Vietnam War remains vastly different from other United States military engagements and warfare. Specifically, the Vietnam War marked the first combat deployment of an integrated military. The Vietnam War saw the highest proportion of blacks ever to serve in an American war, which is due to both the discriminatory draft pick and the individuals willingly to join in hope to increase mobility in social status. Furthermore, African Americans were discriminated at home but also within the United States military, it became a war within a war. The Vietnam War coincided with the protests of the Civil Rights Movement and expansion of Black Power.
In this paper an interview, speech, image, and audio is utilitzed to explain the
The oral history interview with Doug Smith helps to establish a foundation which sheds light to the understanding of African Americans in the Vietnam War and their encounters with racial discrimination. Smith decided to join the United States army because he saw an opportunity to prove this worth to his country after the end of segregation
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A male demonstrator holds a poster that states "No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger". The statement was coined by African American boxer, Muhammad Ali’s, in which he originated stated it in his refusal to partake in the Vietnam War. The message in Figure 1 is straightforward, it raises the question to why African Americans should fight against Vietcong’s when they have never done anything to them, but the white people whom they are fighting alongside are prejudice towards them. In addition, they are “forcing” some to fight in the war. Volunteers and draftees of the war included numerous exasperated African Americans whose impatience with the war, malicious treatment by fellow white military men, and the hindrance in racial progress in the United States triggered race riots on various ships and military