The involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War was highly polarized by Ronald Reagan as a presidential candidate and later as a president. He explained that the government needed to overcome the war to make America a superpower again. The war resulted in a high social-political influence which included the conflict between the working class men and the middle-class student, young generation and older generation, and whites and Blacks. There were 2.8 million Americans served in the war resulting in highest deaths other than the 1st and 2nd world war. The inhumane United States involvements in the Vietnam War led to polarization in the country.
Robert Cagle was born from an alcoholic family where his father died of cancer and drinking to death when he was twelve years old. Her mother died in 1982 referring to her as drunk, terribly lonely old woman. He deeply blames the U.S government of that time for their wrong involvement in the Vietnam War. In addition, he regrets having to shoot at a fourteen-year-old boy during the war. He hated
…show more content…
the government and claimed that he would have fired the staff like Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, and Kissinger who were corrupt and involved in the decision-making for the War. They didn't care about the safety of the soldiers but send them to prove that America was the superpower. He adds that the war was more destructive having to kill the rebel forces so as to survive. This document provides insight about the United States government and their involvement in the Vietnam War. The United States just wanted to prove that they were the superpower and were oblivious to the soldiers and their involvements in the war. Soldiers were forced to do things in this war that would haunt them forever, such as killing a fourteen year old boy. On the other hand, in the ‘war stories by the combatants’ collected in 1981, the soldiers among others were providing security to the Army engineers in the Vietnams Island. The soldier explains how the U.S officers were brutal to the Vietnam civilians. The torture was utterly inhuman where the members of the rebel forces caught would be tied their body in an entirely uncomfortable position and leave them there for a couple of days. He was obliged to sign a demonstration of good faith where he was to cooperate with the seniors in the brutality in the interrogation of the captured Vietnamese. He explains that the US government was supposed to save the people and not participate in the killing. This document provides insight that is opposite of Robert Cagle’s document. It focuses on how poorly and inhumane the captured Vietnamese were treated during this war. The civilians were innocent individuals that were caught in the crossfire of this war. 'Wrong, Rambo!
A Vietnam veteran looks back in 1985' involves a narrator who was a 19-year-old boy in 1969, a member of Indian Company 3d Battalion 5th Marine. He questions himself a ‘why America came to Vietnam’ after an ambush attack by the North Vietnam Army. He elaborates that there must be another way of peace and freedom to the universe other than terrible wars like in Vietnam. In 1985, he realized that the American government together with the India Company fought to change Vietnam, but the result was minute, more people were injured, died, and left homeless. Wrong, Rambo, dead wrong because the Americans put the soldiers in the unwinnable war because it was entirely immoral and young men died for the Old’s pride. He finalizes that America has a significant role in the world; therefore it should be a moral force, a source of hope for hunger, terrorism, and poverty rather than defiance of morality through brutal
killings. Oliver Stone, the director of the ‘Platoon’ film, fought in the Vietnam War. The screenplay was based on his experiences as a soldier during the Vietnam War. It was an anti-war movie proving Stones to be against the U.S war in Vietnam. The film emphasizes on the wrong ways that the U.S soldiers carried the war including the burning of houses, murder of civilians and rapes. He illustrated the terrible things they did in the war, and therefore the U.S needed to participate in a clean war. One scene showed the American troops at a Vietnamese civilian village; the troops were inhumane to these civilians and brutally killed many of them and their animals. The United States inhumane involvements in the Vietnam War caused a polarization in the country. Many Americans questioned why there was American involvement in the Vietnam War. The documents discussed also provided insight as to why the Vietnam War was polarizing. There was unnecessary killing of civilians, the war was not a clean war, and many veteran were forced to do things that they did not want to do, such as the killings of fourteen year olds. These things led to the polarization of the country.
The Vietnam War was a controversial conflict that plagued the United States for many years. The loss of life caused by the war was devastating. For those who came back alive, their lives were profoundly changed. The impact the war had on servicemen would affect them for the rest of their lives; each soldier may have only played one small part in the war, but the war played a huge part in their lives. They went in feeling one way, and came home feeling completely different. In the book Vietnam Perkasie, W.D. Ehrhart describes his change from a proud young American Marine to a man filled with immense confusion, anger, and guilt over the atrocities he witnessed and participated in during the war.
