The big failure America in the Vietnam War is the shameful history of tragic scene for arrogant American, whose pain is still difficult to ease. The crucial event also had a profound impact on today 's international situation. It is believed that the failure included political, economic, military and cultural background and other aspects, which are that common. When it comes to the controversial subject, I hope to put forward some fresh views from where I stand. 1. Opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War The two events protested the war in Washington, D.C. On 24 April 1971 and Anti-Vietnam War demonstration in 1967 demonstrate a large number of the American population were opposed to U.S. involvement in the South Vietnam during the course of the Vietnam War. Public opinion was strongly against the war from 1967 to 1970, which resulted in only a third of Americans supposed that the U.S made a right decision over participating in Vietnam War. It is why special groups led the anti-war movement to avoid America 's involved in the Vietnam War. The anti-war movement grew increasingly popular in American society, which led to America lost numerous supporters. Some advocates with peaceful wishes advocated the U.S could withdraw troops sent to fight in the Vietnam Wars for the reason that it would contribute to less human bloodshed and less property damage in the region. Early opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam drew its attention in the Geneva Conference of
In A Better War Lewis Sorely presents his audience with a well thought out, and well written examination of the last years of the Vietnam War. In 1968 then commander William Westmorland was superceded by General Creighton Adams(16-17). Several vitally important events during the war had taken place under the direction and leadership of Adams but by the time he had taken over, the people and media of the United States were declining in their concern towards the war in Vietnam. Because of this limited amount of attention towards the end of the war, most of the media coverage having to do with it focused on the time before Tet, when the tensions were high revolving the topic of Vietnam. Sorely points this fact out, using material that was only available in recent times, he delivers to us a swift and corrective story in which the little known truths are brought to light.
At the time of the Vietnam War, Australia reinstated conscription to increase the ADF’s (Australian Defence Force) manpower. Though this legislation came with a stern opposition. Nick Irving who has a PhD in history comments within his article “Between 100,000 and 200,000 people thronged the streets of the country's capital cities, emphatically announcing that they did not support their government's involvement in the Vietnam War, or conscription of the nation's youth to fight it.”(Nick Irving, 2010, Online). This demonstrates the enormous amount of discouragement the public had within the matter of conscripting young men to go to a war many thought Australia should not have been involved in the first place.
Then they could negotiate peace. The advantage of option two was that most citizens were in favor of it. The people of the United States especially the young were opposed to the drafts. The advantage of option 1 was that the American troops would be more hands on and would directly be involved in fighting the Vietcong and Northern Vietnam. 3.
With the U.S having countless troops the North Vietnamese kept fighting even though at the end there was no hope. Without having a end goal that was easily obtainable made the war go on for as long as it did. Document 9 is talking about how we need to secure peace soon and that the north vietnamese people are waging war against us and that we are just trying to help the southern people secure freedom. This sums up the endless cycle of the war as we continue to support the south the north vietnamese kept pushing to end the war. Document 1 also supports this as it states that individual/ Personal Business cannot wage war as well as it says that those who are attacked should deserve to be attacked.
Furthermore, many Americans argued against joining the war, as there were many problems in the education system and the economy. Although America supported the Vietnamese refugees by providing them a place to escape, many of them struggled
The American people had no desire to join WWII, we had just pulled out of The Great Depression and WWI and we didn't want anymore troubling times. We had lost many American Troops during WWI and we were just recovering from The Great Depression.
Hiroshima is widely known as the city in Japan that was targeted by a nuclear bomb. The United States connection to the event impacted another war after the end of World War II, which was the Cold War. There were many actions that were taken before the rise of fear from another nuclear launch began to surround the minds of most people in the World. Furthermore, Micamble book From Roosevelt to Truman exemplifies the notion that Truman decisions leading up to the bombing would create chaos across the globe along with nuclear fear. However, the fact that the United States was the only country to launch a bomb during war-time continues to raise the question if it was an ethical option.
Hi, Bartholomew, In my view, I believed that the Vietnam War was not justifiable. However, I appreciate analogy points of this war. First, I agree with your point that the war helped slowed the spread of communism. On the other hand, you made reference about how the nation of Vietnam ideology of communism and it allowed other countries to adopt this way of government. I agree with that thought to the fullest.
First of all, when going into Vietnam, America did not have a clear picture of what they wanted to happen. They knew they did not want to communism to spread, but then what after that? Because of this, even with the help of South Vietnam America could not defeat North Vietnam and could not stop the spread of communism. By the time the Iraq war came around, America had learned its lesson. Instead of going in and playing defense the whole time, America had a real plan.
Public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against
They heard about the injuries and death due to the guerilla tactics and jungle warfare used by the North Vietnamese/Vietcong. This type of warfare was tactics of using booby traps, surprise ambush, land mines, and planting bombs in towns which could kill American troops anywhere they go, which led to a heavy psychological burden on the American soldiers. Because of this, it was very difficult fighting for our American troops. There were 58,000 United States of America soldiers that were killed in the Vietnam War. Another opposition with the Vietnam War was the political aspects of government in modern society.
If I remember correctly, the reason that caused the anti-vietnam war in the domestic(U.S) is because people are more aware of the war due to television as well as photography. If people
In March of 1968, only 2 months after the beginning of the attack, 56% of the public approved of a ‘government-led withdrawal.” The popularity continued to decline and all polls after 1968 showed that more than 50% of people disliked American involvement in the war. The amount of people who were against the war in the months following the Tet Offensive prove that the events caused more people to want America to opt out of being involved in the
V. Conclusion O 'Brien brings up many instances that show how things went wrong in the Vietnam War, not only because important problems were overlooked at the time but also because the American public sought at first to erase the war from their collective memories. Many Vietnam Veterans felt isolated from the American mainstream after they returned from service. After the period of erasure ended, the public commemoration, through movies and stories, sought to supplant the reality of Vietnam with a more endearing story that could be cherished as much as the myths that surround World War II, “O 'Brien points out that the evils of the Vietnam War are not merely forgotten, but all but deleted from American mythology and memory” (Ooms 26).
The civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. went public with his opposing views to the war on moral grounds, as well as Boxer Muhammad Ali who resisted his conscription into service during the Vietnam War. Ali, declared himself a "conscientious objector," earning a prison sentence and a ban from