How Did The Vietnam War Affect People's Life

Vietnam was very gruesome and took half a million lives. These lives consisted of men that were drafted into the war by the Selective Services. These lives were mainly of a minority, or of lower social class. Protesters were against the draft because of the unfair rules.

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 Vietnam War was a war the United States should have never been involved in. The

In A Viet Cong Memoir, we receive excellent first hands accounts of events that unfolded in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from the author of this autobiography: Truong Nhu Tang. Truong was Vietnamese at heart, growing up in Saigon, but he studied in Paris for a time where he met and learned from the future leader Ho Chi Minh. Truong was able to learn from Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary ideas and gain a great political perspective of the conflicts arising in Vietnam during the war. His autobiography shows the readers the perspective of the average Vietnamese citizen (especially those involved with the NLF) and the attitudes towards war with the United States. In the book, Truong exclaims that although many people may say the Americans never lost on the battlefield in Vietnam — it is irrelevant.

The Vietnam War was fought to stop the spread of communism that threatened the United States way of life. War strategies that were used were harsh, major battles bloody, and war opposition at home was high. The leaders of our countries decisions caused devastating effects that not only shook our country but the whole world.

Did you know that thousands of American men died in the Vietnam War? Some people think this war was not a big deal but the loss of life American and Vietnamese makes it a big deal. Besides the loss of life, there were many emotional impacts during, and especially after, the Vietnam War. PTSD stands for post traumatic stress disorder. The soldiers, the country and the families of all the men in the war were all impacted by the war and especially by PTSD.

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo shows the hard work and difficult tasks the men had to go through to prove themselves and protect their country. The war will change the men’s attitudes and the way they do everything. Men made sacrifices in the Vietnam War most people would never make in a lifetime, they will not just sacrifice but push themselves physically harder than most any other men. The men will also emotionally change from constantly watching other men die, or killing other men. The mens first kill was always the hardest for them, mentally they had so many thoughts of the other mans close ones back home and what they would go through and how it would be all their fault.

Conclusion The U.S.’s involvement in the Vietnam War led to the revolutionary change of American society in how they chose to view their country’s government and how they choose to abide by its wishes. The war created an entire new movement of young adults who weren’t afraid to question what they viewed as injustice; they stood for peace and love, and protested for it. Draft evasion showed that the American people didn’t have to fight for a war that they didn’t believe in. The revelation of the Pentagon Papers showed that citizens had a right to know what their country was doing.

During the Vietnam War, another war broke out known as the Laotian Civil War. An organization and communist political movement called “Pathet Lao” from North Vietnam was trying to overthrow the Royal Lao Government. While this was happening the CIA recruited the Hmong led by general Vang Pao, (who were an ancient hill-tribe from the mountains of Laos) as a secret alliance, to help aid the Royal Lao Government. (Batson, 1991, “Birth of Pathet Lao” Para. 16) The United States and Hmongs involvement in this are now what is known as the Secret War, for it was kept a secret by the United States government.

In 2013 when Viet Thanh Nguyen began to write The Sympathizer, it had been 40 years since the Vietnam War. It had been 40 years since French and American military involvement ravaged a once beautiful countryside and littered lush forests with napalm. It had been 40 years since 2 million people were displaced from their country and left to die in the Pacific Ocean. In those 40 years, many works were published about the Vietnam War. These stories came from many, contrasting, perspectives.

During World War II, Japan had invaded Vietnam. The Viet Minh was created by Ho Chi Minh in order to combat against Japan and French colonial administration. While Japan pulled back their forces in 1945, the French were still in control of Vietnam. In the 1950s, the United States became involved due to fear that the Vietnamese rebellion would lead to a spread in global Communism. This domino effect theory was the belief that if a country became communist, surrounding countries would follow suit. Eventually, the French were defeated and the United States continued to get involved with Vietnam. Thousands of troops were sent to Vietnam and millions of Vietnamese were killed as well as the poisoning of entire regions. The war had essentially destroyed both North and South Vietnam. The Vietnam War is very infamous and it has had many consequences on the U.S society and Asian Americans for years to come.

By 1975 the Vietnam war had claimed over 5 million lives, many of which were civilians. This has made it a war that Americans have been ashamed of and tried to forget. W. S. Merwin was outspoken on how he felt about war, which he shows in “The Asians Dying.” He makes a statement on the inhumane way the Vietnam war took human lives. ” The Asians Dying” will shock readers with its gruesome imagery and force them to look at what war does.

In a “Vietnam Veterans against the war”, John Kerry’s comment on President Nixon not wanting to become, “the first President to lose a war,” illustrates just how insistent Nixon was on maintaining a superior Presidential image of power. Ironically, Nixon has one of the more, if not the most, tarnished Presidential image due to the Watergate scandal. Kerry’s speech drove the idea that the Veterans fighting in Vietnam did not believe that they were there to do good and did not feel that they were the “heroes” liberalizing the Vietnamese from the dangers of communism. As he notes, most people there did not understand the difference between communism and democracy. The freedom the Vietnamese sought was liberation from the helicopters, the bombs,

Vuong Thanh’s Father And His Journey To Australia The Vietnam war started in 1962 and ended in 1975. The communists took over Vietnam and made life harder for Vietnamese people to follow their traditions and religion. Lots of families were badly affected in the Vietnam war and many of them were killed during that time. People in Vietnam had to flee because they were Being treated badly by the communist and didn’t feel respected. m of making decisions for their own lives.

In the late nineteenth century, Vietnam fell into the hands of the French who colonized to fuel their industrialization and improve their economy, becoming part of French Indochina which included Laos and Cambodia. Instead of accepting French rule, the Vietnamese resisted. Under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, the Viet Minh was established and rebelled against the French. French rule impacted Vietnam greatly, and the effects of their control can still be seen to this day. Profit was the driving factor that led to France’s rule over Vietnam; using the mistreatment of their Catholic missionaries as an excuse, France took control of Vietnam in 1862.