...Women’s Role in Vietnam War: An Annotated Bibliography Thesis: Women played a very significant role during the Vietnam War in the 1950’s and 60’s. Their active voluntary involvement which included mainly nursing was a big help for the United States soldiers as they aided South Vietnam during the war. Source 1: Elshtain, Bethke, Jean. Women and War. New York; Basic Books, Inc., Publishers. 1987. Women who were voluntary nurses during the Vietnam War cared for the soldiers physically but also mentally. Often some soldiers late at night would come to the nurses and talk to them about their families at home or their significant other. These talks would help get the soldiers mind off the war and help them relax as they were stressing over the battles in Vietnam. Sometimes soldiers would ask nurses to even marry them so that they could die as marry men. This relationship between nurses and the soldiers was not perceived well by other people at the time. Many nurses were called “sluts” because of their late night visits with the soldiers. After the war nurses were viewed negatively by the public. It wasn’t until years later where women where seen as heroes during the Vietnam War. In this source of information it tells you more about the personal relationships the nurses had with the soldiers and how they helped the men cope mentally. This is also a pretty reliable source because it states real life situations and relationships that actually happened during the Vietnam War. This information...
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...Can WAR ever be just? Can there be rules about war so that fair play is possible? Has there ever been a war with a just cause? This has been a debate for ages. It depends on who you are asking if you ask a Christian they will tell you any war is unjust because god would not want you to kill others. He would want you to turn the cheek. Others may say it is just if it’s in defense. In this paper, I will explain why the Vietnam War was just. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War from 1954 -1964 to prevent and contain communism. In Vietnam, an independence movement under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh rose to challenge French rule. The United States helped France by giving financial and military aid. The US had moral and ethical reasons to stand up and face unethical leaders that oppressed other weaker people and to contain the spread of communism. Communism is horrible because the government controls every move you make and you have no say in what happens in your life. Such as no right to vote, no freedom of speech, no right to a fair trial, etc. This is what the United States was trying to protect South Vietnam from. Communists used terrorism, murdered and subversion to destabilize countries. Just this alone was a just cause for the United States to get involved in the Vietnam War. Many feel that this wasn’t a good enough reason for the United States to get involved and was immoral unjust war, or that communism is not that bad. According to Aquinas four things...
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...April 29, 2013 Cause and Effect of War The Vietnam War was during the years of 1964-1975. This is the longest military conflict in U.S. History. Around 85,000 Americans were killed during this war. This war cost over 150 billion dollars. The war involved the North Vietnamese army and the National Liberation Front on one side against the United States and the South Vietnamese army. The war was fought in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and a little in North Vietnam. One cause of the war was that the Vietnamese had struggled for their independence from France which was a result of the First Indochina War. As a result of this war, the country was divided into North and South Vietnam. The United States got involved in Vietnam because U.S. authorities thought that if the whole country fell under communist control, this would cause a domino effect and communism would spread through all of Southeast Asia. This was the reason to get involved in Vietnam. When the Japanese finally surrendered on September 2, 1945 in the First Indochina war, Ho also declared independence for Vietnam. The French refused to accept Vietnam’s independence, and later drove the Viet Minh into the north of the country. In 1965, the United States sent troops to help maintain the Southern Vietnamese government. Unfortunately, their plan didn’t work and in 1975 Vietnamese was under Communist control. The United States demanded for Japan to leave Indochina, or else they would be forced to use military action. After...
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...United States did more damage going into the Vietnam War than just staying away and letting them handle it. The Vietnam War was a long and confusion war, it had many causes, a huge cost, and difficulty on the home front. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a big cause in the US joining the Vietnam War because this pushed the president to join and send American troops to fight. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred when the US destroyer Maddox had gotten attacked by a Vietnamese torpedo boat. Two days later another destroyer reported the exact same thing. Later proved by historians that the second attack never actually happened, it was just to help push the US into the war (). President Lyndon B. Johnson had later ordered an air strike and by...
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...Executive Summary This report explores the question of what role the United States (U.S.) television media played in forming public opinion on the Vietnam War. The research, based on reviewing other primary and secondary sources, shows various opposing theories regarding this subject. Firstly, that television media was blamed for the U.S. loss in Vietnam. As Vietnam was the first televised war, it was argued that television swayed public support for the war by projecting the footage of conflict into the lounge rooms of Americans. One counter-theme showed that other factors such as opposition to the prolonged war and military policy were more likely to have changed public opinion. This report discusses how television media during the Vietnam war was just one aspect of how the public would have formed an opinion on such a complex issue, however concludes that further research is required to arrive at a definitive argument on such a controversial topic. Research Question This report explores what role the media played in forming public opinion within the U.S., regarding America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The research is particularly focused on the level of influence the introduction of television journalism had on forming public opinion during the war efforts. Escalation of U.S. involvement from aid to major deployment within Vietnam began after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 (Gifford 2007, p. 18). This period also saw television established as a mass medium across homes...
