It has hurt our credibility across the world and caused a loss of faith in government by its citizens. Although the necessity of the war is argued by many, it is only done in an analysis of its occurrence. Had it not happened and the world possibly fell under Communism, then we would be arguing the exact opposite. The United States did what it felt it had to do at the time, given the information it had. To go to war in Vietnam was a risk the US felt it had to take in order to contain Communism, thus securing its economic prosperity and worldwide dominance.
The Vietnam War was completely different. The majority of the American people did not want to be involved in Vietnam and made it very clear to the entire nation. Without the support from the home front it is almost impossible to succeed. The American people were so passionate about maintaining peace for America that they actually caused chaos on American soil. The anti-war movements and protests reflected on the soldiers in Vietnam and led to the defeat of the US armed forces.
The Vietnam Soldiers Secret Enemy COMM/215 June 4, 2012 The Vietnam Soldiers Secret Enemy Usually when someone thinks of a soldier’s enemy, they expect them to be wearing a uniform and carrying military weapons. Sometimes the enemy is disguised, and they may be carrying cameras and microphones. Even though they have freedom of speech, the media's exaggeration of military facts was almost criminal. Their lies caused more casualties than the American public realizes. The country's support for the military was being affected negatively, and the soldiers fighting in the war were unaware of the lies being spread by the media back home.
To others, it was a fight that did not concern this country. Both sides of the argument had valid reasons as to whether or not the United States should be involved in the Vietnam War, but the anti-war protesters had a much stronger argument. Their arguments dealt with the legality of the war and the death of American boys whose lives should just be starting, not ending. The pro war advocates attempted to persuade the American people that Americans went to, and
In 1961, after Kennedy was elected he recognized the problem. “Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place” (Nalty 76). America did not want Russia to have the ability to aid the Communist North without a defense brought by South Vietnam. It was not as much about the U.S. stopping North Vietnam per say, but rather America stopping the spread of Communism around the World. This was called by the U.S. as “The Domino Effect.” As former American President Eisenhower said, “You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly” (Nalty 314).
US wanted to focus on itself and the problems they faced within the country, never mind foreign problems. It would be a citizens surprise that the United States became a world superpower at one point and was becoming involved much more in global events and issues. Some believe that the United States shifted from isolationism to being involved in war for self-defense reasons while other say its a combination of economic reasons and self-defense. It began due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and ever since then the US has not been for isolationism. The country then feared the spread of communism which lead into more global involvement.
This war was also considered inconvenient at that time. Also it corrupted almost every soldier’s mental state; because their families have claimed they have never been the same since. The current Iraq war follows similar guidelines. President Bush started the same problem with our soldiers but instead of it being the swamplands he invaded the desert lands of Iraq. Also he brought the idea of terrorism which is not worth fighting for.
The hawks and doves were complete opposites, the hawk’s argument concluded that America must win the war in Vietnam in order to contain communism in Southeast Asia and preserve the nation’s prestige (Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stroff, 2005). The doves on the other hand wanted the conflict in Vietnam ended immediately and the troops returned home. The political and social outcomes facing the United States because of the conflict in Vietnam ranged from a growing distrust of the decisions being made by the political leaders to the ever increasing cost of the conflict in Vietnam. The growing distrust helped to fuel the student unrest because the younger generation decided to voice their opinions and take a stand for those
Such an atrocity rattled the very core of the American people. This massacre took the whole world by surprise and drew massive media attention. This moved Henry Kissinger to attempt to organize another peace talk with the North Vietnamese but this too failed. The Vietnam War had produced many political, social and military disasters for America. Lyndon Johnson kept spending money on the war without adequate funds to pay for the expenses.
government, as much of what was reported defied the intentions of government policy. The media has also fell blame by many for the result of the war, as it is widely believed that the war could not have been won under the scrutiny that came from the American people as a result of the media coverage (Magruder, 2005). The most famous example of effect on media because of advancement during the war came all through the insulting film of the chief of police for Saigon assassinating what appeared to be an unsystematic person was shown to the public. Something not regularly known or reported at the time the film footage was shown was that the shooter was the Chief of Police for Saigon, that the man shoot had been one of the members of a Vietnamese Communist Political Squad that had killed the Chief of Police's second in command. The biased pattern advances illegal practices as the sound of the shoot was also an edited sound that was added because the camera at the time was not recording sound (Cohen,