Rhetorical Analysis Of Losing The War By Lee Sandlin

The Vietnam War gives valuable lessons that can be used in the present-day war campaigns. For one, the Vietnam War was based on deception that is the trend today as with the insurgents and terrorist groups. Though U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold off the Communist attacks, the offensive shocked and demoralized not only their forces but as well as the American public and further eroded support for the war effort. The victory gained by the ‘Tet offensive’ (CNN, 1988) that triggered the deliberate and shameful withdrawal of US forces from the region.

Paul and his friends were eaten out, mentally, by the war and remained casings of their old lives. Further exemplifying their inability to reconnect to their past lives and in turn the normal world. Remarque creates Paul Baumer to represent a generation of men who are know to the outside

Furthermore, World War II has not only damaged him physically, but also mentally and has gone straight to his head. For the first time in the novel, Billy Pilgrim remembers a past event rather than time-travelling to it. Time-travel, it seems, would have made the event too immediate, too painful (Harris, Charles

In the novel, Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane talks about Henry Fleming, a young man who enlists for the war and has very little experience. During the novel, Henry has witnessed war as a glorified period rather than the true reality of it. Crane suggests that war is harming Henry, since his perception is the true reason why Henry well end up getting killed on the battlefield. Also, Crane emphasizes that war should be seen as brutal and traumatizing as its actual reality rather than glorifying. This tells us Henry may have a disorder called PTSD, since during the war he encounters a potential hallucination that helped him on his survival.

Americans initially favored neutrality, but events like the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmermann telegram provoked the U.S. to join the war in support of the Allies (Shi and Tindall 754-757). Less obvious factors, such as nationalism, imperialism, and business opportunity, also contributed to the war. The war ended in 1918 after immense bloodshed, but President Wilson failed to get the Treaty of Versailles ratified by the Senate (Shi and Tindall 773). As a result of the war, Europe was significantly weakened, harsh punishments were imposed on Germany that later led to WWII, and America emerged with a strong economy as a dominant world power (Shi and Tindall

People’s personalities are often the result of the environment that they’re in. Harsh environments such as war can foster negative personality traits in people. You see examples of this in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. In the novel, Paul Bӓumer is a 19 year old soldier in the German army during World War I. During the story he has to learn how to deal with the harshness of war.

In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, the author utilizes juxtaposition and situational irony to demonstrate the negative impacts of war on a soldiers’ relationships, more specifically how being a young soldier isolates one from their family and pre-war life. Erich Remarque uses situational irony to indicate that the Great War influences the soldiers’ connections to their families, by secluding themselves from their parents and siblings. Near the end of Paul’s leave of absence, he felt isolated and full of regret, “I ought never to have come here. Out there I was indifferent and often hopeless-I will never be able to be so again.

(Reed 12). Reed reiterates the idea that all who join the war are childish is due to the fact that they have an altered, romanticized vision of war. They are filled with a sense of nationalism that society builds up overtime and causes them to become pawns for the those who create the conflict. Connecting back to what negative effects war can have, Slaughterhouse Five indulges in the idea that the fact that wars occur creates the illusion that war is glorious in some way, inciting more war and more people unintentionally promoting

At that moment, the outcome of a civil war would have been catastrophic to the unity of the nation hence they unanimously agreed that the Federal Government was incapable of resolving the issue. The outcome was accepted by both the Northern and the Southern sides hence cooling the rising tension that threatened to tear the country apart. Numerous actions of wisdom and sound judgment just like this one are explored in the book including when Washington decides to step down from the presidency abandoning power to preserve the unity of the republic. In the same acts of nobility and understanding, the enmity between Adams and Jefferson subsides and they eventually strike a partnership. “They were the odd couple of the American Revolution,” which is precisely why they worked so well together” (Ellis, 2003 pg. 163).

While the British Empire enjoyed preeminent economic and military strength, the American Revolution diminished its strength. Historians believe that one major reason for this was that the American Revolution showed that Britain could be defeated on the battlefield and at sea.. Without the hammer that Britain could raise as a threat, it could no longer simply dominate negotiations with enemy forces. At the same time, Britain's shipping was vulnerable because of the amount of merchant ships converted into war ships; loss of colonies decreased production. This exposed the jugular of Britain, to be very nearly ripped out by Napoleon less than a decade later. The amount of respect the Britain lost by losing a civil war was enormous and resulted in a weakened position at the negotiating

V. Conclusion O 'Brien brings up many instances that show how things went wrong in the Vietnam War, not only because important problems were overlooked at the time but also because the American public sought at first to erase the war from their collective memories. Many Vietnam Veterans felt isolated from the American mainstream after they returned from service. After the period of erasure ended, the public commemoration, through movies and stories, sought to supplant the reality of Vietnam with a more endearing story that could be cherished as much as the myths that surround World War II, “O 'Brien points out that the evils of the Vietnam War are not merely forgotten, but all but deleted from American mythology and memory” (Ooms 26).

Kyle now in on stage three accepted he had “a spoiled identity, one with a tarnished reputation” (Adler & Adler, 2012, p. 248), a secondary deviance, and he understood not everyone looked at him the same way as before. The label became a self-fulfill prophecy. The effect of the identity labeling resulted in society’s divisive opinions to his military service and behavior in Iraq suggesting him passing through stage six. Kyle’s deviance became a master status overpowering the society’s view and opinion of military service. Taking people’s lives to save others is still a

“Few Americans knew about the Hoover’s extensive charitable efforts during the Depression because they insisted on making them a private affair. And while Bert and Lou scored an “A” in the individual-good-works department, they flunked the official course altogether, failing to come up with a style of leadership or legislative agenda that was equal to the enormous task before them. The result was sad and predictable: America got sick to death of the Hoovers. In 1932 they lost the White House to a couple of radicals named Roosevelt whose ambitious ideas, so Bert and Lou believed, would ruin the country. Events would prove them wrong.”

Unfortunately, World War I took a drastic turn towards Harold Krebs mentality. Returning to a town that has no care in the truth makes Harold Krebs disgusted making his leave easier to make. Constantly having to lie and repress his new self to the world was nauseous enough for Krebs. The psychological theory shows that Harold Krebs became a stranger to himself, society, and family; therefore, his detachment of society will help him discover himself.

From the Revolutionary War and the beginning of America’s independence to the conflict we face today combatting terrorism, American civilians have been at war. In today’s society, war headlines our newspapers and is broadcasted and televised daily on the news for the world to see. Through the media, we Americans are placed into the shoes of a soldier’s daily life and are able to witness the experiences and firsthand accounts of what fighting on the front lines is like. Due to this, Americans have become immune to the troubles and violence of war we are shown by news anchors and told by journalists today and therefore neglect the long term effects such as post-traumatic stress disorder, defined as “a complex and chronic disorder caused by exposure