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Summary of Vietnamese culture
Vietnam culture and history
Essay vietnamese culture
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I learned many things about Philip Caputo and his tour of duty. He described how he felt in the beginning about the Vietnamese people, which was not as much hate since him and the other soldiers were not as knowledgeable about all the conflict that was taking place in Vietnam. Caputo was very opinionated towards his views of the Vietnamese people. He actually felt sorry for all the villagers who had to see and deal with the negative environment that was brought upon them, and bear the Marines who probed their homes for prohibited Viet Cong relations. Caputo did not find it fair how the American troops mistreated the villagers and protected the concept of apprehending the Viet Cong. However, throughout the end of his tour, he and his men disliked the VC very strongly, learned how to hate and wanted to kill them. …show more content…
Americans found this opportunity to join the military, like Caputo, so they could be heroes and help those in need during this period of time. Like numerous soldiers, Caputo was raised in a suburban community, where he was expected to go to college, find a stable job and get married. However, he realized he had so much more to give for himself, his family and his country, so he joined the Marines. There was a frequent misunderstanding, future troops thought that the war would not take as long as it actually did. They underestimated the Vietnamese people, which came with many consequences, which lead to Americans despising them for breaking rules and acting savagely towards
Another strength of this book is Prochnau's treatment of the central characters. These journalists were often reviled and criticized for their caustic and searing articles about the Vietnamese situation. These popular opinions undermined the legitimacy of their work and the truthfulness of their reportage of the deterioration of South Vietnam. Prochnau's accounting of these individuals runs contrary to these opinions, and in effect, reaffirms the validity of these journalists' work. For example, the David Halberstram has often been portrayed as an antiwar hero, yet the author stated that Halberstram was quite the opposite. "But not once during his Vietnam years or well afterward, did he (Halberstram) question America's right, even her need to be there (Vietnam). His criticisms were of methods and foolishness, lying and self-delusion, of a failure to set a policy that could win."(pg 141) These depictions exonerate the image of this hardy "band of brothers."
A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo, is an exceptional autobiography on a man's first-hand experiences during the Vietnam War. Philip Caputo is a Lieutenant during the Vietnam War and illustrates the harsh reality of what war really is. Caputo's in-depth details of his experience during the war are enough to make one cringe, and the eventual mental despair often experienced by soldiers (including Caputo) really makes you feel for participants taking part in this dreadful war atmosphere. Giving way to the parties and the common fun associated with college kids, Caputo failed out of college and realized what he really wanted to be was a Marine. He joined the Marines and went through a lot of officer training until he eventually reached what would be known as his final rank of Lieutenant. Introduced to the Vietnam War in 1965 as a Platoon leader, Caputo walked into the war a little scared but with a lot of determination. Caputo started the war with a lot of field work including jungle expeditions and shooting escapades, and eventually was sent to keep track of the everyday deaths occurring during the war and all the paperwork associated with such a job. Later he was put back in charge of a platoon which eventually lead to his downfall following an unethical order he gave his men that resulted in the killing of a couple Vietnamese pedestrians believed to be part of the Viet Cong. Caputo was acquitted of all charges and was given a letter of reprimand from the general. About ten years later he continued his Marine endeavors as he reported to Vietnam and witnessed the surrender of the Saigon Government to the Communist North Vietnamese. Caputo's war experience was plagued by...
Vietnam War was one of the hardest wars ever fought. There are several reasons for this statement. It was basically impossible to conquer the territory because there were no boundaries. The soldiers had to put up with the climate, land, diseases and most importantly themselves. This essay is about yet another reason: the relationship between the soldiers and the officers.
Have you ever wondered what life was like for a maid in the 1960’s? Well, the book The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett, gives the reader a somewhat fictional and interesting view on the lives of maids who work for white women. The book follows the points of view of three different women, Ms. Phelan, a white women, Minny and Aibileen who are both black. Many things are happening in the town of Mississippi that they live in, like how many people were building bathrooms for the blacks because they did not want to use the same one. Or how the blacks were being treated horribly. Ms. Phelan decides to write a book about what it’s like to for black maids to work for white women. She was inspired to
In the twentieth century many young adults and many other men were chosen/ drafted to enter the war. The Vietnam War started during the time period of 1959 and this brutal war ended on 1975. It started with the United States sending aid and military advisors to the Southern part Vietnam. The U.S helped the southerners of Vietnam because the northern part of Viet was a communist state so the south wanted to end Communism up in the north. Also, this war was said to be one of the bloodiest wars that took place in the twentieth century. It was a very bloody war because more than 58,000 American soldiers had perished in combat. Also, during the decade of direct U.S Military participation in Vietnam, during early time 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 effected the American’s, it affected the Vietnamese people to. This war affected both the American’s and the Vietnamese, because in the year of 1973 the United States began withdrawing troops. This caused the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon to fall to the Northern Vietnamese forces. Just like how the war was long and bloody many characters from the novel The Things They Carried experienced many things that were relatable to people who in reality dealt with the war. The very brutality of war cause indelible psychological and emotional changes in most of its
Firstly, This war took place from 1962 and finished in 1975 (Australian War Memorial, n.d) and saw a “welcome home” for the soldiers like never before. The Prime Minister at the time was Robert Menzies who believed that we should send troops to Vietnam to help America stop the ‘domino theory’, a theory in which America believe that when one country becomes a communist, surrounding countries will become communist as well, causing the world to become communist and America would no longer be able to trade any material or weapons to other countries to make money, forcing America to become a communist country as well. However a differing view of the Opposition Leader, Arthur Calwell, was equally passionate against sending troops to Vietnam to fight. In Arthur Calwel’s speech, Calwel stated in the Governments’s announcement “We do not think it will help the fight against Communism” (House of Representatives, 1965). The Public opinion was divided over this war and had never been displayed as overtly as it was during ...
