I sat on my front porch steps, eating my lunch and watching the cars zoom by. I was beginning to become upset by sitting on the couch with my family, watching television. There was no more family game show night; it was now only news coverage of the Vietnam War. From news teams on the front lines to news anchors talking about the war, like it was an overview of sports game. I outraged that my parents found this entertaining and continued to watch the reportage, even though all of the coverage was gruesome and disgusting. I hated war, and I hate the Vietnam War even more. It was pointless, and I have a feeling that the United States will not be triumphant this time. The next day, I woke up and got ready for school. I quickly snatched my bagged lunch and book bag, and headed for the door. It was Wednesday, which meant I was not going straight home after school and that made me really excited for school to end. After the final bell chimed, I began to walk home. Instead of continuing on the route for home, I turned and went the meeting for the Independent Student Union on the local college campus. I loved being part of the Independent Student Union, because it gave me a chance to hang out with the predominantly college students, but also voice my opinions of the Vietnam War. We were originally founded as the Student Peace Union in …show more content…
I was heartbroken, sickened, and appalled by how Americans could have done such a thing to a harmless village. It also disgusted me that the pictures of dead civilians were published, and obtainable for people to see. A man sitting next to me pointed to the front page of a newspaper he had in his hands, and on it was a picture from the massacre. I could not believe that journalism was able to do that now. Televisions we relatively new in this age, and now anything was able to be seen by the general public, even dead bodies. I began to think if these images were being displayed on television, and if not,
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?
AuthorLastName, FirstName. Title of the Book Being Referenced. City Name: Name of Publisher, Year. Type of Medium (e.g. Print).
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.
It is understandable that some Americans strongly opposed the United States getting involved in the Vietnam War. It had not been a long time since the end of World War II and simply put, most Americans were tired of fighting. Mark Atwood Lawrence is one of the people who opposed our involvement in the Vietnam War. In his essay, “Vietnam: A Mistake of Western Alliance”, Lawrence argues that the Vietnam War was unnecessary and that it went against our democratic policies, but that there were a lot of things that influenced our involvement.
Like many other wars, the Vietnam War left a devastating impact on the soldiers and civilians alike. The Vietnam War created conflict as most of the American citizens were opposed to US military involvement. Many men were drafted and forced to join the military against their will, those who refused had to flee to other nations or face imprisonment. The attitude toward the war was overwhelmingly negative from the beginning and only worsened as horrifying video coverage was broadcasted in the living room of America. The war became all too real for the public; they could not imagine the atrocities that were being committed by all involved in the war.
It was the evening of Christmas, 1776. The voice of an army sergeant shouted, “Everybody, up this instant! We’ve got a battle to win!” George Washington’s order awoke us soldiers, and we prepared for a rough night, as General Washington knew it would be more than strenuous to get the Continental Army, made up of 2,400 men, across the Delaware River especially in such harsh weather conditions. The plan was to attack in the morning since the Hessians would be celebrating Christmas tonight, they will hopefully be too tired to put up a fight tomorrow morning. The cold, brisk air intruded into the tent, as the rest of the soldiers arose from their slumber, not knowing what the day would bring them, or should I say, night.
The Vietnam War is one of the most controversial subjects in American politics. The US went to the war under the guise of the domino effect, as they believed that if Vietnam fell, the surrounding countries would fall as well. President Johnson said “If you let a bully come into your garden, the next day he’ll be on your porch, and the day after that he’ll rape your wife” One thing that is not controversial is that we lost the war. Lots of different factors contributed to the United States unsuccessful trip to Vietnam. Among many reasons, one of the two biggest factors in the lose of the war was America’s foreign policy how and how bad the US underestimated how important freedom and independence was to the people of Vietnam. On top of that the US used the wrong military strategy, instead of focusing on limiting collateral damage the US used heavy artillery that killed citizens and alienated would be supporters. There was political corruptness in South Vietnam governments, which meant that they could not build an alternative to the NLF. At home, the public opinion of the war was decreasing at a constant rate and demonstrations were at an all time high. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and these problems all contributed to a Vietnam tour that went horribly wrong and an attitude among the American people that was growing ever doubt full of their government.
“Pow!” shellings and canyons being fired. I was awoken by an unpleasant sound. Little Susan was arise and shine early to go get some crops. We both did our daily routine of praying that our parents are in good health in heaven.
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.
There are many reasons to the failure of the US in Vietnam. However the following text will focus on some of the most significant reasons to the failures of the US. One failure of the US in Vietnam is the use of chemical warfare. The purpose of using chemical weapons was to clear the forests and kill the VC. However the US were unsuccessful in killing the VC. They managed to clear off the forest with the use of 'Napalm and Agent Orange' however the main threat – the VC, was still there. This was quite significant in the failure of the US as they did not get rid of the enemy instead they poisoned their own men by the chemicals let off by 'Napalm' and 'Agent Orange'.
“The worse part about serving in this war wasn’t the blood shed or fighting in general, but how we were abused. I left Josiah but thanks to poor filing and lack of care for those serving I not only lost my abilities, I lost my name.” The strongest and most horrifying statement that left Joe’s mouth during our interview. Prior to our interview I have had the honor of being Joe’s tech tutor for the past two months, from time to time he would come trying to learn some basic computer skills now that the campus is going mostly digital. He’s a season veteran who served in the Ghost battalion in Southern Laos being some of the first people to enter the war, even before the US advisors, sent on secret missions for the US Marine Corps.
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
“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.” Said Nelson Mandela. Despite the Different Opinions on guerrilla warfare against American troops in weaker countries, but these opinions are all based on different perspectives. Some people judge things based on biases and relationship to who is being attacked or to that who is attacking. In comparing the American Revolutionary War, which was the beginning of the great and most powerful country we live in today (America) to the Vietnam War, we see that both of these wars had a lot in common. They both were fought for similar reasons and under similar conditions. Also, same fighting tactics were used in both wars. If Americans had the
There was a point during Chemo treatments that I didn’t want to go on (with treatments) and cried out to the Lord in exhaustion wanting to stop, however, the Lord told me in my spirit that’s it ok to finish them and that He was with me. Not much longer I had two friends call me the same evening to say that the Lord wanted them to tell me “it’s almost over” One of them went as far to say it’s like the war in Iraq and how we already won it – the United States won the war but now we are putting out small fires here and there. She told me “you already won the war” knowing with God all things are possible, therefore now you’re putting out the small fires and encouraged me to go on. I was in awe how much the Lord really walked with me in all that,
There are many different types of booby traps, offensive and defensive traps. The offensive was used to stop enemy U.S. troops from moving forward, and the defensive traps were you used to guard the Cu Chi tunnels or anything of importance to the Vietcong. As the American forces learned the hard way, guerilla warfare is a difficult way to fight a war. The use of Cu Chi tunnels and the various booby traps made life as an American soldier hard. Vietnam was a nasty war and be will always remembered for the ones who died and served our country. These American soldiers who fought in Vietnam learned the hard way that booby traps had a huge physiological impact on them.