The causes of the Vietnam War were as a direct result of and as a consequence of the Cold War. However, neither the Soviet Union nor the United States could risk an actual war against each other, due to the nuclear military power they both possessed. Many proxy wars did in fact develop consequentially; Vietnam being of the most vivid examples. In Vietnam, the Americans actually became directly militarily involved. And in order, to support their Communist cause, Russia armed China, who in turn, equipped the North Vietnamese to fight the Americans. Out of 2,594,000 people who served in Vietnam, there were 58,220 American dead and 153,303 wounded. More than 23,214 soldiers were completely disabled. In the entire war, the United States spent about …show more content…
The movements began small among peace activists on college campuses but gained national recognition in 1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam. Anti-war marches and other protests attracted a widening base of support over the next three years. On October 21, 1967, one of the most prominent anti-war demonstrations took place, as thousands of protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial; approximately 30,000 continued in a march to the Pentagon. After a violent confrontation with the soldiers and U.S. Marshals protecting the building, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. The anti war movements were also supported and sometimes received direct involvement from many highly influential figures. 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