The Vietnam War caused a spike in American deaths in the 1960’s. Even more Vietnamese citizens died due to United States troops. Children in South Vietnam wandered the streets as they yell for their dead parents. Soldiers lose their sanity over seas and kill there own United States soldiers. Even though the government told citizens the war would be over soon, the war seemed like a never ending battle full of ruthless killings and long suffering deaths. These just adds on to the many reasons why I oppose our involvement in our soldiers being in the war. I do believe that it is good of us to try and contain any type of communism. I think we should have just provided aid and support instead of risk young American lives in battle. If we had …show more content…
Casualty reports rose as the war drug on. Though there was more Vietnamese soldiers dying than there were on the United States side, American soldiers were still dying at a rate of one hundred soldiers per week. Booby traps cover the jungle floor trappin soldiers as if they were animals, as bombs rained from the sky like hail. Severely burned Vietnamese citizens run into gunfire away from towns and villages as they see their homes burning to ground. The Tet Offense just showed how truly ruthless these North Vietnamese soldiers were. Both sides had agreed to take a “cease of fire” during the this Vietnamese holiday. North Vietnam decided it would be a “wonderful” idea to kill hundreds of unexpecting soldiers and Southern Vietnam citizens. Even though the United States technically won this battle, we had still suffered severely. This cause our President to finally realize that it might be a good idea to pull out all soldiers. Even though we promised to aid South Vietnam with everything we can, the wounded and scared Vietnamese citizens clung to military aircraft as we left with the last of our exhausted soldiers. Once again I completely disagree with our soldiers being overseas in this war. It is outrageous to be in a war for over ten plus year and to consciously have death everywhere. This was a loss for Vietnam and the United States with no true winner in the end. So many died and so many more suffered all for the spread
The Vietnam War was one of the most intense, stressful and exhilarating wars to fight due to the factors of fear and not knowing the surrounding environment. Vietnam’s land is a jungle filled with natural dangers. Monsoons were common on the Vietnam land, which made harsh wet and hot fighting conditions. Animals such as snakes and scorpions made it dangerous to wander blindly in the jungle. On top of all the natural dangers and conditions of the land, the communist enemy known as the Vietcong were known for their use of booby traps such as bear traps, wooden stakes applied to dangerous designs, and use of poison. American soldiers found these factors made it hard to fight a war and found it even harder to fight when the U.S Army couldn’t discriminate the enemy from civilians. The Vietcong and South Vietnamese were the same people with different views, so this made war hard to fight when it is nearly impossible to identify the enemy. The use of guerrilla warfare made it difficult to beat the enemy in a foreign jungle terrain. The Vietcong having the upper hand in almost every aspect of the war made warfare conditions very stressful for American soldiers. Most of the American soldiers were already experiencing anxiety and stress due
The American involvement in the Vietnam War was a very controversial decision, with many people being for the war, however many people in the United States were also against the war. The Vietnam War was the longest lasting war in the United States history, before the Afghanistan War, in which most people felt strongly about, be them United States citizens, Vietnamese citizens, or just the global population. In order to better understand the ideas of those American citizens that are either for or against the war, one would have to look at the reasons that the United States was involved in the war, the impact of the Vietnam war on the American society, and the impact on the United States foreign policy.
The Vietnam War was not only a battle, but it also marked the lives of those involved.
Like a moth to a flame, the United States has always been attracted to international affairs. In this particular case communism in Vietnam was the flame that leered American bugs in, not knowing that they would be brutally burned by communism in the end. From 1953 to 1961, all the initial decisions involving Vietnam were made by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who once served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe as well as the first Supreme Commander of NATO. Thus, Eisenhower was very knowledgeable about war issues and was prepared to tackle pending conflicts and avert the dispersal of communism when he came into office. Communism was an immense fear of this great patriot, who witnessed to the “Red Scare” during the
“War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” ~ Bertrand Russell. The famous quote from Bertrand Russell describes the reality of war. War only lets the powerful and the wealthy side win and not the righteous side. On an average 378,000 people die each year at war while 1,450,000 people died in the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war started on 1 November 1955 and lasted until 30 April 1975. The war was fought between the North Vietnamese Communist government and the South Vietnamese Communist rebels known as the Viet Cong against the non-Communist South Vietnamese government and their ally U.S.A. The war destroyed the life of both, the North and South Vietnamese along with the other nations that took part in it. More than 1 million people were killed including civilians and over 3 million injured. Thousand were wives were left widows and hundreds of kids orphans. After consistent protests by the Americans, U.S.A withdrew from the later stages of war. The Vietnam War is a depiction that wars are murky and filthy and should be circumvented as they bring agony and desolation to the people. To show this I used three different mediums which are - Political Cartoon “Name a
“On October 17, 1973, Arab oil producers declared an embargo that drastically limited the shipment of oil to the United States” (OPEC 1). Arab countries refused to sell oil to the United States because of the Yom Kippur War, a war between Egypt and Israel. In this war, United states was backing up Israel by supporting them and giving them weapons, which angered Arab leaders. Arabs started limiting the shipment of oil to the United States. The embargo, however, brought crisis to the US with unequal proportions. US citizens were very panicky because of the shortage of gas and oil. Ultimately, the US economy slowed down, leaving its’ citizens to to be dependent on domestic resources. Shipment of oil in the country dropped by 1 million barrels,
I do not believe that it was in the best interests of the United States to get involved in Vietnam. It's true that the US was trying its best to stop the spread of Communism and the influence of the USSR (i.e. the Truman Doctrine). While that was an important aspect of the Cold War, the real goal of the Cold War was to "win the hearts and minds of the world." The later aspect was by far the most important, and the main reason why the US should have stayed out of Vietnam.
