The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War took place from 1955 to 1975 due to the communist influence present in North Vietnam. The United States strongly felt that the Vietnamese needed saving from this communist influence and if we did not stop communism then it would spread to America resulting in the loss of our own freedom. Upon entering the war, American soldiers felt happy to be fighting for freedom and did not care if it cost their life to achieve this mission. As the war continued, soldiers were seeing increasingly more horrific scenes, casualties, and feared their life even in their sleep but they still found a way to make their mission in Vietnam enjoyable. To do this, soldiers made bets with their fellow members on who would be the first to kill an opponent with a weapon or which day would they achieve 10,000 deaths in their unit. At this point, the American soldiers still felt sorrow for the Vietnamese and still desired to achieve their mission in North Vietnam; but, by 1970 soldiers were only happy when they successfully extinguished a group of communists. The rest of their time spent in North Vietnam they remained bored or desired to receive a life-threatening injury and return home to their family never to return to the warfront again. Meanwhile, United States citizens are protesting the Vietnam war. The citizens feel that the war is not attempting to stop communism because if that were the case, we would have never left Diem in charge of South Vietnam. They made this claim because Diem was enforcing prosecutions upon not only communist Vietnamese, but non-communists as well. The citizens also felt that the war was ruining the culture that the Vietnamese strive off and removing all purpose of life for the Vietnamese. When the soldiers receive information that the citizens of their country are protesting their actions, they get excruciatingly irritated because they feel all Americans need to stand behind them to win the war and redeem freedom. By the end, soldiers absolutely despise the Vietnam War due to the communists winning, members within their own companies turning against each other, and being forced to edit reports to hide the horrific truth. Do you feel that if you were an American citizen at this time, would you be in support of the Vietnam War? Do you think the Vietnam War was ethical? Did the United States ever achieve their mission in Vietnam?
If I was an American citizen in this time period, I would not be supporting the war for many reasons. The first main reason would be because of who was in charge at the time. As mentioned, many people were upset because they felt the cause of this potential communist uprise started with putting Diem in charge of South Vietnam. Another reason is because I do not think this war was ethical at all. This war had a very broad purpose, "to stop the spread of communism at all costs". In my opinion, this "whatever it takes" ideology is what led to the usage of Agent Orange and other lethal methods. After all of this, the U.S. government started to claim that they were achieving their mission, when in fact they were on the edge of defeat. With all of this together resulted in the slow and long defeat of the Vietnam War in its entirety.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Kennan's Long Telegram, written in 1946, argued that the Soviet Union was expansionist in nature and that the US needed to adopt a policy of containment to prevent Soviet expansionism. This idea was further developed by Lippmann in his book "The Cold War," in which he outlined a strategy of containment to prevent the spread of Soviet influence. This strategy was later used to justify American involvement in Vietnam as a way of containing communism and preventing its spread. In terms of whether or not someone would support the Vietnam War as an American citizen during this time, there was a great deal of debate and disagreement about the war within the US population. While some Americans supported the war effort, others opposed it, and the war became a highly divisive issue in American politics and society. Regarding the ethicality of the Vietnam War, this is a matter of ongoing debate and interpretation. Some argue that the war was a justifiable response to the threat of communism and was therefore ethical, while others argue that the war was unjustified and resulted in significant harm to both American and Vietnamese people. The US military's use of tactics such as napalm and Agent Orange, as well as the high civilian death toll, are often cited as evidence of the war's unethical nature. Finally, the question of whether or not the US achieved its mission in Vietnam is also a matter of interpretation. The stated goal of the US was to prevent the spread of communism in Vietnam and to support the establishment of a democratic government in the country. However, the war ultimately ended in a stalemate, with the North Vietnamese government gaining control of the entire country. Some argue that the war was a failure for the US, while others argue that the US was successful in preventing the spread of communism in other parts of the world.
ReplyDeleteAs you stated, citizens were protesting the war most of the time because it seemed they were going to war just because. If I was a citizen during these times I wouldn't support it either. The war seemed as a waste of money for everyone involved. As of if it was ethical I also think it wasn't very ethical the way we fought them. It was our longest fight going from 1954 to 1975 but never really had a clear objective throughout seeming like we were fighting them with just because we can. The United States never succeeded with their mission. To this day they are still led by a communist party.
ReplyDeleteIf I was an American citizen at the time I would probably support the war at first due to the lack of knowledge about what was happening in the war. As stated above, "being forced to edit reports to hide the horrific truth," this shows that most people were not getting the truth. Therefore, the people and myself more than likely thought America was doing good in the war. However, once the truth and pictures came out I would stop supporting and start asking how long have they been lying. The war was not ethical. As stated above "soldiers were seeing increasingly more horrific scenes, casualties, and feared their life even in their sleep," this shows what the soldiers went through. No, America's goal was to contain and get rid of communism; however, they were not able to get rid of communism in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteThe Vietnam War was not a legitimate war at all. Unannounced to the American people the United States Army began escalating the war in Vietnam. From the start of the war, the American people were kept in the dark about a lot of issues. The United States Government kept secrets for good reason because they had no legitimate reason to be in Vietnam. In terms of the ethics of the war, there were none. The war was based on lies and cover ups. During the war, soldiers were drudged all across Vietnam. At some point, generals began greatly exaggerating the number of enemies killed to appear more successful than the war really was. However, if I were an American citizen at the time of the war I would more than likely be in favor. I would be supporting the war due to the lack of accurate information Americans actually received. I would more than likely be just another deceived American.
ReplyDeleteHad I been an American Citizen during this time, at the beginning of the war I would have supported it, but as time went along and America had learned what was really happening in Vietnam, I would no longer support it. What was happening in Vietnam was not ethical in the slightest, and this is the main reason I would stop supporting the war effort. What America was doing in Vietnam was inexcusable and wrong. America did not accomplish their goal of stopping the spread of Communism in Vietnam. We had no clue what we were up against and the Vietnamese fought harder than we were anticipating. The war in Vietnam was “unwinnable” as Walter Cronkite said.
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