The Vietnam War was the most controversial war in American history. The United States promised to help any country who was threatened by communism. In the beginning, many Americans supported the United States getting involved and helping South Vietnam. When the truth started coming out and people realized the war was not almost over, people’s feelings changed toward the idea of war. Many Southern Vietnamese people were killed because the American soldiers couldn’t tell who was who. Along with civilians dying, American soldiers were being brutally murdered daily. Government officials were lying to the American people promising that the war was almost over. There were major draft problems also. The United States should have ever gotten involved. …show more content…
There would be skin falling off of little children. The reason we demolished innocent civilians was because the Northern Vietnamese were killing us by the thousands. Our death rate was one hundred American soldiers every week. We had to create horrifying chemicals just to give us a slight chance in helping the South. It was still wrong of us to kill the innocent people, though, because we had no business being over there anyways. Secondly, the government kept assuring the people that the war was almost over. The news shared videos and showing pictures live from the war and the government’s words were not matching up. The people were supporting us joining the war at first, but when famous people started questioning our position, the American people followed their belief. Thirdly, the military draft was also a big problem. The government passed a law stating if men went to college, they couldn’t be drafted for war. This was unfair because a lot of families couldn’t afford to send their children to school so they didn’t have a choice whether to go to war or not. Many men tried escaping to Canada and other countries just to avoid the draft. A person should be made to go fight. It should be their choice. For these reasons, the United States should’ve gotten involved in the Vietnam
As soon as the offensive took place, American support for the war plummeted. This was caused by the sight of the incredibly harsh and rough fighting that the media captured. The people noticed that no matter how hard America tried, the North Vietnamese would continue to try and fight, making it a war that could not be
As these war torn soldiers returned home people began to really see just how brutal the war was. Even worse was the people that didn’t come home. The United States saw that war wasn’t good for anyone and that it clearly wasn’t as incredible as they originally thought. Due to the horrors of war, the United States became disillusioned with
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.
In many honest opinions, the war did not necessarily need America to get involved. Although, yellow journalism at the time and the supposed attack on a US ship were rising actions to America intervening. Once America entered the war, there was no turning back. Questions and concerns arose quickly amongst US citizens and officials on the future of the new colonies. Some Americans wanted to fight the war to lead change domestically; African Americans in particular.
The Vietnam War was a war the United States should have never been involved in. The “Domino Theory” was a direct cause of the war. The war resulted in much death; innocent civilians and young Americans were killed. The Vietnam war also resulted in rioting, distrust for the United States government, and the loss of many lives. 58,000 Americans were killed and 300,000 were wounded.
During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson made a case for United States intervention in the conflict and a U.S interest in maintaing a peacful world order. "I am now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholeslae destruction of the lives of non-combatants, men,women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate"(Document 24, page 71). The United States try to remain neutral , but German submarine attacked a ship headed to Europe with killed United States citizens. This is a legitimate reason for the United States to help
The overall confidence and mood of the country dipped. Those citizens that are against the military elitism of the United States and do not agree with the war feel alienated under a conscription system (“Conscription” 1). The fear that the government may force them or their friends and family to fight in a war they do not believe goes against the American morales that the country was previously proud of. An all-volunteer army fits with the nation’s principles of freedom, equality, and dignity, while a military draft does not (“An All-Volunteer Army” 2). If the United States had to carry out conscription as a means to fight the war, and conscription led to the nation openly protesting in the streets, the war was ineffective.
Americans were already skeptical of Germany due to the previous relationships, and the Germans re-sparked the sensitive areas when they did not go to the meeting. Germany signed the Tripartite Pact, and the fascist powers Germany, Japan, and Italy joined together opposing European order, and Russian communism. The war was so far away, and did not involve United States soil. Consequently, we just stayed out of it and made money from trading goods. The only way to get the United States into the war, and out of their isolationist ways was a dramatic attack.
Yeah we did agree with South Vietnam but countries cannot just rely on others to defend their country when we have to take care of ours. Most people believe that if we had fewer restrictions and more men than we could have won the war. The U.S tried to defeat the North Vietnamese by pure sheer firepower. While the V.C used tactics to defeat our army.
Vietnam War CNN says “The Vietnam War or also known as the “American War” in Vietnam was a long drawn out war with a lot of fatalities and heroic actions in the 20 years that the United States was in the war. The war was started around 10 years before the United States entered the war. The United States entered the war because the North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam. The U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism.
It was important to American society because they were the ones who were going to war without any possible reasons why. On the eyes of American people, government leaders were no longer credible. Furthermore, Americans did not agree with the war which forced poor and minority
Those still in favor of the war considered it their patriotic duty to enlist and fight for their country, while the opposition came from the lower class groups such as African Americans, “white trash,” Mexican Americans, and other minorities. Because of their lower socio-economic status, they were more often the targets of recruiters and had more difficulty evading the draft. As James Fallows said of his draft experience, “While perhaps four out of five of my friends from Harvard were being deferred, just the opposite was happening to the Chelsea [Boston] Boys.” (Doc 5) Similarly to the civil war era, the majority of the burden of fighting was going to the poor majority as opposed to the privileged few. Other groups, such as the African Americans, were opposed to the draft because of their status at home.
The Vietnam war was preceded by a very turbulent time in our history with problems here in the states such as racism, women’s rights, and a president being shot. But in Vietnam they were going through a civil war, which they had done before, but not to this extent, this time they got the U.S.S.R. involved. It was communist Russia and North Vietnam against South Vietnam. The U.S. started to get
The Vietnam War was a very deadly conflict that was fought between the communist party of North Vietnam and their allies, the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its primary allies the U.S. The conflict began to occur in 1954 when Ho Chi Minh and his communist party came into power in North Vietnam. The U.S. government wanted to get involved in a war to prevent communist takeover of South Vietnam as it is declared in the Truman doctrine. North Vietnam and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam under a communist government. This war was one of the major conflicts that affected the cold war.
At that time, the U.S and its allies faced economic, political, and social will and a capability to wage war with an extensive use of recourses and mass of military power. Today the social and political climate has changed. Western nations