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...The Vietnam War was the war that most young Americans in the United States did not understand. The Americans did not understand why thousands of men were being killed over there and what was being accomplished for these deaths. The Vietnam War dragged out from 1960 – 1975 and many young adults was scared about their outcome in the end. The major connection between the Vietnam War and student unrest was that it was the first and only time that there was a military draft. On a young man’s eighteen birthday, he was required to register for the selective service and would be eligible for a draft for two whole years. With casualty rates, increasing every day, these young men had a better chance to be drafted and this scared them even more. There was only one way to have a temporary postpone chance of being selected, if you were attending college. This did not mean that young men that attended college were exempt from the draft but that as soon as they finished college they would be drafted. As young men grew closer and closer to graduation, they realized they were going to have to go to Vietnam and fight. These young men were left with only two options, either they dodge the draft and flee to Canada or they could protest for Congress to end the draft. These young men were scared, running out of options since college is for four years, and the war lasted fifteen years they did not know what to do. Thousands of young men fled to Canada, but the majority of the students...
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...The Vietnam War Vietnam is a small country in the Southeast Asia. It has a population of 80,000,000 people. The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese. The capital city is Hanoi. Although the country has many strong points, it also has a bloody history that includes wars. One of the greatest wars that the country has been through is the Vietnam War-the War against the US. The war started in 1954 and ended in 1975. The Vietnam War was a great failure to the US on both warfare and domestic issues. The history dates back to the 1940s when Vietnam was fighting for its freedom from the colonial French. The not giving in policies of French triggered the anger in Vietnamese. In the beginning of the twentieth century many has joined numbers of movements to gain back freedom. Later Vietnamese from all over the country would gather under the leader of Ho Chi Minh, (Neu, 2005, p.2). The man who led the revolutionary army of Vietnam to fight for freedom was Ho Chi Minh. He had so much influence to the country and to the world. As Charles E. Neu said of Ho around the time he was a leader “Ho became one of the great revolutionary leaders of the twentieth century”, (Neu, 2005, p.3). He was the man behind all the actions. In 1941, the Viet Minh or the Independent of Vietnam were formed under the lead of Ho Chi Minh, (Neu, 2005, p.3). Through many battles and hundreds of thousands of lives has been taken, Vietnam finally emancipated from France. On May 7, 1954 the end of the battle of...
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...Suicide of Vietnam Veterans The deaths that were experienced in Vietnam due to Agent Orange and other jungle diseases have become well known by the general public. However, it is suicide that has resulted in the deaths of over 150,000 Vietnam soldiers during and after the war. An enormous amount of suicides resulted from what most people call “protecting our country”. The Vietnam War brought more than fifty-eight thousand deaths and is to some one of the darkest battles in United States history. If not killed during the war, many believe any Vietnam veteran would return home great and proud. But this is not the case. Many Vietnam veterans have committed suicide before, during, and after the war. Not only have these men and woman risked their lives for our country, but now, return different people and can not comprehend whether or not to continue their lives. Many people believe we win wars, when in actuality, no one does, especially those who serve in the armed forces (Suicide Wall, 11-10-2000). The Vietnam and other wars have mentally and sometimes physically dismembered many veterans. Another factor that plays a role in a war-related suicide is the addition of many on-site diseases such as defoliants, Agent Orange in particular. Made up of equal parts N-Butyl Ester 2,4,-D and N-Butyl Ester 2,4,5,-T, Agent Orange made many Vietnam soldiers go insane (Vietnam Veterans, 11-10-2000). This atrocious chemical lead and still today leads to death, deformation, and diabetes. Dr...
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...The Vietnam War Frances Melodye Holloway HIS 135 October 16, 2011 Christine Hooper The Vietnam War The Vietnam War began in 1957 and ended in 1975. It was the longest war running that the United States has ever been involved in. The United State was in Vietnam to help France keep the Communists out of that country. Vietnam had split into two parts in 1954, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, after the Vietnamese fought the French for control of Vietnam. The northern part of the country was Communist and the war was going on to keep the southern part of the country non-Communist. The United States president, Harry S. Truman, came up with a policy that stated the United States would help any nation that is threatened by Communists (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1986). The next few paragraphs will focus on the Vietnam War and the student unrest, as well as the political and social outcome of the Vietnam War’s ending. The military draft is the major connection between the Vietnam War and the student unrest. During the time of this war, every male student was required to register for the military services on his eighteenth birthday. For the next two years, he would be eligible for the draft, also known as conscription (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1986). His chances would increase due to the increase of casualties during the war (University of Miami, n.d.). However, there was a way for the males to postpone his chances of being selected in the draft. This would be for...
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...The Vietnam War “I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.” This quote from John. F Kerry shows the reality of the Vietnam War. This war persisted for almost 20 years, and it ended in stalemate. Many Americans were protesting the war at home. Protests occurred all throughout the war, but many of the people in the United States were not aware what the war was like until the media covered Hamburger Hill. Even after ten days of bloody battle, the UN forces decided to abandon the hill, and it was later reclaimed by North Vietnam. Many American citizens thought of the war as pointless, as the troops had no place in this civil war between North and...
