Their Escape from the War The Vietnam War was a difficult time for soldiers and the people on the home front. The soldiers were experiencing a completely different type of war, guerilla warfare. It was complete chaos and there were no organized battles or anyway to get a good attack on the Vietnamese soldiers, or the Vietcong as they were called. The soldiers were having to do unethical things and go against their will by killing these people. Sometimes even children and women had to be killed or at least threatened to get information out of them. Nobody could be trust and the soldiers were on edge their entire tour. This killing with little success caused the people at home to become frustrated and riot against the war. “A Gallup poll showed only 35 percent of the population approved of …show more content…
March 22, 2018
Kamienski, Lukasz. “The Drugs That Built a Super Soldier.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 8 Apr. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/. March 22, 2018
“PTSD: National Center for PTSD.” PTSD and Problems with Alcohol Use –U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 1 Jan. 2007, www.ptsd.va.gov/public/problems/ptsd-alcohol-use.asp. March 22, 2018
“Returning Veterans With Addictions.” Returning Veterans With Addictions, Psychiatric Times, 15 July 2011, www.psychiatrictimes.com/military-mental-health/returning-veterans-addictions. March 22, 2018
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O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
South Vietnam was low in troops and the U.S provided more soldiers to stand allies while they got casualties out of South Vietnam into safer ground. There was children and women who suffered injuries and some who died, but knowing there was help they had
The Vietnam war took a major death toll in Vietnam, United States, South Korea, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. Just in the U.S., “more than 58,000 American soldiers were killed while more than 150,000 others wounded”. On both sides, there were almost 2 million civilians dead and 1.1 simply on the Vietnamese side. The My Lai Massacre, where soldiers brutally killed Vietnamese children and mothers, presents an example where the war mentally changed the soldiers in the war in a very horrendous way. On the other hand, the United States took brutal losses in the Tet Offensive, where the Vietcong slaughtered over 100 towns and twelve United States air bases.
The recent losses and trauma had been slowly building up until they reached their boiling point at the My Lai Massacre. The Vietnam war was nothing America had ever experienced before. America was not used to the guerrilla warfare type of combat that the North Vietnamese and VietCong used. Often times U.S. soldiers did not know if someone was friendly or if someone was an enemy waiting to pounce on them the second they let their guard down. This uncertainty led to oversensitive and short fused soldiers who would lash out and do outrageous things due to the fear of losing their
Keywords that are most important to the documentary are, War on Drugs, incarceration, drug involvement/abuse, and racism. All of these words are loosely or heavily connected to each other. The words drug involvement/abuse highlight the purpose of the film, and the reasons for the War on Drugs and numerous laws created to fight drug abuse that cause death and destroy abiding citizens of communities. Furthermore, the War on Drugs simply labels the struggle against drug use and the governmental involvement to enforce anti-drug laws. The word incarceration and racism also link together to explain how as a result of the War on Drugs, the U.S. is one of the top countries with the highest imprisonment rate and more African-Americans or low-class minorities are convicted of drug crimes than any other ethnicity or social class.
In this part of the project, I chose to take actual field trip to Little Saigon, which is the heart of Vietnamese community in the United States of America. However, before I took I actual trip, I had chosen to look up some official information regarding Vietnamese community and why they moved to the United States so that I have an overview about my topic. After the Vietnam War ended in April 30, 1975, hundred thousands of Southern Vietnamese people fled to America with the hope to find a new, safe place for their settlement. Taking responsibility for being involved in the Vietnam War, American Congress passed different Acts such as the Indochina Refugee Act in 1975, the Refugee Act in 1980, and the Amerasian Homecoming Act in order to aid
They fought to try and stop communism from spreading further. “O'Brien was against the war but reported for service and was sent to Vietnam with what has been called the "unlucky" Americal division due to its involvement in the My Lai massacre in 1968, an event which figures prominently in In the Lake of the Woods. ”(Goodreads) Though O’Brien did not support this war “he has used his war stories to join the past to the future as he weaves them into the fabric of his characters and tells the reader how war experiences affect the ability to love and find peace in a post-war environment.” (D.Verne Morland, Digital Stationery International) O’Brien was “assigned to 3rd Platoon, A Company, 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry, as an infantry foot soldier.
