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Apocalypse Now Essay

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A Renewed Sense of Hopelessness: American Sentiment Following the Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1955-1975) was overwhelmingly unpopular among Americans because it was one of the longest modern wars and they were losing so many civilians. The Vietnam War was the first “television war,” during which television became one of the main forms of media that informed civilians about the war. In addition to that, there were many prominent Vietnam War films that came out shortly after the war came to an end, playing a role in how Americans interpreted and remembered the war. Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) explores how soldiers abandon a certain aspect of themselves in order to contribute to the all-encompassing war effort. Lieutenant Colonel …show more content…

During the Air Cavalry’s attack on Charlie’s Point. he blasts Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” utilizing both traditional weapons and psychological warfare, in order to terrorize Viet Cong civilians and boost his soldiers’ morale. The scene shows a peaceful Viet Cong village quickly being evacuated as civilians hear the song coming from the approaching helicopters. The view intercuts Viet Cong soldiers and civilians panicking and evacuating, with a view of the attack from the helicopter. In “The Spectacle of War and the Specter of ‘The Horror’: ‘Apocalypse Now’ and American Imperialism,” Keith Solomon claims that this aligns the audience with the Americans (Solomon). In addition to that, Solomon criticizes the discrepancy in portrayals of deaths of Viet Cong and Americans: whereas American injuries “are made to look horrible [which] elicits a sympathetic response . . . Vietnamese casualties, in contrast, are shown as entertainment” (Solomon). For instance, when an American soldier is wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore demands that his soldier receive immediate medical attention. Although Solomon’s claim is true, this scene holds American soldiers accountable for their unjust attack on civilians because it depicts them as terrorizing the Viet Cong; the audience’s view from the attacker’s

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School Bus Farmers’ Market: Farm to Family In the first chapter of School Bus Farmers’ Market by Katherine Gustafson, she takes her audience, US citizens, alongside her as she accompanies Mark Lilly on his journey to various farms and acreages to gather a variety of produce for which to sell at a market, in the hopes of decreasing the impact the US food system is making. Mark runs a small business named Farm to Family, providing more fresh and local choices to family shoppers. Gustafson’s purpose in the writing of this passage is not to entertain, but to persuade the reader that while some changes are needed to increase the efficiency of the US food system, simply buying local is not the solution. Gustafson’s argument is effective because

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The Vietnam War spanning over two decades was a complex conflict that was fought through America’s outlook of containing communism in Europe. The multifaceted perspectives of the Vietnam War and unclear military objectives caused confusion for soldiers. As a result, a majority of soldiers felt pushed into a war that they didn’t fully understand, leading to lifelong psychological consequences. Although many believe soldiers are fearless and can tolerate the trauma of war, in The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien illuminates the underlying effects of war on soldiers that aren't immediately apparent to the naked eye, highlighting the physical and emotional struggles within soldiers' daily lives. O’Brien’s use of figurative language immerses readers

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O’Brien captures real-life events that he experiences first-hand in Vietnam. Including the incomprehensive presence of brutality, a disturbing lack of value for the lives of innocent Vietnamese civilians, and the soldier’s experiences with guerrilla warfare. These factors together encompass the main points in Tim O’Brien’s argument and give valid evidence that helps the reader grasp that America had little to no morally justifiable reason to become involved in the Vietnam

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This portrayal reveals the shared humanity of the soldiers on both sides and how in war beauty and horror

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As David Farber illustrates in The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s, “Between the summer of 1964, when the Johnson administration achieved passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and the April 1965 antiwar rally, the American combat role in Vietnam had escalated greatly” (141).   In the mid 1960s, a bloody and violent war was in full swing overseas between Vietnamese and American soldiers. On the American home front though, citizens of the US began to question whether it was wise to remain in the war or pull American troops back home. Two major groups began to spring up: advocates for the war and those against it.

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War, Belief and Emotion People comprehend war very differently; they either hate it, understand it, or love it; there are many literary works with stories depicting these points of view. In 1990, author Tim O’Brien described his view of war with his “work of fiction” The Things They Carried, a book supposedly based on his experiences in the Vietnam War. His descriptive and emotional work richly depicts the feelings and activities of several drafted soldiers in the Vietnam War. Twenty-two years later and based on an entirely different war, came American Sniper, the memoir of a sniper in the Iraq War, by Chris Kyle. Kyle’s proud and rhapsodizing work depicts his strong supportive feelings for the war and what he did there.

