The nation of the United States would never be the same again as the Vietnam war raged within the 60s, ended in the 70s, and cut the rope of trust between American society and government. Like most wars, the US had a strong history to stop communism and promote their capitalisic empire, as stated by Alexis J. during the economic club in Detroit. “W hy is it (Vietnam) desirable and why is it important? First, it provides a lush climate, fertile soil, rich natural resources, a relatively sparse population in most areas… produces rich exportable surplus such as rice… and many others”. So to exploit Vietnam wasn’t just a side effect of “freedom”, but rather one of the main idea to start the war and destroy peoples lives in the first place. This driving force would unleash between the 1950 and 1975 (and so on) US policies meant to win Vietnam out of all necessary and unnecessary measures. Through the US government tried to convince it public that the war was to “stop communism”, the death toll of American soldiers/citizens would reach to 58,000 and about 3 million Vietnamese in their own country. Even with the US government's stubbornness to neglect power the “greatest anti war the nation had ever experienced” (Zinn 469).would come from the nation’s citizens tired in fighting in a never ending war. The Vietnam war was an abstract war as the average US citizens didn’t know what they were fighting for. The Gulf of Tonkin event, which passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and started full scale war, was faked by CIA members. After the truth was revealed and US citizens realizing they were manipulated by the government, the damage was done and US citizen were forced into battle. What were we fighting for, an average US citizen would question.The most basic answer given from the government was “communism” and the “red scare” to promote the notion. The book The Things They Carried tried to show why an individual would fight in the war and what they would experience afterwards. The book brings the lesson that it wasn’t Vietnam itself that ruined the lives of the soldiers, but the US government for bringing them into a war in the first place. There was also an art piece by Jean Watson, a female nurse who saw the atrocities of Vietnam, and introduces it through her art piece. She shows the beauty and power of Vietnam through her art piece The Jungle Dragon as a person could image themselves dying by a powerful foe just for entering its land. Something beautiful yet something fierce. In short, many Americans didn’t understand the cause and to most just saw it as unpurposeful gore. Vietnam realized what they were fighting for before the US intervened and known the cost. They fought against the oppressive rain of the French colonist and also against the US who would do the same thing. As stated by the Asian Political Alliance (1971) “For the Vietnamese, the human element...comes first. There is nothing they could do without the people..” This philosophy of the “human element””. This made Vietnamese fighting back seem much more just compared to the US, who only wished for hunger and power. Yet, the American government needed to create a reason that wasn’t conquest. Luckily for them, it was the Cold War and North Vietnam was considered “communist” to the American public. During the 1950s, the Truman administration was (ironically) helping France re-colonize Vietnam after the Vietnamese gained their freedom. Throughout all of Vietnam, the US tried to “secure maximum propaganda advantage, zealous US aid drop pamphlets into villages..(indicating)...that the programs were gifts… contrasting the “real gains” made by “communist empty promises”” ( Herring 17). The US also gave certain parts of Vietnam $50 million which would hide to both US citizens and Vietnam citizens the US government's true
intentions. Of course, the Vietnamese knew better than to be recolonized and this propaganda failed within most of Vietnam. As time grew on, the French grew tired from war and allowed Independence of Vietnam: “ (by 1952) the French control had been reduce to enclaves around Hanoi, Haiphong…” (Herring 32) By 1955, peace treaties were already being made and Vietnam was almost out of problems except one obstacle in the way; America. By now, America was more obvious about their plans and were even showing military attacks since 1952. Most importantly the US had “Firmly committed itself to the fragile government of Ngo Dinh Diem, (America) eased the French out of Vietnam...”