...Portrayal of Vietnam War has become a popular theme in modern media due to the vast extent of people who are exposed to it. The effects of war on both the body and mind are clearly portrayed in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. The audience is shown the negative outcomes of war; the chaos it brings to communities along with the mental decay of all involved. These are not your classic “Saving Private Ryan” films, where American troops come in and clean house. Rather these films portray the psychotic side of war, where some soldiers come back to society and can no longer function normally. Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now portray war as an ugly, disturbing event which affects both the soldiers and the people back home. Taxi Driver is set around the life of Vietnam Veteran, Travis Bickle. As...
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...American Government during the Vietnam War Young men fight and die for their country in every single war, and Vietnam was no different. However, U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, on average, were the youngest in American history. In previous wars many men in their twenties were drafted for military service, and men of that age and older would often volunteer. During the Vietnam War most of the volunteers and draftees were teenagers; the average age was nineteen. In World War II, the average American soldier was twenty-six years old. At the age of eighteen young men could join or be drafted into the army. At seventeen, with the consent of a guardian, boys could enlist in the Marine Corps. At the beginning of the war, hundreds of seventeen year old marines served in Vietnam. However, in November 1965, the Pentagon ordered that all American troops must be eighteen before being deployed in the war zone. The soldiers sent off to Vietnam can be divided into three categories: one-third draftees, one-third draft-motivated volunteers, and one-third true volunteers. As the war continued, the number of volunteers steadily declined. Almost half of the army troops were draftees, and in the combat units the portion was commonly as high as two-thirds; late in the war it was even higher. These were the majority of the people dying in the war, from 1966 to 1969, the percentage of draftees who died in the war doubled from 21 to 40. Those who could avoid the draft legally through deferments were...
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...and after the war is finished. These are not your classic Saving Private Ryan films, where the Americans come in and clean house. These films show the psychotic side of war, how some people come back to society and cannot function like the rest of society. These films portray war as an ugly disturbing event, which affects both the soldiers and the people back home. In Taxi Driver, we learn about Vietnam Veteran Travis Bickle. As the film unravels we see how Vietnam affects both soldiers and Americans. We come to see a split society, young against...
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...the person calling another a “coward” is cowardice themselves? Yes, this is very possible. The Vietnam War was a long, hard, and conflicting war for not only Vietnam, but the entire world. American men began getting drafted around the 1970’s, but roughly 300,000 men resisted the draft. The term resisted is extremely different from dodged. The men who fled America were draft resistors, not draft dodgers. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of stories about American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. The narrator, Tim O’Brien, was in a platoon of soldiers based in Vietnam and survived through the war....
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...keeping this country the way it is. The draft system was first used in the second World War, and as modern history shows (i.e. we're not under control by Germany or Japan), the system helped win us the war. However, drafting US citizens is not a reliable strategy. Many of the "soldiers" drafted during the last 3 wars using the system barely knew how to fire a gun. They had no prior military experience, and were certainly not ready to fight an opposing country head on. The draft system is not a reliable strategy for receiving more military personnel in modern times. The draft system is expenisve and simply not worth reinstating. "Mr. Hagel introduced a bill to permanently increase the Army by 30,000 enlistees, at an estimated cost of $3.9 billion" (Reynolds 1). Of course, no taxpayer wants to spend that insane amount of money on 30,000 recruits. Additionally, soldiers are expendable. The harsh truth is the military needs so many people, because they can't be sure that every single person is going to make it back, if any. Even if we succesfully train 1,000,000 soldiers with a lower cost, casualties happen. The draft system is too expensive to train a few thousand people to fight a war....
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...Vietnam: To Draft or Not To Draft Debate Questions What is the role of the media during a war and was this role effectively fulfilled during the Vietnam War? Does the Selective Service Act address the need for an effective fighting military in the U.S.? How or how not? How would a draft affect morale of soldiers? Looking at the soldier’s experience in Vietnam, how would a draft today affect soldiers both during and after a modern conflict? If the U.S. enacted the draft today, what would the American public response be? Would this have a positive or negative impact on the U.S. overall? If a draft were reinstated today, how might domestic issues in the U.S. be influenced? How would domestic issues such as the economy, political leadership and contemporary American culture influence foreign policy either with or without a draft? Is an all-volunteer military a more effective fighting force? Why or why not? Is it an American’s patriotic duty to serve in the military during their lifetime? Would a powerful, drafted military force enhance or impair U.S. foreign relations? According to the Selective Service Act, men ages 18 to 26 must register. Should women be required to register as well? Enacting a draft is the best solution for engage American youth in domestic and foreign politics. How do veterans contribute to American society upon their return, and are their contributions defined by whether...
