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The Bitter End Chapter Summary

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Tension Begins
General Lon Nol deposes of the Prince of Cambodia in March of 1970, the prince was aligned with the Cambodian Communists, the Khmer Rouge, to get rid of Lon Nol’s regime (Anderson, Kimball). Pol Pot leads the Khmer Rouge and he utilizes the popularity of the Prince to gather support for his movement (Anthology of Modern American Poetry Oxford, 2001). Lon Nol is defeated by Pol Pot and he implements his radical ideals to create his utopia, leading to the country’s population decreasing by 25% due to starvation, executions and overworking (Lewis & Hensley,1998). By March 31st 1970, the US becomes involved, bringing murder chargers against Captain Ernest L. Medina in relation to the massacre in My Lai in March of 1968 (Anthology …show more content…

Bringing in primary sources with interview the book addresses personal experiences on behalf of the US military (Dunham, Quinlan 1). The consensus from the interviews state that the majority of the soldiers had low moral or motivation to fulfill their duties (Dunham, Quinlan 43). Due to the social tension in their home country they said it was difficult to find the want to participate, but were rather forced into drafting implemented by Nixon (Dunham, Quinlan 56). In theory Nixon’s attempt to recruit backfired, forcing people to enlist was not the way to bring a country together in fact it only turns people away. According to a national scientific study by the Urban Institute in May of 1970, the Kent State massacre was the single factor, which resulted in the only national student protest in US history (Lewis & Hensley 1978). During this time, 4 million students took a stand putting their education on hold. President Nixon was pushed to the point of physical and emotional collapse and he promptly withdrew his US military invasion of Cambodia (Frisch 78). The wave of public opinion shaped the outcome of the Vietnam War, and the Kent State shootings contributed to this ignition (Langer

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