World War 1 Outline

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.

As more and more troops were being sent to Vietnam, and the casualties began to rise, people began to question the government’s involvement. “Even military troops came to mistrust their government’s reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washington’s claims that the war was being won”.(Vietnam War) The Vietnam war was the first war to be broadcast on television. This meant that for the first time the American people were able to see the war instead of just hearing about it on the radio. They were able to see firsthand the soldier’s faces, see the reality of where they were fighting and to see the

World War I consisted of two different alliances, the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente included Great Britain, France and Russia who was allied with Serbia. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were part of the Triple Alliance (Document 2). Germany also signed a treaty with the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain grew close with Japan creating other alliances (455). Alliance systems meant that war between two countries meant war between all.

There were three alliance groups in Europe in 1914, which were The Triple Alliance, The Triple Entente, and the Neutral Nations. The Triple alliance was made up of Germany,Australia, and Italy. The Triple Entente was the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and Africa. The Neutral Nations were Portugal, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden. Romania, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire (DBQ Project Doc 3).

During the time the United States was in a war, the American public was sharply divided creating another war among its people. The war had transformed America to a different place with its defeat. It had far-reaching consequences and impact on most aspects of American life from the economy, culture to domestic politics and foreign policy. The Vietnam war created a time of uncertainty because so many had lost their trust in the government. With the end of the Vietnam war, the United States left with a humiliating defeat and shockingly high casualties.

The Vietnam War was a very long and messy war that started in 1954 and ended in 1975, although the United States joined in 1965. The united states projected the idea of stopping a Communist takeover of Vietnam as their main reason for joining the war. Soldiers fighting in the war were about two thirds volunteer and the rest were selected through the draft. This sparked outrage in many military aged men and was the beginning of the defiance towards the war. (thevietnamwar.info) With so many people fighting the war it was really supported overall by Americans at the start of the war. The Vietnam War affected the relationship between Americans and the government in many ways, some people it strengthened the idea of the government, and many people who were against the war rebelled in many ways to test the governments powers such as skipping the draft, protesting, or anti-war marches.

The Government during this time had lied to to public and made all the major decisions as shown in Document 4a. Many citizens did not believe that we should have even been involved in the war. Anti-war protests took place all over the country (Document 5a). The majority of college students were against war and skipped classes. 80 colleges across the country had closed for extended periods of time as shown in Document 5b. While all this was happening in America, tax money was constantly being used for war. America’s economy was very poor from funding the war effort (Document 4b).

In this essay I will be providing a summary and overview the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war changed America forever. The war damaged America's self image by becoming the first time in history that the U.S. failed to accomplish its "stated war aims". The Vietnam war was also the first war ever broadcasted on television. The war is a significant part of US history and influenced a generation.

The Vietnam War greatly changed America forever. It was the longest war fought in America’s history, lasting from 1955 to 1973. The Vietnam War tarnished America’s self image by becoming the first time in history the United States failed to accomplish its stated war aims, to preserve a separate, independent, noncommunist government. The war also had great effects on the American people. It was the first war ever broadcast on television. The public was able to see what happened on the battlefield. One of the chief effects of the war was the division it caused among the people. Not since the Civil War had America been so divided. This war would have lasting affects on the United States.

(History Place 1.). This was one of many alliances that would lead up to World War I. Some of the other alliances included Russia and France that was in reaction to the Triple Alliance, Britain and Japan’s Naval alliance, and Russia makes an agreement with Britain. All of these alliances took place between 1882 and 1910 to see who could make the most powerful alliance. During all this the United States remained neutral and was not getting involved in the tensions ongoing in Europe.

This war was the first was in which the media had no restrictions on what they could show the Archer 3 people. It is known as the T.V. War. Marshall McLuhan, a journalist from Regent's School of Communication and the Arts, said, "Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America--not on the battlefields of Vietnam"(Patterson). This was the first war to have been filmed.

The Vietnam War was the first televised war. This allowed news stations to bring the battles right to the television screen in someone’s home. The Vietnamese would use the American media to express their thoughts to the Americans. Americans were also able to see the brutal combat that was happening and get a first-hand experience of the war. Reporters had the ability to skew Americans’ views of the war by the way they reported. Since the Vietnam War was televised many people were influenced by the images they saw on their home television and caused them to take action.

The American public was not very supportive of the war near the end, but Bush continued on with it. He had to reassure people that it wouldn't be Vietnam. The Bush administration stated that the reason for fighting the war was the need for a "New World Order" in the aftermath of the Cold war. The U.S. wanted to get rid of Iraq's nuclear capabilities. The media played a major role in the unfolding of the Persian Gulf War. The media didn't give much attention to the negative parts of the war, such as the protests, and praised the military.

Austro-Hungary brought their allies, and Serbia also brought their allies to come. It was like a domino, allied countries bringing in their allied countries and making them involve into the war. The scale of the war grew bigger and bigger, involving most of the major powered countries in this period.

World War I was a tragic episode in European history. As with most wars, there were some causes that led to this event. A few of these causes were militarism, alliances, and imperialism. The first spark of the war was on June 28, 1914 when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist group called the Black Hand. The Austrian leaders demanded an apology from Serbia, they got upset and Russia said they would help Serbia. With no apology and the threat of Russia, on June 28 Austria-Hungary declared war on them; Russia in return declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany declared war on Russia, France on both Germany and Austria-Hungary. Finally Britain had joined France and Russia, then all of Europe was at war.