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...The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a time in American history still spoken of with strong emotions today. The events of the era helped to spawn countercultures that helped to mold the country. There was strife and violence, fear and wounds, but mostly there was a quiet moment when the country’s college students moved from childhood into adulthood. This growth gave them the power to speak out against a war they did not believe in and were forced to send their brothers, boyfriends, and husbands to die in. In the eight years that America fought the Vietcong, more than 58,000 American soldiers died and America changed in ways the citizens never thought possible that are still felt in the world politic policy of today. In the early 1960s America was disrupted by the Civil Rights movement. Black, white, right, wrong; these were the ideals that the college students of the day were concentrating on. In the background, the United States was becomming involved in the civil conflict in Vietnam. Students turned their attention to this conflict as Presidents Lyndon Johnson then President Richard Nixon sent more soldiers to fight despite promises for peace (Coltrane, n.d). The college students became alarmed about how many American men were dying in a war that had nothing to do with them. Once the draft was reinstated and more men were sent to Vietnam, demonstrations, teach-ins and rallies were held on many campuses around the country protesting the war. The draft seemed to be the keystone...
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...Vietnam: The Effects on Americans Denise Eliason American History Professor Geisler September 19, 2013 Vietnam: The Effects on Americans The Vietnam War was not just the only battle lost by the United States, but also the longest battle. American responses to the war ranged from riots of those opposing the war to draft dodgers to those believing that in order to fight Communism, the war was inevitable. Over time, American responses regarding the war changed. How did these responses change? How did domestic political concerns shape the country’s response to the war? How did the war shape domestic politics in the 1960s and early 1970s? The War in Vietnam, from my own viewpoint along with other Americans, is difficult to understand. (ehistory.osu, 2013) To this day, people are trying to determine the reason behind United States involvement in a war that should have been fought by the people of North and South Vietnam. In an attempt to contain Communism and prevent the domino theory from taking place, the United States became involved under the assumption that South Vietnam was a true Democracy. Americans responded to the war in a positive manner because they were led to believe the cause was similar to efforts in South Korea. As time went on, American became divided in their opinions on the war which in turn caused wounds that have yet to be healed or may never be healed between some. When America declared her open involvement in 1964 after the Tonkin incident...
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...The Vietnam Conflict Introduction It is difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons why the U.S. became involved in the Vietnam Conflict. Perhaps one of the more convincing reasons can be attributed to the strong disdain most Americans had for Communism. The U.S. government feared that Communism, if not prevented, would spread throughout the nations. The federal government used President Eisenhower’s “domino theory,” which stated, “if one country in Southeast Asia collapsed to Communism then surrounding countries would soon fall” to rally support for their intentions to save Vietnam from Communism (Davidson, 2011, p. 839). The true reasons for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam Conflict is debatable, however one thing is clear, the war caused further division in a country already suffering from its own social issues. There had been conflict in the Vietnam long before the U.S. became involved in the conflict. Vietnam had been occupied by foreign countries for many years, and by 1940, Vietnam was under both French and Japanese rule. Ho Chi Minh, a Communist Vietnamese revolutionary leader, vowed to create a Vietnam that was independent of foreign rule (Davidson, 2011, p. 839). Ho Chi Minh established the Viet Minh whose main purpose was to liberate Vietnam from French and Japanese control. Northern Vietnam supported the Viet Minh efforts to create an independent Vietnam and joined forces with southern communist Vietcong to overthrow South Vietnam and unite Vietnam under one...
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...Would the reinstitution of the draft end the fake adoration of the military members? If there is a draft then they would all have to work for their heroic title. Being in the military is a job, therefore, the word soldier would regain its meaning that has been lost over the years. Not all veterans want to be praised or labeled because doing so separates them from everyone else. Harry Hershey says that the only way to solve problems would be to inducing the draft. The authors Andrew Bacevich, William Deresiewicz, and Clay Bonnyman Evans also have similar views and agree that instating the draft would be helpful. I say to avoid the separation of veterans from society we should reinstitute the draft. The author of “Today’s Soldiers are Proud...
