, there is no longer a purpose for enlisting in the war and the draft dodgers have been proven correct in protesting against the Vietnam war.

In this drawing titled (left, document D) “But How to Let Go-- Gracefully” by cartoonist Vaughn Shoemaker (Document D), the tiger represents the ferocious Northern Vietnamese armies and Guerilla regime while the people hanging onto its tail represent Southern Vietnam and the American military. The tiger represents North

Vietnam because, like a tiger, North Vietnam will stop at nothing to prevent the isolation of communism. The U.S. and South Vietnam represent the people hanging onto the tiger’s tail by showing how they are holding on for their dear lives as the North kills and injures hundreds of thousands of their people. The title shows the way the U.S. started to leave the war, they did so gracefully without further issues with North Vietnam. On the other side of the war, people can see this picture as a way of showing the fierceness of the Northern Vietnamese armies and the guerilla regime. They also see this picture (right, document I) as a representation of their effect on the U.S. towards the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. As the war started and ended for the U.S., we stood on a weathered down board throwing rocks at the battleship North Vietnam has built their armies into. The U.S. fought long and hard, but at what cost? The millions of lives, both military and civilian, will never be forgotten, though their lives were lost with no gain, they will be remembered as the pawns sent out by the U.S. to fight a meaningless fight that draft dodgers had reasonably protested against. With these two pictures, they both represent the reason to be a draft dodger: North Vietnam grew too powerful for the U.S. to defeat.
While the U.S. soldiers were out in Vietnam, many people back home wrote songs opposing and supporting the Vietnam war. A song titled “Oakie From Muskogee” (document F) by Merle Haggard is a song that supports the containment of communism and the Vietnam war. Within the song, it states, “We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street; We like livin’ right and bein’ free.” Haggard references burning draft cards, smoking marijuana, dropping LSD and hippies in this song as a way of mocking all of the draft dodgers. Without seeing why, they are truly burning their cards, Haggard only focuses on wiping out the reds in order for democracy to rule the world. He believes that the only way to live “free” is through democracy when he supports a war that is taking away a government from its people in order to spread democracy. Governments are established to run countries and one type of government should not command another government on how to run their country. Creating a dispute over ending a government’s rule in order to give “freedom” to its people is in itself taking away freedom. On top of writing songs supporting the war, there are many satirical songs written about the war such as “Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag” (Document E) by Country Joe McDonald. Mcdonald sings in his song, “And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn, next stop is Vietnam and it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates Ain’t no time to wonder why, whoopee we’re all gonna die!” McDonald is trying to mock the soldiers out in Vietnam and the government for getting involved in the war since they are fighting a meaningless war. With these two songs, it shows that fighting in the war is not worth the negative consequences with fighting for the end of another country’s freedom to choose how to govern its own people.
The government in the United States set up camps in South Vietnam in order to win the hearts and minds of the people.

There, volunteer Doctor Veale Rogers encountered many patient and injured Vietnamese people: “I remember one cute little bright eyed… kid… who’d been shot through the lung. I operated on him and the dressings were painful. I had nothing for the pain, so I would talk to him… I knew I’d hurt him. I could see the tears in his eyes, but he would not call out…” (Document G) A volunteer doctor shares his experience with his patients in Vietnam. They waited patiently at eight o’clock in the morning for someone to come and help them seal their wounds. The countless lives lost or broken from this war will never make the war worth fighting. There were too many lives lost, too many lives and families torn apart on both sides fighting in this war. Senator Eugene McCarthy spoke on the news of the state of the war overseas: “In 1966, 1967 and now again in 1968, we hear the same hollow claims of victory. For the fact is that the enemy is bolder than ever while we must enlarge our own commitment.” (Document H) In this statement, though he says we must enlarge our commitment in the war, he states that for three consecutive years, the American people were given hollow claims of victory. These three years were three too many with the U.S. involvement in the war for 1966, 67, and 68. Within this statement, McCarthy both supports and opposes the war. The U.S. stands no chance

against North Vietnam and is forced to step out of the war on account that we can no longer enlarge our commitment to fight the massive army they have compiled. As these two statements show what the truth behind the war really is, it shows even more reason to burn draft cards and end the Vietnam war.
Throughout this war, both sides fought long and hard. North Vietnam proved themselves to be too big of a power for the U.S. and South Vietnam to defeat. With the action in battle and the protests in the U.S., draft dodgers have many reasons to burn their cards or leave the country to evade conscription.