Changing the American Culture and the Vietnam War - Research Paper Example

?The Vietnam War was one of its kinds in terms of the criticism that it attracted from common people to scholars to diplomats alike. It was one of the only times when America could not stand up to its war claims to create an independent non-communist government. The Vietnam war left scars and memories that still haunt American people for the sheer inhumanity that was witnessed on the war-field. It still remains the longest war that America was ever involved in. The total war spent was arond 150 billion dollars and more than 85,000 Americans were killed during the epic battle that was fought between the United States and South Vietnamese army on one side and the North Vietnamese army and the National Liberation front on the other (Isserman & Bowman, 2003). The American diplomats were so convinced of their supremacy of war power that they completely failed to look at the other side of the coin. As a result of poor planning and failed execution of the projected estimates, the American Culture received shocks and trauma that still haunt them even after so many years. Post the wars, thousands of families were affected, having lost husbands, sons, and daughters. People were left homeless and struggled to meets ends; the scars left on the society were so deep that not only the physical trauma was evident but the emotional stress was high enough for them to start doubting the bureaucrats’ intentions and integrity. The United States had a firm belief that communism anywhere would be a threat and they had a clear thought that they would do everything to curb and eradicate communism. United States were not involved in the Vietnam conflict directly until they felt it was absolutely necessary to continue their fight against communism. Before losing out on the World War II, France ruled Vietnam and Vietnam became independent but French were unwilling to let it go without a battle, which eventually led to the The Battle of Dien Bien Phu. France lost the battle, post which it was decided that France and Vietnam would sign a treaty in the Geneva Convention on 1954 to settle for peace. It was agreed that Vietnam would be divided into North and South states on th 17th parallel with communist Vietminh ruling the North and Bao Dai ruling the South Vietnam for two years. The agreement was that presidential elections would be held in 1956 to decide the future course of action but things did not went as planned. The National Liberation Front started communism in the South Vietnam and started anti Diem practices. United States was in full support of the new ruler of the South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem and decided to intervene to ensure that another communist country does not come up. John F. Kennedy made up his mind to completely take sides and prove the supremacy of America by signing a treaty with South Vietnam to extend economical and military help (Lawrence, 2010). United States even helped the South Vietnam in creating Army Republic of Vietnam in the hope that the unit will fight the communists from North and keep the country free from communism. Despite many efforts from America, Sout continued to face defeats on many levels of the dispute. Despite several efforts of United States, it so happened that the South Vietnam went on to face several defeats from Guerrillas and communism was threatening to prevail in the country. Meanwhile, America’s attention was divided in several other major happenings taking place around the world, especially in the Indochina region. But, it was high time that U.S. played direct and more active role to curb out the communism from Vietnam or so they thought. The Truman Doctrine that was originally designed to be made applicable in Europe and Middle East was then being adopted in Vietnam conflict due to the belief that if Communists were not destroyed; communism would soon engulf the concerned Asian region (Westheider, 2007). John F. Kennedy, who took the office in 1961 was of the opinion that there were other major issues than Vietnam and he only increased the U.S. aid at the insistence of Vice President Johnson who urged the president to get more involved in the conflict. President Kennedy also increased the number of advisors and training teams but still refrained from sending the military troops. One of the most criticized and looked down upon activity that was adopted was the use of Agent Orange to try and deprive the Vietcong from shelter sof Jungle. Agent Orange was some kind of herbicides that was sprayed over the jungles and has had catastrophic damages that have seen the residents suffering from the after effects even today. Researchers have proved that the side effects of the dangerous herbicide still results in several related health issues among the new borne and scientists have been wondering about the actual and level of impact that the Agent Orange has already done and will keep doing in future (Levy, 2004). Mr. Kennedy continued to be reluctant on sending the troops and kept increasing the number of advisors to assist South Vietnam. The then leader of Vietnam, Diem was eventually murdered because of the distrust among people who united in their protest against Diem, who was also a Catholic against most of the Vietnamese being Buddhists. The situation started taking a hostile turn post the demise of President Kennedy as Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson took over the chair. USS Maddox was fired upon in the Gulf of Tonkin and in retaliation Johnson decided to announce a full-fledged war by ordering bombing of North Vietnam targets. He was further encouraged by Congress, which authorized the president to take necessary measures to safeguard the US forces. President Johnson then announced the Operation Rolling Thunder and strategizes the air attacks, ground attacks and bombings of North Vietnam (Background, 2010). After Nguyen Van Thieu was elected as the president of South Vietnam in 1967, the Vietcong and North Vietnam laid the foundations of a major surprise attack on Vietnam’s biggest holiday, Tet. The attack was well planned and organized and most of South Vietnam became the battlefield. The war lasted for more than a month and Americans were witnessing it live on television. The misery and the plight of the war affected