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Impact on society of the Vietnam War
Effects of the Vietnam war on us
Impact on society of the Vietnam War
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The Vietnam War is the longest war fought in American history, lasting from November 1955 to April 1975. The Vietnam War greatly changed American forever. It is one of the most important events in the history of the United States. During the late 60’s and early 70’s, anti-war movement was steadily progressing in the United States. The peace movement was directed to stop all forms of war. During this time, many artists produced songs either with or against the protesting. Merle Haggard wrote the song, “Okie From Muskogee” during this time. Haggard was against the protesting. Regardless if one supports war, one should support America and our troops. The Vietnam War was the first war to be broadcasted on television. The public could see what was happening on the battlefield. The media caused major changes in America. The media brought all the horrors of the war life. For the first time, people could see the action every day on the news. Merle Haggard loved his country and was supported of the troops. When the protesting started against the Vietnam War, Haggard became dishearten and incorporated this emotion in the song ‘Okie From Muskogee’. …show more content…
Protests were forming around the United States. As the Soldiers started returning home, some Americans were doing horrible things to the Soldiers. As they would return home, people would boo and hiss at them. People would even spit on them as the Soldiers would walk by them. Many civilians had a negative image of the retuning Soldiers that was hard to shake, Veterans recalled. Many Vietnam vets complained of employment discrimination and hostility from anti-war activists who didn’t understand the traumas Soldiers suffered. (Carroll) Even many years later some Vietnam Veterans still don’t say that they served or that they are a Veteran because people made them feel ashamed for doing the job their country called them up to
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 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.
During the Vietnam Conflict, many Americans held a poor view of the military and its political and military leadership. Protestors met returning soldiers at airports, train and bus stations, and in hometowns with open hostility. Following the conflict, and perhaps the maturing of the ‘60s generation, the view towards the military began to change somewhat. The hostility declined, but an appreciation for the military never really re-emerged during the ...
America and the Gulf of Tonkin: Before the US sent combat troops in 1965, they had been supplying thousands upon thousands of military advisors, such as the Green Berets, to help train the South Vietnamese. Speaking of the Green Berets, they are forever immortalized, or vilified by many, in the song The Ballad of the Green Berets. The song, written by a former Green Beret, was received quite differently depending on who was listening. To some it was a patriotic march. To many others it was an over glorification of a death that didn’t have to happen.
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
The Vietnam War changed the course of American History forever. The war showed the American people they had a voice and with protest they could make a difference. Vietnam was an area that many believed we had no business being in. It was a civil war and American sons were being sent there to die for something that did not affect them. This angered people all over the United States. Some took matters into their own hands and used their first amendment right to protest.
The word “Vietnam” means multiple things to many people today. To many, it means a conflict that was highly payed attention to for eight years of American life. To others, who fought in it, it entails the friendships and sorrows of combat, or ...
The Vietnam War has had its effects on America, both good and bad. We can ridicule it, we can deny it, we can say it was for the best, we can say we shouldn't have even gotten involved, but the one thing we can't do is ignore it. Because it's become an unforgettable part of history, and we all need to remember Vietnam.
In the midst of the Vietnam war, songs arose about much more threatening subjects. These songs reflect this generation’s increasingly likelihood of being critical of both the war and the government as compared to past generations. The first sign of...
On April 30, 1967, Riverside Church, in New York, Martin Luther King gave a speech about how the Vietnam War was wrong in front of three thousand people. Most of his audience was church leaders. The speech was about twenty minutes. He stated that he is not only preaching about God, he also cared about the conditions of Vietnamese people in the war. In his speech, he claimed that the war was evil and unjust and it should be stopped. Martin Luther King used unexpected words, religious imagery, and his credibility to show the ugly side of the Vietnam War in his speech.
That was a huge budgets that American wasted on the Vietnam War. However, United States did not only lose their money, but they also lost their well-trained troops. A lot of soldiers, poet writers, musicians, and other American protested against the American government about the Vietnam War because U.S. government did not want to stop the war. The song “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” by Country Joe was one of the anti-Vietnam War songs. There is a repeating paragraph throughout the song:
Vietnam was a small Asian country, 9000 miles away from the United States. Yet America felt that its national interest was threatened strongly enough to fight a war there. The explanation for this lies in the fear caused by the spread of communism at that time. The role of communism was extremely important in this conflict. You see, the US had to enter the war to stop the spread of communism in Asia since North Vietnam was communist. If North Vietnam was to succeed in converting Vietnam into a communist country , it could become very powerful and go on to persuade other countries to become communist.
Today I have more updates on the war in Vietnam. In May Vice President Lyndon Johnson went to visit the President of South Vietnam, President Diem. Johnson deemed President Diem as the “Winston Churchill of Asia”. That same month of Johnson’s trip to South Vietnam, we decided to send in forces, known as advisory forces, to train and prepare South Vietnamese soldiers for battle in case something happened, we want them to be prepared just as much as we are. Unfortunately, on November 2, President Diem and his brother were kidnapped and killed by a group of soldiers, when this happened we as the United States felt that we needed to become more involved in Vietnam because we wanted to help them fight against the communist rebels and their increasing
There's a group of people called Vietnam War Veterans. Vietnam Veterans are men and women who served in the Vietnam War and are still alive today. During the war American planes dropped seven million tons of weapons. But they didn't just drop weapons they dropped napalm and chemical defoliants, known as agent orange today. Not only did the napalm take lives, it ruined cities, farmland, and vegetation. After the war ended and the soldiers returned home and instead of being kindly welcomed like other soldiers of past wars they instead were received with a combination of embarrassment and indifferences. They had things thrown at them and they were called names such as “baby killers”.(Conatore,2016) They were harassed and abused by anti-war protesters. As if coming home wasn't difficult enough some veterans had a hard time adjusting to normal everyday life. Everyday life was hard for some veterans due to flashbacks and not yet adjusting but others it was because of health reasons. Many of the Vietnam veterans were struck with napalm and if their life wasn't taken by it that until this day suffer from it. The United states Government is still paying for the outcome that affected their soldiers during the Vietnam War. (Thompson,2008)(Southey,2008)
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as