Vietnam War Thesis

The Vietnam War. A war associated with more than just guerilla warfare and bombing runs, but with its great impact on America. The Vietnam War was never formally declared a war, yet it is one of the worst and bloodiest wars of American history. The war had a great and lasting impact on American society. The bloody Vietnam war, fought in Vietnam of Southeast Asia over communism, greatly impacted American society.

As the USA went to war with Vietnam, people in America had different opinions. Some people supported the war, while others were against it. “When liberals who had supported Johnson on civil rights and programs such as medicare and Head Start broke with him over the war he deemed them ‘nervous nellies’” (Brash and Britton 132). Some

Young people distrusted many adults over thirty. Although, adults over thirty began marching with young people to protest. “Martin Luther King Jr., the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was a relative latecomer to the movement. Reluctant to break with President Johnson because he championed civil rights legislation, King finally came out against the war in 1967” (Brash and Britton 130). Eventually, supporters of President Johnson, like Martin Luther King Jr., began to take on a different view of America’s efforts in Vietnam. Many pro-war protestors used the American flag, where-as the anti-war protestors used the peace sign and called themselves peaceniks (Brash and Britton 126). While the two groups had different ways of distinguishing themselves, they both held peaceful protests with very few exceptions. On August 28 in Chicago, 12,000 police, 5,000 national guard, and 6,000 Army soldiers skirmished with 3,000 protestors at the convention hall where delegates were debating policy over Vietnam (Brash and Britton 134).

He was pro-war. There were two different types of politicians during Vietnam. Hawks and doves. Hawks believed that going to war would help stop the spread of communism. They were against appeasement and thought that supporting the South Vietnamese helped American credibility (Seely). Doves argued that Vietnam was unwinnable (Seely). They also said that it is not the nation’s priority and that the war could bring in China or the Soviet Union (Seely). “Most of LBJ’s political advisors were hawks, people favoring expanded military in Vietnam” (Seely). In 1965, he sent 184,000 soldier, which was increased to 385,000 in 1966 and 500,000 in 1967 (Seely). While he sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Vietnam, he was also crafty in the way of trying to get the Vietnamese to negotiate. President Johnson would bomb Vietnam and stop bombing Vietnam to get a settlement of war, but the communists would not negotiate (Seely). “What moved the the Johnson administration to act was its desire to reinforce the credibility of the United States as an ally” (“Vietnam War”). Although Johnson tried to do what was best for the nation, he lost much support. “On March 31, 1968, realizing that he had lost the trust of a divided nation, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection” (Brash, Britton