Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a time of aggressive war against communist as well as trying to control the peace between countries. The United States was to aid this war yet, back home they were protesting this war. People were losing their brothers, husbands, dads, uncles and grandparents for a fight for what? When the draft came to compliance, many students began to have sit ins and rallies protesting this war. Many including celebrities went on the air waves protesting this anti-war issue. People were not only saddened by this war but they were angry as well.

With speeches from students and celebrities even GI’s began to protest and support the anti war from where they were stationed at the time. The free spirit of those who protest this war and those who seen how many people they were losing at the time, began wearing anything from peace symbols to refusing to obey and orders they were given at the time.

As the bombings and body count in Vietnam continued to escalate so did civil unrest. 100,000 Anti-war protesters gathered in New York and thousands more in San Francisco. There was a backlash against all that was military. Soldiers returning home from the war were no longer regarded as heroes but as “baby killers”. Young men sought to evade the draft by being conscientious objectors or leaving for Canada. (Martina Bexte, 2002)

North Vietnam’s bloody TET Offensive of 1968 and the resultant horrendous casualties the Americans suffered eroded the situation at home even further. The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy also sparked racial tension and unrest. Taxpayers were paying out 25 billion dollars a year to finance a conflict that no one believed in. Woodstock brought in concerts on nonviolent protest to show that they all wanted peace no war. People were asking why their country was in a war that seemed impossible to overcome.

Another round of peace talks were organized on the heels of this controversy but again all attempts to end the fighting in Vietnam failed. BY March of 1973 all troops were pulled out and stationed back home. With a water gate scandal and communist overran Saigon and with in a few months most of Indochina would fall into Communist hands. The Anti-war movement’s mantra of “what are we fighting for” seemed eerily prophetic. (Vietnam war protest, 1973)

The political out come to this war meant many people and things will and have changed. Policies for treaties were kept and upheld that the United States will help allied countries as long as they know they are the primary source of man power and if they are out weighed we will provide help. The United States also will send in reinforcements for countries that are over man powered.

Socially after the war many soldiers that fought were not greeted in the manner that was