Due to the volatile conditions of the Vietnam War, the protestors believed that they should not be involved in a war that they cared so little about. Public opinion heavily swayed during the war as only one senator dissented from the overwhelming opinion to fight the war (Amter 45). However, as President Johnson escalated the war and the Draft increased by 25% in 1968, those youths being conscripted were infuriated (Dougan 118). Not only this, the North Vietnamese began a ruthless offensive on American soldiers by merciless attacking our bases. This resulted in US victories, but also US casualties (Dougan 116). Also, the marines stationed at the bases began to use offensive attacks to deter Viet Cong assault against the wishes of General Taylor (Karnov 443). With these new less defensive strategy, Nixon announced plans to start operations in Cambodia, and to increase the bombings overall in Southeast Asia (Dougan 180). Some missions even began t...
All in all, every year since 1975, Vietnamese have been killed or injured and they are so disappointed. The war causes chaos and is a sign of bad omen to Vietnam. This never-ending horror could be remedied if enough Americans cared about saving Vietnamese lives, as the stars of this documentary claim they did. After all, what kind of people seed a foreign land with hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives and then allow succeeding generations to lose eyes and limbs and lives? Only a “violent and unforgiving”
Ho Chi Minh was for a time the Devil incarnate to America. In retrospect, he was a freedom fighter. He had read and embraced the ideals of the Declaration of Independence (The Socialist Republic of Vietnam Government Portal, 2013). He could have been an ally and a friend. Instead, fear led the U.S. to fight him, and lose, with a staggering cost in blood and treasure. Some lessons were learned, many others were not, and the legacy of Vietnam still haunts us today.
In the short story “Field Trip” by Tim O’Brien, the poem “Camouflaging the Chimera” by Yusef Komunyakaa, and the song “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, the authors feel the emotional reasoning for staying in the Vietnam War outweighed the diplomatic reasons that they were originally there for. For these soldiers, they were simply used by the government to enact on their orders, and in all events criticized and demoralized for doing so.
eager to fight Communism in Vietnam. But, unlike most wars of American time, the action in
Philip Caputo’s life before the Vietnam War was not marvelous. He did not know how to do anything significant. However, after, he knew how to kill. He knew what caused it, what the effects of it were, and what it meant to those who experienced it. With the simplest of commands, he could create enormous destruction. He came home from the war feeling aged considerably. The entire span of a human life, it seemed, was carried out in Vietnam.
Imagine a soldier coming home after fighting in a war that was not their own and being disapproved of and yelled at for doing what was ordered. The Vietnam War was a war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam because the South did not want communism. The U.S. decided to help out South Vietnam so communism would not spread. This made multiple Americans despondent that soldiers were forced to fight in a war America did not belong in. Once the soldiers came home most Americans were very disappointed in the soldiers and yelled at the men. Vietnam soldiers were treated unfairly when they returned home from war.
The Vietnam War was a controversial time for the United States. We were a divided country, especially at the beginning. The Truman Doctrine and containment were the two largest reasons America decided to go to vietnam. We wanted to help other countries and to stop the spread of communism. The biggest problem at home was the reaction to the war in America, people went as far as to separate themselves into “hawks” and “doves” or people for the war and people against the war. The Vietnam war was the first major war to receive this amount of backlash from American citizens and because of this backlash, men who were drafted made up one third of the military at the time. The draft was controversial because it was mostly poor men from working class
17,000+ men died in the Vietnam war, after being drafted from their hometown, to fight a war that wasn't theirs to fight. At the time, the Cold war was at its peak as tensions over who was and wasn't a communist were infiltrating cities across America. The US was conflicted on whether or not they should fight to stop the spread of Communism in foreign countries, or keep to themselves and spare the lives of their own people. Fearing the domino effect would occur, where Communism would infiltrate one country in Southeast Asia and spread into surrounding countries, the US chose to support South Vietnam’s effort in stopping Viet-Cong’s pursuit of expanding their Communist state in the north. However, support of the war from the US people was slim