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. The people of the United States thanked their government for leading them to victory in previous wars, but not the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War drastically changed the relationship between the government and the people of the United States through economic, social, and political tensions. Throughout the war, economic tensions created a battle between the wealthy and the working class. These tensions developed because of the drastically different roles the rich and the middle class played in the war. James Fallows, a Harvard student at …show more content…
Martin Luther King Junior claimed the source of the tensions was that young black men were dying so that the Vietnamese could have rights which black Americans didn’t even have (Doc C). This caused social tension because young men were forced to die for “freedom” when their own communities were discriminated against and abused. Another social tension was caused by the decay of society while the Vietnam War raged on. The political cartoon “Onward and Upward” illustrates that President Johnson sacrificed the means to better society in order to finance the war (Doc D). This frustrated many Americans because they believed more money and effort should be put into education and healthcare, social issues which impacted nearly every American, but instead government funding went towards the war, which many Americans felt was entirely useless. Americans felt that their needs were ignored and that their government was more interested in fighting a war than protecting its people from oppression and