(Herring 45) South Vietnam was the creation of America ever since the early 1950s, and Ngo Dinh Diem was chosen from the US to lead South Vietnam despite a very high disapproval with the Vietnamese. As it turned out, the disapproval was perfectly placed as “(Diem) looked backwards to an imperial Vietnam that no longer existed” (Herring 55). In the late 1950s and early 1960, South Vietnamese soldiers staged a coup against Diem and by 1963 he was assassinated. The US should have stopped, seeing as Diem was considered a dictator to Vietnam. But instead, they pushed forward believing that in order to obtain Vietnam, hard force would be needed. So what better way to conquer a country than to start a war. So, as history states, the Tonkin resolution was born, which gave the president Johnson in 1965 “all necessary measures to repel any armed attacks against the United States and to prevent further aggression” (Congress). The Tonkin event (which we remember was faked) turned the president’s polls “from 42 to 72 overnight” (Zinn 476) and congress was fully betrayed when the event was shown to be false. What wasn’t false was the drafting process, which was taken advantage from by the government. The Selective Service Act of the 1940 had a policy that “mobilized American-civilian soldiers in the anticipation of the entry into WWII” and during the Korean war deferments were given to college students to finish studying and then join. The problem here is it meant lower income students would fight the war the war rather than higher income students. More than 80% of soldiers were lower income and “during 1965, over 200,000 American soldiers were sent to South Vietnam and in 1966, 200,000 more.” (Zinn 477) Not only this isn’t fair because it brings the message of the wealthy escaping the troubles of conflict, but it also creates a disadvantage as people come back to the US. Being reminded of the war and not having the full resources to gain treatment for it. Both the poor citizens of the country fighting against each other in an endless war. This lead to a major disliking to the war more and more both through lower and higher class. “C ollege education, 27 percent suggested withdraw from Vietnam; of people with grade school education, 41 percent were for immediate withdrawal” (University of Michigan, Zinn 492). Certain protesting groups began to show up due to the atrocities of the war and “In August of 1965, 61 percent of the population thought of the American involvement wasn’t wrong. By May 1971, it was exactly reversed; 61 percent thought the involvement was wrong.” (Zinn 492) This was extremely ironic for Johnson who originally was the peace candidate as 300,000 men annually would go to Vietnam. “ (America) give the people on the periphery of Asian communism in time...eventually to live in peace and stability with their powerful neighbors” (Herring 189). It now turned to Johnson to “dismissed out of hand any thought of American
Withdrawal from Vietnam..” ( Herring 32). It would only make sense that Johnson would lie about the future and what was to come of it. The hope for Americans now was to wait for the next presidential candidate to right the wrongs the previous office did. Sadly, president Nixon didn’t deliver. “The more unpopular the Saigon regime became, the more dependent it was on the on the United States. The more dependent it was on the United States, the more unpopular it became.” (Boggs 118) This was the mentality of South Vietnam as what the citizens from North and South believed with the intervention of the American government. American society did its part by heavily protest into the 70s, but needed an extra step to push the citizens of the US to full anger. Nixon, now the new president of the US, tried sending soldiers in Cambodia and almost unleashing a brand new war onto the mix. Nixon succeeded at some level, but congress denied it as “Congress passed a resolution declaring American troops should not be sent to Cambodia with its (Congress) approval, ” (Zinn 484). This was an outrageous action by the executive branch that the US society couldn’t handle. It showed that the US government had ignored their people, their morals, and their budget as the Vietnam war already waste millions of dollars producing weapons. From the outrage of citizens, Nixon created a “plan” to get America out of the war. “Vietnamization” was the solution where the United States would withdrew its forces but continue to give aid to the Saigon government. Yet, out of mountains of bombings, North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975 and the war was over. Vietnam was, by far, the most unjust war that had ignored the protest of Americans, had severely wounded the nation of Vietnam, and create a conflict that was meant to end the second the Vietnamese gained their independence. Yet the US attacked Vietnam even when France had given up and showed the worst of what America had to offer. Yet, the Americas still lost with all their might because it was agreed even by the majority that Vietnam had suffered enough. So, American government now had to face the consequences as the rope of trust between citizen and government was broken permanently till the end of the nation. “The Americans fight a mechanical war but the Vietnamese fight a people’s war. For the Vietnamese the human element always comes first. There is nothing they can do without the people. The people are their support and the people are their warriors and the people are their political belief.” (Asian Political Alliance, Boggs 119 )
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Brown O. and others “The Military Draft During the Vietnam War”, Michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu, Resistance and Evolution, Web, 2019 Herring C George, “America’s Longest War: United States and Vietnam”, University of Kentucky, America in Crisis, 1979 James and Grace Lee Boggs “Revolution and Evolution in the 20th Century”, First Modern Reader, 1975, Zinn Howard “A People’s History of the United States” , HarperCollins Publishers: Modern Classics, 2005