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Baby Boomers In The Vietnam War

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The baby boomer generation is considered the largest generation ever in the history of the United States. As a result, this large generation of individuals brought upon the country a new way of social thinking and values. Despite this large general shift in social thinking and values there still was political variance amongst the generation itself, and the Vietnam War could be considered the hottest issue. The personal interviews presented in Discovering the American Past conducted on baby boomers, asking about their experiences revolving the Vietnam War, effectively displays the variety of reasons young individuals at the time believed the war was being fought for; some individuals shared similar reasons and others had differing reasons. In …show more content…
This large group of baby boomers thought Vietnam was another war in which the United States was the “good guy” and the nation was fighting some type of evil. Communism was the evil residing in Vietnam and it was the United States’ duty to defeat and avoid the domino theory from coming true. Mike, like many others his age, genuinely believed fighting in the Vietnam was a noble cause and he would return home after his tour with a sense of honor. Joining the armed forces, participating in a conflict, and becoming war hardened had become a rite of passage for many young men in the United States and for them it was part of being a true American. Not to mention, men participating in the Vietnam War were usually propagandized and given reasons for why Uncle Sam needed them in Vietnam. “It was our duty to go out and kill the Cong that they stood against Christianity” was one of the many paraphrases young men were told by either family, friends, and other close people (p.283). It is apparent that many men genuinely believed Vietnam was their generation’s milestone to prove their worthiness, just as the previous generations had done so in the Korean, WWII, and WWI. Sadly, many of these men would return from the war shocked and in disbelief from what they were involved in. …show more content…
Originally the war started with little protest but this did not last long. Soon people started to question if the United States should be involved in Vietnam and if the country’s involvement was for a legitimate cause. Protests would only become larger and stronger with time and, especially, following the Tet offensive commencement. Some of these protestors, such as John, believed the war was not a war fighting communism but another example of capitalism controlling the government and sending troops to protect American business interests (p.279). The government, according to Robyn, was running a war in the wrong manner if the nation was in Vietnam to “free” the people (p.296). To many protesters, America was fighting on the wrong side of an anticolonial rebellion. According to the protestors, American troops in Vietnam were similar to the British who tried to maintain control over the United States, a declared sovereign nation, post-1776. Many of the protestors saw the things done in Vietnam by the American troops as infringing the rights of the Vietnamese, rights the Americans had fought for so vigorously a couple centuries before in the United States against the British (p.296) John during his interview stated he once supported his argument for against the war to his father by saying “Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist before he was a communist” (p.279). This statement

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