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...In the book “If I Die in a Combat Zone” by Tim O’Brien, Tim O’Brien recalls his own travels from his small hometown in Minnesota to Vietnam to fight in the Vietnam War after he is drafted. This journey changes how he looks at the war, and how he thinks of the soldiers in the war. He doesn't believe in the war, but he was drafted regardless. In the book Tim O’brien said “The war, I thought, was wrongly conceived and poorly justified” (O’Brien 18) and continues to show his displeasure in the war by creating posters of cardboard about the war. “I declared my intention to have no part of Vietnam. With delightful viciousness, a secret will, I declare the war evil, the draft board evil, the town evil.” (O’Brien 20). He later went on to basic training where he and a new friend of his expressed their opinions on the war and the Sergeant simply responded by calling them pansies. He traveled to Vietnam as a radio man in the infantry. He marched frequently with alpha company carrying his radio gear and various other supplies along the way . He realizes that the war is...
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...Jazmin Morinigo “No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now,” Richard Nixon explained, “Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic.” The Vietnam War swallowed the lives of Americans and left a generation full of lost, broken youth. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien conveys how the lack of an audience enhances the isolation the soldiers feel and the despair they fall into. They are unable to forgive themselves for Kiowa’s death and fall into destructive patterns. O’Brien proves that forgiveness can only be achieved by revisiting your burdens and expressing the emotions you carry. O’Brien recalls events from...
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...In 1954, president Dwight D. Eisenhower sent a letter Ngo Dinh Diem, the leader of anti-communist South Vietnam. His purpose was “to assist the Government of Vietnam in developing and maintaining a strong, viable state, capable of resisting attempted subversion or aggression through military means” (Eisenhower). Many consider this letter to be one of the initial communications with Vietnam that led to our entrance into what became one of the most controversial wars in American history. However, most were not directly connected to the war until a draft notice arrived in the mail. This was the case for Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, who received his draft notice in 1968. Having grown up in small-town Minnesota, O’Brien was able to have a normal, peaceful childhood. He prospered in school and was eventually Harvard-bound, until the Vietnam War threw him off-course. Tim opposed the war just like so many other Americans, and gave serious consideration to the idea of fleeing to Canada. However, he eventually decided to go to war, albeit reluctantly, and it was his first-hand...
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...River » which is a short story written by Tim O’Brien. This American author published in 1990 « The Things They Carried », a collection of related stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. While modeled after the author’biography and sharing the same name, Tim is a fictional character and not the author who’s intentionally blurs this distinction, even though he has also been drafted overthere. To sum up briefly, the character, 21, tells us how his storybook world collapsed when he received a draft notice for the Vietnam War. We’ll fisrt develop the dilemma which tortures Tim. Then we’ll analyze the role of the second character, Elroy, and the unexpected « nonconformist » punch line. This excerpt takes place in Minnesota where Tim is fishing on the Rainy River which marks the border between the USA and Canada. It deals with the issues of whether the war he has been drafted into is right and if he should go to the war or be a coward and run away from the war. The dilemma is hard. The draft, at least during the Vietnam war, was a sort of lottery that determined the order of men, by birthdate, to serve as soldiers. This was instituted because there were not enough voluntary soldiers serving in the military. The ways a citizen of the U.S. could avoid going to the Vietnam War was either leave the country or contract some life threatening desease. The first one may have been a solution for Tim who initially decided to run off to Canada to escape being drafted...
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...going to Vietnam against his principles. He questions his own motives, and in this story he returns to the genesis of his decision in order to examine with us the specifics of cause and effect. Ironically, despite its specific details and its preoccupation with reality, “On the Rainy River” is the story most easily identifiable as fiction. The real Tim O’Brien did indeed struggle with his decision to heed his draft notice, but he never actually ran to the Canadian border, and he never stayed at the Tip Top Lodge. Still, as he states explicitly later in the work, the point of a story like this one is not to deliver true facts exactly as they happened but rather to use facts and details in order to give an accurate account of the feelings behind a given situation. Though the events in the story are not true, the story itself conveys an emotional truth. By describing his personal history, O’Brien makes a broader comment on the confusion that soldiers experienced when the demands of their country and community conflicted with the demands of their princples and conscience. O’Brien’s description of his moral dilemma about going to Vietnam illustrates how the war was fought by soldiers who were often reluctant and conflicted. In the context of the collection’s later stories, “On the Rainy River” weighs the guilt of avoiding the draft against the guilt of committing atrocities against other humans. Though it seems obvious that killing is more ethically reprehensible than draft-dodging...
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