The Vietnam War, which lasted for two decades (1955-1975), was probably the most problematic of all American wars. US involvement in Vietnam occurred within the larger context of the Cold War between the US and the USSR. It was, and remains, morally ambiguous and controversial. The Vietnam War was slated as both a war against Communism and a war aimed at suppressing dangerous nationalist self-determination. Christian G. Appy's book, Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam, is a graphic and perceptive portrayal of soldiers' experiences and the lasting effects the Vietnam War has had on the American culture and people. Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam, is an analytical work that has three major purposes: 1. to show that those who fought in Vietnam were predominantly from the working class 2. to convey the experiences of the soldiers who served in Vietnam and 3. to offer his own scathing commentary of American actions in Vietnam.
The Vietnam War: A Concise International History is a strong book that portrays a vivid picture of both sides of the war. By getting access to new information and using valid sources, Lawrence’s study deserves credibility. After reading this book, a new light and understanding of the Vietnam war exists.
Think that O'Brien is still suffering from what he experienced in Vietnam and he uses his writing to help him deal with his conflicts. In order to deal with war or other traumatic experiences, you sometimes just have to relive the experiences over and over. This is what O'Brien does with his writing; he expresses his emotional truths even if it means he has to change the facts of the literal truth. The literal truth, or some of the things that happen during war, are so horrible that you don't want to believe that it could've actually happened. For instance, "[o]ne colonel wanted the hearts cut out of the dead Vietcong to feed to his dog..
Tim O’Brien begins his journey as a young “politically naive” man and has recently graduated out of Macalester College in the United States of America. O’Brien’s plan for the future is steady, but this quickly changes as a call to an adventure ruins his expected path in life. In June of 1968, he receives a draft notice, sharing details about his eventual service in the Vietnam War. He is not against war, but this certain war seemed immoral and insignificant to Tim O’Brien. The “very facts were shrouded in uncertainty”, which indicates that the basis of the war isn’t well known and perceived
An interesting combination of recalled events and editorial commentary, the story is not set up like a traditional short story. One of the most interesting, and perhaps troubling, aspects of the construction of “How to Tell a True War Story” is O’Brien’s choice to create a fictional, first-person narrator who might just as well be the author himself. Because “How to Tell a True War Story” is told from a first-person perspective and O’Brien is an actual Vietnam veteran, a certain authenticity to this story is added. He, as the “expert” of war leads the reader through the story. Since O’Brien has experienced the actual war from a soldier’s point of view, he should be able to present the truth about war...
The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.
	The novel illuminates light on the situation not just during the Vietnam era, but also rather throughout all history and the future to come. Throughout mankind’s occupation of earth, we have been plagued by war and the sufferings caused by it. Nearly every generation of people to walk this earth have experienced a great war once in their lifetimes. For instance, Vietnam for my father’s generation, World War 2 for my grandfather’s, and World War 1 for my great-grandfather’s. War has become an unavoidable factor of life. Looking through history and toward the future, I grow concerned over the war that will plague my generation, for it might be the last war.
Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year
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.
The setting of the story is in the jungles of Vietnam. At the time not many Americans are for the war and show it by turning their backs on the ones fighting. We start out
...ust deal with similar pains. Through the authors of these stories, we gain a better sense of what soldiers go through and the connection war has on the psyche of these men. While it is true, and known, that the Vietnam War was bloody and many soldiers died in vain, it is often forgotten what occurred to those who returned home. We overlook what became of those men and of the pain they, and their families, were left coping with. Some were left with physical scars, a constant reminder of a horrible time in their lives, while some were left with emotional, and mental, scarring. The universal fact found in all soldiers is the dramatic transformation they all undergo. No longer do any of these men have a chance to create their own identity, or continue with the aspirations they once held as young men. They become, and will forever be, soldiers of the Vietnam War.
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.
American Public Opinion of the Vietnam War At the beginning of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, in 1965, The American public favored the idea of war because they feared the threat of communism. Polls conducted in 1965, showed 80 percent of the population agreed with President Johnson and were for the war. Rousseau 11. The U.S. got involved in the war to stop communism. from spreading throughout South Asia.
The book, We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, begins at a pivotal point in American history. The year was 1965; the year America began to directly interfere with the Vietnam affairs and send our young men to defend the notion of "freedom." During this year, Vietnam interested and concerned only a few Americans. In fact, the controversy of American involvement in Vietnam had hardly begun. But this all changed in November 1965 at the Ia Drang Valley in distant Vietnam. The Battle at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany was the first major battle of the Vietnam conflict; a conflict that lasted decade and caused American turmoil for many more years.