The Vietnam War was fought between the North and South Vietnamese over Communism. The North pushed for a communist regime while the South favored a more democratic government. During the time of this war, the U.S. was pushing towards containing Communism, and vowed to support any nation resisting communism. Although America’s policy of containment had good intentions, this often led to the support of corrupt leaders and governments. President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was Catholic and did not lead well. Offering little help to the poor and oppressing Buddhists, Diem lead a corrupt government. In America, tensions heightened when America continued supporting the corrupt government especially when an oppressed Buddhist monk immolated himself …show more content…
In McDonald’s song, the effect of the draft and its effects on society are highlighted by the lyrics, “Send ‘em off before it’s too late. Be the first one on your block To have your boy come home in a box,” [Doc B]. More than 50,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War, and after withdrawing from the battlefront, Americans felt it was for nothing. Robert F. Kennedy said, “we have sought to resolve by military might a conflict whose issue depends upon the will and conviction of the South Vietnamese people,” [Doc E]. To the war, Americans provided weapons, supplies, and troops. But, as the South Vietnamese were fighting for their liberation from a communist regime and the Americans were not, the Americans could not provide the Vietnamese with the will to win. Seeing as their efforts in Vietnam were not as effective as had been hoped for, America began to lose support for the war as tensions at home increased. “It is like sending a lion to halt an epidemic of jungle rot,” [Doc E]. The lions that were being sent, as many of the time recognized, were often minorities and oppressed people. Martin Luther King, a popular civil rights activist, said, “We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem,” [Doc C]. The blacks, who had fought for so …show more content…
Onward and Upward is a political cartoon from 1967 [Doc D]. In the cartoon, ‘Great Society’ is represented by a man on top of a boulder while ‘Foreign Policy’ was dangling over the edge of the large boulder by a rope tied to the other man. As America s striving for a thriving society, it is being pulled down by foreign policy. Americans are leaving behind foreign policy in order to stay above water themselves. Because foreign policy is connected to great society, foreign policy will move upward, but will be hurt in the process. Similarly to social tensions, political tensions must be resolved. As expressed in Country Joe’s song, Americans followed their government. Whatever was decided by the authorities, the civilians followed. “And it’s one, two, three, What are we fighting for? Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam,” [Doc B]. Americans wanted their lives to be secure, not to fight a war they weren’t really in. The U.S. had to decide what it would do in order to protect Americans, contain communism, and keep their government from falling to corruption all at the same time. The War Powers Act of 1973 was passed in order to keep the President’s power to commit to war under checks. In the act [Doc I] The President must remove armed forces unless “Congress (1) has declared war…”. The U.S. did not want to enter any more wars that would prove to be a waste of
Was US involvement in Vietnam Justified? US involvement in Vietnam was to large extent unjustified. Even though the United States. Even though the United States, and other western countries, alleged that American involvement in Vietnam was morally justified (Source B)
Social Issue-Vietnam War Cost of Vietnam The Vietnam War that took place between the dates of 1959-1975 changed Americans culture. 58, 000 Americans died America spent 111 billion dollars on the war, according to the Department of Defense. Mr. Frenchy watched his brother, cousins, and acquaintances join the war efforts against communism. Likewise, he participated by joining the army. Not only did this give Mr. Frenchy a reason for leaving New York, but this also posed as an opportunity to stop selling and using drugs.
In the Vietnam war the United States lost everything that made it a superior defender for freedom and justice. We lost money and the support of American and South Vietnam citizens, because of that we lost our confidence and power. Without having confidence and feeling powerless, it questions whether we are capable of handling our nation 's conflicts while supporting South VIetnam. During the war the United States lost around $350-900 billion total in the Vietnam war (www.the vietnam war.info, 2014).
The people of the United States thanked their government for leading them to victory in previous wars, but not the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War drastically changed the relationship between the government and the people of the United States through economic, social, and political tensions. Throughout the war, economic tensions created a battle between the wealthy and the working class. These tensions developed because of the drastically different roles the rich and the middle class played in the war. James Fallows, a Harvard student at
In Martin Luther King Jr's passionate speech about America's involvement in Vietnam, he manages to create a strong and compelling argument that America's involvement in unjust . He does this by appealing to certain issues the public see as important, using irony, and using diction and tone in persuasive ways. Martin Luther King Jr says in his first paragraph that,"It seemed as if there was a real promise fr hope... to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destruction suction tube." Here, Martin Luther King Jr is getting the audience emotionally and completely invested by showing the effect of America in Vietnam on their lives. The audience now feel as though this is very important because it has to do with regular poor people and t effects them as well.