took whole of the America by shock. Even though, South Vietnam won the battle, it transformed the viewpoints of most of the common people about a war. The public opinion in America started changing its face with people showing their anger and protest against the decision of the president to go on war. The duration that this attack lasted for gave clear hints that the war was from being over and people were shocked to realize the amount of money and number of lives being lost on a battlefield was much more than the sheer joy of winning a war (Lawrence, 2010). Richard Nixon took over the regime with a promise to do whatever it takes to cut down on US’ involvement in the war with Vietnam and spread anti violence awareness. He also announced the withdrawal of US troops from South Vietnam and promised to withdraw active involvement in the South Vietnam; ‘Vietnamization’ was how his plan was commonly known as. His tactics were also welcomed by the communists initially and he peace plan did not seem far before they claimed that promises went begging. It all went wrong when Nixon went on to order bombings in the North Vietnam, which left the people feeling cheated. Public presentations were seen across the US and went on to become a full fledged anti-war campaign. Authorities were finding it difficult to manage and control the angry civilians, who had lost complete trust in the administration. Some of the rallies even observed violence from the crowd that went berserk forcing the Guards to open fire, hurting and killing innocent civilians. Having witnessed the situation that was increasingly going out of hands, Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution so as to stop mindless attack orders from being given by the president. Finally, some positives started coming out of Congress’ action and the accords and treaties were signed that would ensure withdrawal of US from the South Vietnam, leaving the South Vietnam regime in power. The war between North and South Vietnam continued even after that until mid 1975, when South Vietnam surrendered. Vietnam reunited and became a communist country (Isserman & Bowman, 2003). From extensive research, it’s observed that there were many reasons in addition to the poor decision making of the Presidents of United States for the whole Vietnam conflict. The US was so in awe of its weapon power and war supremacy that it failed to identify the strength and under estimated the North Vietnam and Vietcong armies. The war tactics adopted by the locals were committed and had a matter of surprise that took the American troops by shock most of the times. They were fighting for a cause that they had strong beliefs for, which kept them going and even motivated them to stretch there limits at times. Guerilla warfare was something that was new to the American soldiers and it took them forever to come to the terms of completely undefined combat zones. The American troops were wary of enemies all around them in disguise and surprise attacks. The American solders were not motivated enough because of their distrust and frequent lies by the US administration. The inhuman tactics adopted were finally getting to their minds and most of the soldiers that returned to the US got themselves actively involved in anti-war campaigns, which goes a long way in showing that the soldiers had enough reasons to not be willing to fight in Vietnam (Brigham, 2010). The general perception of Americans until the Vietnam conflict was that they would come out victorious in every battle and were so informed by the administration that US would soon come out victorious and ensure that communism is curbed to prevent the emergence of any communist country. In 1965, when US got involved in the war actively, it was a common belief that the war would end soon and would not be harmful to own people as it is being fought thousands of miles away. However, the doubts began seeping in after seeing that the war went on for longer than originally expected and there were no signs of the battle coming to an end even in near future. This started worrying the general public, more so as they were watching the clippings of the war live and thousands of dead bodies kept pouring in from the battlefield. People were soon getting emotional shocks and the basic American culture was experiencing a major change. The Media had a major role to play in changing the viewpoints of common people by highlighting the negatives and drastic after effects of a war. Up until the Vietnam conflict media was also mostly in favor of the wars and kept the general public uninformed in the fear of their retaliation, however, Vietnam war transformed the entire set up. The Vietnam conflict changed the American culture forever; billions of dollars, thousands of lives that were lost and the distrust caused by the frequent lies from the men in power were the major causes that brought about a radical change in America. The role of the media also changed for better, schools, colleges, and public show-offs all began to demote the pro-war viewpoint. From human point of view, several instances still haunt people in America, be it the injustice done by spraying herbicides on the crops that kept alive many a families because which children still are born with deformities or the killing of 200 civilians whom the soldiers took for the enemies. The war return soldiers found it difficult to get absorbed in the society having witnessed severe injustice. Celebrities, Activists, Leaders and other famous personalities all came to the front and promoted anti-war campaigns. In all, the Vietnam War changed the face of United States and its culture forever; bruises still remain but at least things have changed now (Brigham, 2010). References Isserman, M. & Bowman, J. (2003). Vietnam War. Infobase Publishing. Lawrence, M. A. (2010). The Vietnam War: A Concise International History. Oxford University Press. Westheider, J. (2007). The Vietnam War. Publishing Group. Levy, D. (2004). The Vietnam War:Chronicle of America's wars. Twenty-First Century Books. Background. (2010). The Vietnam War. Available at: http://www.vietnampix.com/intro.htm [Accessed on: 6 Dec 2011]. Brigham, R. (2010). Battlefield Vietnam: A brief history. Available at: http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/history/index.html [Accessed on: 6 Dec 2011]. Read More