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Vietnam War Dbq Essay

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On March 8th, 1965 the United States officially entered the Vietnam War. A war that was supposed to be fought between the North and South side of Vietnam. The war lasted between 1955 to 1975, with over 58 thousand US soldiers being killed, 2 Million Vietnam civilians being murdered and over a million Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers also dying. The Vietnam War heightened social and political tension in the United States from 1964-1975.

As soon as you turned 18 as a male in the United States you were at risk of being drafted and forced to serve the country and fight in the war. To many that ideal was startling as they were still teenagers and had to face death. Many people found controversies in the idea of forcefully being drafted, having …show more content…

During the Vietnam War he was at the age of getting drafted, insteading of drafting he chose jail over fighting in the war for his country. His reasoning as to why he would rather go to jail instead of drafting causes social tension in the United States. During this time period, he was still getting denied simple human rights all because he was black and living in America. ¨If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to twenty-two million of my people. They wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow.¨(doc 2). He refused the draft because he wasn't getting treated with basic human respect in this country, so why would he risk his life for the United States? There was another way to defer the drafts, besides having a medical condition, a doctor's note, or not supporting the war. Many upper-middle-class and wealthy people who could afford college would attend and it would give the person a deferment for as long as they were in school. But it will only cause more social tension, ¨ 80% of the soldiers were white lower-class or minorities¨ (Blass) If you could not afford the cost of college you were drafted causing most of them to be a part of the working class while the wealthier kids were able to stay in America and attend college every instead of being shipped off and forced to fight in a deadly war (doc 6). This college deferment favored the wealthy people causing the minorities and

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