Escalation in Vietnam was the American government 's policy of methodically cranking up the force and power being poured into the war overseas. Unfortunately, the communist enemies matched the United State 's efforts in escalation every step of the way, pulling the United States deeper and deeper into the bloody Asian conflict. Meanwhile, at home in the United States, small protests being held in public schools began to flourish and spread across the country. American citizens were discontented and argued that the South Vietnamese weren 't really a Democratic ally in Asia, and that the United States was needlessly involving itself in a war that was costing thousands of young American lives. Many young Americans avoided the military draft by
To what extent did the United States involvement in the Vietnam War impact America socially, politically, and economically? In document 1, this shows the major bombing and fighting campaigns of the Vietnam War. The bombing and fighting started in north Vietnam and went down South Vietnam, which includes the Ho Chi Trail and the Sihanouk Trail. These trails and these bombing were an important part in the Vietnam War.
The war started 1954-75, Vietnam was split into two parts, Communist North Vietnam and Democratic South Vietnam, the United States supported South Vietnam. South Vietnam was backed by the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Khmer Republic, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. North Vietnam was backed by Soviet Union, Khmer Rouge (Cambodian Communist insurgents), People’s Republic of China, Pathet Lao (Laotian Communist insurgents), The North Vietnam people had mostly all communist countries on their side. North Vietnam wanted to unify the country of Vietnam as a communist country, South Vietnam and with the help of the United states wanted to prevent the spread of communism.
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
On April 4, 1967 Doctor Martin Luther King Jr gave the speech, “Beyond Vietnam-A time to Break Silence.” In this powerful speech Dr. King addresses his followers, and explains why the same people who are advocating for civil rights, should also protest the war in Vietnam. Dr. King’s main appeal is towards pathos because he is explaining his reasons, most of which are moral in some way. Dr. King develops the central claim of the speech by explaining how the war is taking away resources from the poor, how the soldiers are disproportionately poor people, and lastly how the war is completely against his morals. His central claim of the speech revolves around war being an enemy of the poor.
America entered the Second Indochina War to halt the spread of communism: to stop potential “dominoes” from falling around the world. When the French pulled out of the First Indochina War on July 21, 1954, President Eisenhower feared that the region would fall to communism if there were not a U.S. presence in Vietnam. It was President Lyndon Johnson who sealed America’s fate in Vietnam after the Tonkin Gulf Resolution passed through Congress in August of 1964, giving Johnson the authority to use military force in Southeast Asia without an official declaration of war. For the next ten years, the United States was stuck in Vietnam, fighting on the side of the South Vietnamese against the North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front (NLF).
All they wanted was “to save the soul of America” (King, Beyond, 42). Martin Luther King Jr is an African American preacher and civil rights activist that along with every other African American male and female in 1976 was waging a war in America for their not-so-natural born rights. Not only were they fighting for their own rights in 1976, but they were sending away the son, husbands, brothers of other Americans thousands of miles away to the country of Vietnam to fight an unjust war for the rights of the people in Southeast Asia. Martin Luther King Jr proves to all throughout his speech “Beyond Vietnam --- A Time to Break Silence” that the Vietnam war was unjust by his use of emotional diction, the allusion of Jim crow, and repetition.
But still the United State of America still took a huge defeat. How the Vietnamese communist did won the war? What lesson did American learn from it? What were the reasons the United State of America lost the war.
Where do I start? We have so much catching up to do since the last letter. My time spent fighting with the Union has been filled with chaos. We’ve been hiking through northern Mississippi for three days. The weather has been fairly good to us since the last few weeks were filled with snow.
The war has been pretty hard on all of us, with all the constant hustles and bustles it 's hard to ever relax anymore nowadays. Recently, I just got an update today from the Lieutenant that we are moving to Quang Tri. So in the meantime, the guys and I have got a lot of stuff to pack up by tomorrow before we head on out to the next base. From what I’ve heard, the new place we’re going to is pretty nice compared to Dong Ha.