The consequences and the lives lost in the Vietnam War classify as bad judgment by the masterminds of it. McNamara and all the others involved were clueless about Vietnam; all they thought they had to do was use their military superiority in the correct way to keep communism from spreading. The most crucial mistake McNamara made was when he had doubts about the United State’s possibilities of actually winning the war and did nothing about it. He did not want to argue to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson that we should have withdrew from Vietnam. By doing this, more cities were destroyed, approximately 58,000 dead American causalities, and countless more Vietnamese.
Televisions were considered to be anti-war influences because the media showed horrible things happening in Vietnam that cause the public to give less support. The media not only affected the nature of the war to the public but it also changes the minds of Americans on their own people. "Critics in the government, the military, and elsewhere claim that the media was dominated by the antiwar journalists who poisoned the American public against the war by delivering superficial and negative coverage of the conflict. (pg 177 Walter). This shows how Walter noticed that people attentions were grabbed by the over coverage the news released.
Cara War is something that you never want to experience, especially the war in Vietnam. Vietnam was an absolute mess because at no point was the United States as a whole on the same page about the war in general. Some believed that it was an important war that we needed to win and others believed that we had absolutely no business in Vietnam. As General Sherman said, “War is Hell,” but most vets would say that Vietnam was far worse than hell. They were placed into a war that from the start was impossible to win due to many circumstances and situations starting with the rules of war.
Many American citizens in 1959 viewed the Vietnam War as a righteous battle against communism, similar to the Iraq War today however now many view this war as a necessary battle against terrorism. Looking at America's overall goal in Vietnam, it is evident that we did not come close to keeping South Vietnam from collapsing, who fell to communist rule in 1975 (Frankum 210). America's involvement in the conflicts of Vietnam and Iraq were so discordant that our government, people, and military were constricted. Yet both wars were fought with the knowledge that America may change the invaded nation, which brings a precarious question; what makes the government believe that they have the right to go into a country and change it to the way they
The Volunteer Army For One The military draft has always been and forever will be a hard sell to the American people. Namely because they wouldn’t want to fight in a war they could careless about. This attitude shows in our rapidly declining military reserves, when our nation is involved in two major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The voices of the numerous protestors cry out the same three arguments into the media; It’s unfair! It’s against our rights!
As the communist party gained influence in Vietnam during the late forties and early fifties, at the beginning of the Cold War, the people of the United States were extremely worried about the threat of communism spreading to Southeast Asia. The Cold War agendas of the major world superpowers made Vietnam a major point of conflict because of the widespread hate of Communism in the United States, the pro-communism agenda of the Soviet Union, and both of their interest in Vietnam. As in most colonized places, the Vietnamese people were oppressed and treated as
The scale of these two wars is completely different. In no way is that saying one war and or the services provided by those involved are more or less important than the other. The reason these Wars Started was also very different. The Vietnam War was started because the U.S was scared of the domino effect of communism. If one nation fell to communism many may follow.
Film Analysis of Platoon (1986) “Rejoice O young man in thy youth…” (Ecclesiastes). The Vietnam War was a very controversial war in which thousands of young U.S. soldier’s lives were lost. It was a time when America was torn in two and the people were more concerned with skin color then those who were half way across the world fighting a war. The American people turned their backs on their own youth and tried to ignore the fact that there was a war. The U.S. soldiers put their lives on the line and in return they received nothing but negativity and hate.
The widespread media-coverage of the war that was not there during the Korean War also contributed to the negative image of Vietnam Veterans by providing media coverage of events like the My Lai Massacre, in which US soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese citizens. Even though both wars were both limited proxy wars whose conflict’s root lay in the cold war, the two wars differ in the ways that they were fought, the outcomes of the wars and consequently the effects that the wars had domestically and internationally. The Vietnam War, having been fought by a post-World War II generation has greatly changed the widespread social opinion on the topic of war and marked the beginning of a new era. The soldiers who fought in Korea were widely regarded as heroes in our country and those who were in Vietnam were not, even though they were serving their country in the same
Abstract: The Effect of the Vietnam war on American Politics and Foreign Policy Tasha Hudson History 365 Professor Larry Menna April 22, 2013 The Vietnam War is regarded as the nation's longest and most debilitating war. Some may even say that it has had such an impact on the United States that no other event in history has had since the Civil war and before the events of hurricane Katrina and 9/11. The Vietnam War was one filled with great lost, sadness, economic hardship, and unanswered questions. The hardcore facts are that the Vietnam War produced wrenching effects on the American people. The war also had a profound effect on American politics and foreign policy.