War In Vietnam example essay topic

There were many different reactions to the involvement in the war as there were many different opinions and reasons for these opinions, the pro and anti reactions of the war were changing dramatically as the war intensified. Aswell as the media coverage, all showing the brutality of the war. When the war began only a small percentage were against it, such as pacifists, and those people supporting communism in the left wing. However many people where all for the war in Vietnam, people such as patriots and nationalists, they believed in the war as they thought it was your duty to fight and defend your country. Also people working or owning or running etc. gun and ammunition factories, would be extremely happy the war was going on, as this would mean alot of profit and business coming there way, and they would want this war to stretch out for as long as possible. Although many people were against the war after realizing what a disaster it was.

These were people such as hippies, returned war veterans, soldiers families and friends, students at college or Uni, black people. Hippies were against the war, they believed in 'sharing the love', they slogan was 'make love, not war'. The people with primary evidence of what the war was like were against it, the badges they had been awarded, they threw away 'heres my badges for murder'. People like these joined the 'GI's united against the war in Vietnam' and they wrote the 'Statement of aims', the quotes in here show us that many people were against the war as it claims it was the 'most unpopular war in our history' and that 'most Americans do not support this war'. It also shows that many war veterans regret joining the war 'We, as GI's, are forced to suffer most of all in the Vietnam fiasco. Many of us were drafted into the army against our will - nearly all of us are kept in its grasp against our will - all in order to carry out this illegal, immoral, and unjust war.

We are forced to fight and die in a war we did not create and which we do not believe'. Another piece of evidence that Bob Muller says is 'I'm going to be a marine, in that sentence, is really the tragedy of my life, as I view it'. Many soldiers family and friends were against the war as they feared for the safety of the relatives or friends fighting in the war. One soldiers mother said 'I sent them a good boy, and they made him a murderer', this shows that the families and friends new that it wasn't just killings of communist, it was of the innocent people, this is were the changed there opinions. Students attending colleges and Uni's expressed there opposition to the war in protests.

For example the 2 main famous innocedents where people were killed for standing up for what they believed in was Jackson state Uni where 2 students were shot dead by police, and Kent state Uni Ohio on the 2nd of May 1970, where over 800 students took part in this protest, tear gas was fired at the students and there were 4 deaths. Another way for the students to protest was the burning of there draft cards in 1963-73, 9,118 were prosecuted for refusing to be drafted into the army. Many black people protests to, if they couldn't afford to pay the increasing taxes (taxes paying for war) then they would be drafted, at this time blacks couldn't vote either, this caused more protest. Muhammad Ail stood up and was heard, he didn't want to join the army so he said, 'No VC has ever called me a nigger'. This ment, why should I fight, no VC has done anything to me. This was delt with by taking away his heavyweight boxing title.

The incident a My Lia changed many peoples opinions too, this was a massacre and its publicity in magazines such as Life magazine. Also one of the most influential acts during the war was the decision to put loads of pictures in one edition of its magazine of the 242 US soldiers killed in Vietnam during one week of the fighting. Up till the TET offensive the USA people back home thought they were wining the war, but this proved that they want at all, there was no way the US could out smart the VC let alone fight them to win. There was a wide range of reactions from the US public for example, suicides (this was because of all the emotional and physical scars from the wart), protests, burning draft cards, marches, many people just wanted to stop the war as it was a waste of money, many wanted it to stop for the religions etc. The media coverage mainly stopped the war I think, as it was constantly there, it showed the really photographic evidence of what the Americans where doing, this showed the experiences of war that many people had had.

These stories were told, and these would have changed opinions and reactions too.