Racial Profiling” as it’s known today was started in 1980’s under President Ronald Reagans’ “War on Drugs” (a war Reagan declared while drug use and crimes were both on the decline (4). Regan’s “War on Drugs” was a partisan show of force that he, Bush Senior and Junior and subsequent Presidents used to try and convenience people they were concerned with public safety and American citizens who had fallen victim to crimes committed by drug users and drug dealers. (Even, while it was widely reported Ronald Reagans’ son, Ronnie junior and former President George Bush Senior’s son, former President George Bush Junior were both smoking weed and snorting cocaine (4). While the “War on Drugs” was based on political motives, (that is not the full story) as the “war on drugs” in hindsight proved itself to be a social containment strategy and ultimately a “war” on black and brown surplus people ().
What has distinguished Vietnam veterans from most of their predecessors is that the public 's detestation of the war seemed to be directed onto them, as if it was their fault. Thus they did not return as heroes, but as men suspected in participating in shocking cruelty and wickedness or feared to be drug addicts. The combination of society rejecting them, the government ignoring them, and their families not understanding to them, caused Vietnam veterans to self-destruct both mentally and sometimes physically.
The hope and longing for normalcy for the people of Vietnam was outraged. Only one side of the story is seen when talking about War. The effects on the men in the military were horrifying however nothing is ever seen for the people at home. The families of Vietnam had to evacuate their homes over the years. Seeing
When looking at a scholarly journal or other form of report pertaining to controlled substances, the theme is usually pretty clear; “drugs are bad, people that do drugs are bad, and it’s only getting worse.” Moore challenges this theme by breaking the mold in his article, “The Other Opioid Crisis” by implementing several rhetorical devices to add a more human aspect to the not so black-and-white issue. “The Other Opioid Crisis” is an article that goes into the ethics and the arguments regarding those who are in need of opioids and their stories, alongside other ethical issues they may face. By providing stories of patients, Moore states his opinion which is backed strongly by the pains, both mentally and physically, that opioid prescribed patients face. In these stories he not only provides a detailed account of their struggles, he uses strong language to appeal to the pathos of the reader on a subject that may not be easy for many to sympathize with.
As the war progressed, the American public came to view the the war—and by default, the soldiers themselves—in a negative light. An article by Pew Research Center presents the differing attitudes during the Iraq War in its first five years. Initially, the war is viewed in a positive way, with 72% of those polled in favor of using military force and 88% describing the war as “going well” (Pew). However, the subsequent years show a shift in popular opinion, with only 38% of those polled in 2007 in favor of the use of military force in Iraq (Pew). Whether this is due to the rapid increase in deaths, the lack of “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, or just a general hatred of the Bush Administration, the public grew to detest this war that cost so much.
Even when Americans were victorious they had to be careful. In the victory people are tempted to rip down flags and steal the remaining useful supplies, but the Vietnamese wouldn’t let them get valuables that easily. They added explosives to flag poles, and supplies, even ballpoint pens could be rigged. The soldiers always had to be focused and ready for any kind of situations. These traps could be anywhere so the people first in line, or leading the group, always had to be extremely observant and gained a huge symptom of paranoia.
The soldiers in the Vietnams war were there for different reasons, some soldiers were forced against their will and some were there by choice. Because of that, each soldier has their own thoughts about the war, O’Brien has interpreted that “The twenty –six men were very quiet: some of them excited by the adventure, some of them afraid”. This clearly shows how the men
The Vietnam War was an experience for all Americans and it lasted a period of twenty painful years. The American military took a great amount of knowledge and lessons from the war in regards to their involvement in the Vietnam War, lessons that history cannot replace. The war stands as one of the defining events of the twentieth century. The war continues through the international system after nearly four decades after its end. Even though the emotional impact of this war have somewhat eased, the war still haunts the American imagination and has a major influence in the domestic politics, intellectual life and culture
Some may not be too familiar with the war on drugs and the effects it has had on the society we live in. The war on drugs was started by the Nixon administration in the early seventies. Nixon deemed drug abuse “public enemy number one”. This was the commencement of the war on drugs, this war has lasted to this day and has been a failure. On average 26 million people use opioids.