The Vietnam War started as the US assisting the French to keep its colony in the region called Indochina but became a war that symbolized everything wrong with the cold war and the United States. The conflict in Vietnam was a contentious considering that it was an undeclared war that used American men to control a third world country and resulted in a bloodbath of civilian deaths. The death of civilians and body count policy was a byproduct of the pressures created by the Cold War on the US government toward its military, and the guerilla tactics of the Vietcong pressuring US military to use deaths as a measure of success, which was helped by their rejection of the rules of engagement. All these pressures created an army of young men that was
O’Brien changes his mind to go to war because of social pressures, consequences of not participating or running away, and the embarrassment from everyone if he decided not to go to war. Participating in the Vietnam War was a very hard decision that had been forced upon men during the war. Men that did choose to go to war to support America in the battle were showing, “...simple minded patriotism, their prideful arrogance, their love-it-or-leave-it platitudes…” going off to the war is complicated and all participants don’t understand why and “...perhaps didn't want to understand” (43). The pressure from the society, drafting, and friends in which urged O’Brien to participate in the war, he had no other choice to fight, but at first he is not
The dilemma of whether Americans were willing to fight in the Vietnam War seems to boil down to the fact that a large group of American men were not willing and sometimes non-compliant. Having been in two World Wars relatively recently (both of which Americans as a whole were not willing to join) it would make sense that the American people largely would not want to fight a war that was not immediately nor in the foreseeable future a threat to our safety and freedoms. On March 31, 1966, 11 members belonging to a group known as the Committee of Non Violent Action publically resisted the draft, burning their draft cards as self-proclaimed “pacifists.” The protesting members of the CNVA were assaulted by a large crowd of over 250 pro-war protestors
“Why? Why was America involved in such brutal war to stop a brand new country from forming? Shouldn 't we support that because that 's what happened to us.” That was my very first question when my grandfather first told me about the most brutal and longest wars America has ever been in, the Vietnam War. America’s involvement in the conflict was to stop the evil and corrupt system of Communism. French forces were dead meat unless America teamed up with them. Unfortunately, this didn 't stop the nonmoral army under Ho Chi Minh. The United Sates did not win the Vietnam War due to strong motivation, Guerrilla warfare, and the political factors in the United States.
I assure you that the grip of fear and anxiety for loved ones in combat will not be eternal. North Vietnam with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad. Advance Australia.
Over thirty years ago the Vietnam War ended, and the U.S. came back home with their tails between their legs and nothing to show for other than a high number of casualties, and a huge pile of debt. The U.S. underestimated the North Vietnamese army, and it was costly. Many believe that the Vietnam War was none of the U.S. business, but on the contrary, many believe we should have tried to stop the spread of communism. The long-lasting Vietnam War was unnecessary for the U.S. to be a part of; it put many people through unneeded stress and hard times.
The Vietnam War was a tragic part of the United States’ history that to this day holds a great deal of mystery and a lack of information. It was an unpopular war, taking place from 1955 to 1975, with surmountable losses on each side. Forty years later, the consequences of the Vietnam War are still prevalent in the side effects of Agent Orange, post-traumatic stress disorder of soldiers, and the national debt. Though those are significant problems, the biggest influence of the Vietnam War that impacted Americans was the staggering number of soldiers killed in action, missing in action, or taken as prisoners of war. Vietnam was a danger zone where no life was guaranteed, bodies were hard to recover dead
The Vietnam War is most deadliest war for U.S. History. Most of the U.S. citizens have no idea why U.S. soldiers were over there is the first. This caused people to get mad. Plus this was the time news caster were there during the war reporting for the U.S. People saw that they were using a chemical that destroyed the jungle, but also if the chemical go into your body you would start to puff up. Women who were pregnant and the chemical got into their body there baby would have deformities like no arms or I leg is bigger than the other one. With all of this happening the U.S. soldier were criticized and were called names when coming back to America. Vietnam Soldiers were treated unfairly when they returned