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In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

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In “A Rumor of War”, Philip Caputo goes into detail about the psychological effects that fighting in the Vietnam War had on American military personnel beyond just their physical injuries. The war was hard on all the people involved. The war deeply affected the values, ethics, and cultural norms of those involved. Caputo exposes the raw reality of war, he paints a vivid portrait of the loss of innocence, moral ambiguity, desensitization to violence, and the trauma that followed them after the war was over. Through the experiences of him and other people, Caputo illustrates the emotions and struggles that defined the Vietnam War generation.

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1. The carnage, death-toll, and emotional impact that the Vietnam War brought a very negative impact upon America as a nation. Being the first televised war in United States History, public support exponentially dropped over the course of four to five years. This brought great changes within the political climate as well as upon the well-being of the veterans who managed to survive and return home, causing this be one of America’s most disastrous war. However, while the Vietnam War was raging on, it is also important to acknowledge and analyze the change in social climate that occurred throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s. As more protests arose in opposition towards the war effort, several minority groups took advantage of the situation and formed

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One of the most controversial wars in history and a turning point in American foreign policy, the emotions and events surrounding the Vietnam War capture the essence of the era. The rise of rebellious youth culture and anti-war and anti-draft movements were key social aspects of American life leading up to and during the fighting. (Doc 2, 3) On the political side, Congress aimed to control the Chief-Executive with legislation such as the War Powers Act of 1973, requiring the president to remove all unreported troops in Vietnam and report any further sent. (Doc 7) To say the country was divided would be a massive understatement.

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The Vietnam War saw over 58,000 United States soldiers lose their lives in the eight years the U.S. was involved. The heavy loss of life ignited a wildfire of outrage in public opinion, causing nationwide protests and distress to end the war and bring the troops back. Many Americans discovered that using their techniques with the arts was the best way to challenge government decisions and influence the collection of Americans who opposed involvement in Vietnam. These actions affected pop culture heavily through the use of public protest, creating anti-war art, and putting.

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Television coverage of the war was more open than in any previous military engagement, and the specifics and violence of the Vietnam War became dinner conversation in many homes. As the draft continued, young people in general and college students in particular began learning about the history of Vietnam, and they began to question U.S. involvement in this conflict. Many, if not most, came to reject the idea that this war was just. Editorials and newscasts of specific pivotal events gave credence to this rejection by young people and caused some older Americans to change their perception of our role in this conflict as

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1524 Words | 7 Pages

The war in Vietnam to do this day has gone down as one of the influential and controversial wars in United States history. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.The nation as a whole began to uproar over the war and the major consequences of the war. There were many reasons why so many Americans were against the war. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam (Wikipedia). Not to mention, many young people protested because they were the ones being drafted while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the counterculture and drug culture in American society and

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1777 Words | 8 Pages

Captain Willard is sitting on the edge of the boat with sweat dripping down his face while multiple dead bodies droop over in the sampan that has brought Captain Willard to the conclusion of how America has created this lie of war to destroy their own soldiers' lives. Vietnam existed both internally as well as externally for U.S. soldiers experiencing the psychological and military landscape of war. Apocalypse Now directed by Francis Coppola is set in 1970 during the Vietnam War and brings in events from the Vietnam War to further their point of the effects that violence has on the soldiers who fought in the war. The film addresses the good and evil of corrupted ideas through the war. The events that Coppola brought into the film relate to

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Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of Sources The purpose of this investigation is to explore the question: How did the Tet Offensive change American public opinion on the Vietnam War? The focus of the investigation will be on the years 1965-1970 in order to allow for analysis of American public opinion from the beginning of American involvement to the years following the Tet Offensive. Sources analyzing the Tet Offensive as a whole and American public opinion on the Vietnam War will be used to accurately determine the effects of the Tet Offensive on American public opinion. The first source that will be evaluated is the book “The Tet Offensive,” which was written by Marc Gilbert and William Head in 1996.

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