The Vietnam War: A Lost Cause?

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Danielle Whitmire Valadez History 1302 20 Sept. 2010 The Vietnam War: A Lost Cause? The Vietnam War was the longest and most expensive war in American history. The fee we paid wasn't just financial, it cost the people involved immensely, both physically and mentally. The Vietnam War caused great agony and sadness, as well as countrywide confusion. Everyone to this day still isn’t sure who’s completely at fault for the United States losing the war. Was it President Lyndon B. Johnson or the American Culture? The answer is President Lyndon B. Johnson and the American culture are both responsible. A few reasons why Lyndon B. Johnson is partly at fault for the loss of the Vietnam War are his character, the limited war theory, and the fact…show more content…
The Vietnam War was the first war to be aired on the evening news. Because of the new technology, Americans were able to actually see what was happening to their troops and they were not supportive at all. The nation was already panicking over the draft, and when they were able to see what really happened in Vietnam, protesting started all over. One large protest was at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio on May 4, 1970. It involved the shooting of unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard, who fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others. Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon announced on television April 30, 1970. Other students who were shot had just been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance. There was an emotional national response to the shootings. For example, hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of four million students. The event further affected the public opinion over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War. The underestimation of the enemy played a big factor on why we lost the war. The United States had become very arrogant over the centuries from dominating the wars they were in, so when they started fighting in Vietnam, they had no idea what they were in for. George Herring has said “had the United States looked all over the world in 1965 it might not have been able to find a more difficult place to fight” (280), and I find this to be true. Vietnam had huge jungles, monsoons, and underground trails. Since the Viet Cong knew the land so well, they were able to set booby traps and bombs in the jungle easily. In Vietnam, everything rotted and corroded quickly. The sun, wind, and rain destroyed
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