The Unites States bombing campaign was one of the reasons the North Vietnamese troops were pushed further into Cambodia. As much as Cambodia wanted to remain neutral in the Vietnam War, they could not avoid it. When the United States and North Vietnamese came to a cease fire and formed a peace treaty the U.S pulled out their troops, but they left with an ongoing war between the Cambodian citizens and their government. The disputes with the government led to the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge were brutal and harsh killed millions in efforts to reconstruct Cambodia.
This affected many Americans in their views of the war and the public started to doubt the success of America in Vietnam. (Source E) The newspapers initially published by the New York Times demonstrated that the government had “systematically lied” (Source A) to the public about the entire
A cover-up was created but it was no use, the American people found out. A lot of people were upset by the discovery and thought the massacre was a symbol of the war itself. Citizens were demanding withdrawal of the US from Vietnam and doubted whether the troops were fit to
There is no doubt that an immense number of Native Americans died at the hands of United States citizens and were slaughtered for trying to protect themselves from persecution allotted by the Indian Removal Act. The amount spiritual and physical damage done to the tribes that were forced to leave their homelands is simply incomprehensible. It is terrifying to see and realize that this country’s economic and geographical growth came at an awful price: the happiness and safety of thousands of innocent
However, the Johnson Administration under the current President Johnson left them feeling frustrated and disillusioned with the war (Source C). These “Hawks” revoked their support for the war. Nevertheless, their attitudes changed not as a result of the massacre at My Lai but rather because of Johnson’s slow and cautious approach to the
The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns in the Vietnam War launched by the Viet Cong and North Vietnam People’s Army which killed over five thousand American soldiers. How did the Tet Offensive influence American politics, society, and the overall development of the war in Vietnam? This question plagues many historians, politicians, soldiers, and veterans. The Tet Offensive influenced American politics by forcing politicians to take a stand one way or another on the viewpoint of the war, influencing American society by causing people to see the reality of war itself, and influencing the overall development of the war by showing that the enemy was not, in fact, about to collapse in defeat as the government had told the public for years. Firstly, the Tet Offensive influenced America’s politics by forcing politicians to take a stand on their viewpoint of the
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. Merwin uses the archetype of death to show the reader what the Vietnam war did to people, and how inhumane the Vietnam war was.
The Vietnam War took place during the cold war era, which lasted many years and could be described as the clashing of two conflicting ideologies between the communist eastern countries and the capitalist western countries. The Americans aimed at stopping the spread of communism in Vietnam, based on the their policy of containment, which was set up to stop the spread of communism to any other country in the world. Many American citizens opposed the sending of their own troops to fight in a war that was not even theirs to lose. Many of the soldiers being sent to Vietnam were members of the youth, which led to increasingly rapid protest action amongst students, as well as the parents of the young men being conscripted. These American troops were being placed to fight in unfamiliar and harsh terrain – as the majority of Vietnam was overgrown with forests and dangerous wildlife - which negatively affected the Americans morale and diminishing their possibility of success in the war.
After the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the citizens of the United States went into a frenzy. Feeling betrayed by their government, the citizens rallied until the American troops were brought home from Vietnam. (Source D) This is a good example of when the US should not get involved in foreign affairs. This is because, during the Vietnam war, the Red Scare was making people worried about communism taking over and destroying the world. This craze resulted in the rash decision by political leaders to intervene in Vietnam.
It is not possible for us to understand the significance and impact of Vietnam War through one angle. There were numerous issues regarding veterans of the war. It was first war in history of USA when people of USA took an opposite stance on government foreign policy. Majority of the people were against the war. That is why, they did not any respect to the veterans who returned to the U.S after the war.