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House Beautiful Bringing The War Home Analysis

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House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home a photomontage series by Martha Rosler is an interesting exploration of American society during the Vietnam War, and could be applied to today’s society as well. The series examines the apparent ignorance that is prevalent in American homes during the war as a result of media exposure, and how, from a socio-political standpoint, that affects society as a whole. Rosler uses superimposed images to convey the disconnectedness of the American home with the reality of conflict as a result of the sheltering limitations of media. Through the juxtaposition of images of family life and of war, Rosler portrays the contrast of the disillusioned American home and the realities of war. During the Vietnam War, Americans were very sheltered from the actual events of the war. Much of the exposure to the war was through television, dubbed a “living-room war,” which was easily manipulated by social and political influences to portray war in such a way as to disillusion the American people. The people were getting a …show more content…

Though directed at society during the Vietnam War, and a later series on the war in Iraq, the same idea in House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home can be applied to society today and the conflicts in the Middle East. Media is still a very large influence on how well the American people understand the conflicts in the world. Like in the Vietnam War, society today is distanced from the contention that occurs in the Middle East. More or less, the American people live in impunity, not directly affected by global conflict. There have only been a few instances of conflict that have occurred on American soil, particularly 9/11, the Boston bombing, and various shootings. Because of this, the American people are still very sheltered, however, not quite as much as was previous to the 21st

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People back home were naive to the actions that were being taken in Vietnam because they were lacking in communication. In the novel “Fallen Angels” you can tell that the soldiers were very timid with what they said in their letters that were sent back home. Most letters sent back home were about the little things that brought them joy like playing games with kids. Not many actually said they went into battle or fought in a bullet parade. They would ask them what it's really like over there because they could see what was happening on TV, but media blocked a lot of reality from the war and the graphic effects.

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In a “Vietnam Veterans against the war”, John Kerry’s comment on President Nixon not wanting to become, “the first President to lose a war,” illustrates just how insistent Nixon was on maintaining a superior Presidential image of power. Ironically, Nixon has one of the more, if not the most, tarnished Presidential image due to the Watergate scandal. Kerry’s speech drove the idea that the Veterans fighting in Vietnam did not believe that they were there to do good and did not feel that they were the “heroes” liberalizing the Vietnamese from the dangers of communism. As he notes, most people there did not understand the difference between communism and democracy. The freedom the Vietnamese sought was liberation from the helicopters, the bombs,

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The Vietnam War was a war which many people felt negative about, this attitude became especially true after the Tet Offensive took place. Northern Vietnamese forces attacked the South and Americans on the Tet Holiday in hopes to start revolutions in major cities. The outcome was decreased support for the war in America, slowed economy in the south, and a loss in moral for the north. The Tet Offensive proved to be a smart offense by the North, yet did not reach the desired outcome and was not a victory for either side.

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The United States was directly involved in the Vietnam War from 1964 through 1974. A major event in this war was the Tet Offensive, which profoundly affected American history by impacting our politics, economy, military, and society. The Tet Offensive affected politics by influencing the presidential elections of 1968. It affected the American economy, boosting personal prosperity with new jobs but greatly increasing the national debt, due mainly to the vast amounts of money spent on the war effort after the Tet Offensive. The military was affected by the offensive because of America’s increased involvement in South Vietnam, and the fact that many people in the military realized that this was a war we could not win.

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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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Taylor Price Tensions of Vietnam The Vietnam War was one of the most protested and hated wars ever fought by the United States. Though the end of previous wars were celebrated by civilians and soldiers alike, the Vietnam War never came to a victorious resolution. The soldiers of previous wars were loved and thanked for their service, while some Vietnam veterans felt ignored and even hated.

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1101 Words | 5 Pages

The Vietnam war took a major death toll in Vietnam, United States, South Korea, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. Just in the U.S., “more than 58,000 American soldiers were killed while more than 150,000 others wounded”. On both sides, there were almost 2 million civilians dead and 1.1 simply on the Vietnamese side. The My Lai Massacre, where soldiers brutally killed Vietnamese children and mothers, presents an example where the war mentally changed the soldiers in the war in a very horrendous way. On the other hand, the United States took brutal losses in the Tet Offensive, where the Vietcong slaughtered over 100 towns and twelve United States air bases.

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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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Also, newspapers revealed stories and government secrets that proved that the American people were being lied to ( New York Times vs. the United States). The Vietnam war is believed by some to be a war deeply rooted in economics. Many aspects of the United States were affected directly. The Great Society programs were suffering because the money that was put towards the war, could have been used to help poverty programs.

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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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