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...declared an official war on North Vietnam, the United State participated heavily in the war because of the Gulf of Tonkin’s Resolution. In the Gulf of Tonkin, the United States’s ship, Maddox, was being attacked by the North Vietnamese. In response to this, Congress and the House of Representatives passed the Gulf of Tonkin’s Resolution. It allowed the President to combat communism in any way he felt would be appropriate for the situation. (2) In the Vietnam War’s case, it was to help South Vietnam by sending in many American soldiers and helping them financially. Some might argue that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution could be considered an unofficial and informal declaration of war because of the drafts in 1969. Initially, the United States’s military needed the draft because the United State’s Armed Forces were not big enough to help the Southern Vietnamese and protect the United States. When the number of Americans increased in Vietnam, the number of casualties rose. Since there was an increase in casualties, young American men were not too copasetic on the idea of going to Vietnam, but because of the law they were drafted anyways. Also, the United State’s federal government helped the South Vietnamese by lending them the United States Air Force to drop bombs in North Vietnam. The Air Force was bombing North Vietnam to cut off supplies from North Vietnam to the North Vietnamese soldiers in South Vietnam. The United States wanted to weaken North Vietnam and make the North...
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...the two, being only 15 years old and seemingly an average active teenager. He seems carefree and happy. We are told that he likes baseball and that he likes throwing stones and that while doing so he imagines himself a hunter. Gary on the other hand is quite a bit older, I’d guess about 20-25, as he’s just returned from the war in Vietnam. Gary appreciates the peace around him and notices the beauty in the small things, unlike Bud who is more interested in throwing stones for fun. It’s not because Bud is evil, but simply because Gary has been changed by what he’s experienced in Vietnam. He carries a heavy burden around because of the war, but he doesn’t want to talk about it and when Bud asks him. He simply says to him that he wouldn’t want to know. It also seems like it’s hard for him to admit that he killed people in Vietnam when Bud asks, though I think that he has already indirectly told Bud that he did. When Bud had hit that bird with the stone Gary became quite upset about it, and when he realized that the bird was beyond help he killed it and I think what he said to Bud after this is quite significant: "That's it," Gary said, not ashamed of his crying - just crying now while he spoke to me. "That's all it is. That's all there is...
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...James Bennett Professor George J. Prokopiak HIS-114-OL010 Written Assignment 5 16 February 2015 Vietnam War and a New World Order with the End of Cold War Written Assignment 5 Question #1: As far as Vietnam is concerned, how did President Johnson "Americanize" the war? What was Nixon's policy of Vietnamization? Was anything achieved at the peace talks? What are the legacies of the Vietnam defeat? President Johnson “Americanized” the Vietnam War by many different avenues of approach taking a more aggressive posture. The president first started by supplying the South Vietnamese army with American military and economic assistance (Roark, 976-981). He significantly increased the American troop presence from 16,000 in 1964 to over 553,000 by 1969 displaying a much larger American presence (Roark, 976-981). America had stepped up bombing throughout Vietnam and neighboring countries (Roark, 976-981). In hopes of getting the backing of the American people and government, he strategically thought out who and where the bombs would be dropped (Roark, p. 980-981). He did not bomb near the northern border of Vietnam (Roark, p. 980-981). President Johnson did not want to provoke China or the Soviet Union into the war (Roark, p. 980-981). He did not want to make the same mistakes as Korea with the Chinese. He also thought about collateral damage. He tried to focus the bombings to low populated areas to minimize civilian casualties (Roark, p. 980-981). The bombing campaign was known...
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...The Sons of Guadalupe: The Vietnam era Generation And Their Journey Home Michael R. Ornelas, Chicano Studies Department January 24, 2007 A report to the Mesa College Sabbatical Committee in partial fulfillment of sabbatical requirements, Fall, 2006 “Two of the names that appear most often on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington are Johnson and Rodriguez. These two names tell us something about the composition of the U. S. military during the war, especially the combat units.” Aztlan and Vietnam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War, George Mariscal, ed. Like all of the other major events of the 20th century, the Vietnam War reached Guadalupe when John Varela arrived there on an early support mission for the advisors to the Vietnamese government in 1963. His visit was brief, perhaps two weeks. He characterized it as a Navy reconnaissance mission. But Varela’s first mission did not involve combat, unlike the first Guadalupan to see combat, Rudy Razo who arrived in July 1965, at a mere eighteen years old, just three months after the first major contingent of 3,500 combat Marines had arrived in Vietnam on March 8, 1965. He had arrived at the earliest stages of the war, when the United States had begun the shift from an advisory role to a combat one. This early trickle of soldiers would shortly turn into a virtual river of draftees and volunteers, peaking in 1968-1969. By the end of 1969, over 135 young servicemen from Guadalupe had been drafted...
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...The Legacy of the Vietnam War The Legacy of the Vietnam War University of Phoenix The Legacy of the Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1965-1975) was fought between the North and South Vietnam. The North was called Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. The Vietnam War brought so many mixed emotions, fear from communism, and many lost lives. The Vietnam War was also very costly the war had spending over $140 billion dollars, the war seemed to start with good intentions that seemed to get lost in the lengthy battle for the North’s freedom, unity, and hopes that America would put a stop to the continuing communistic presence from taking over in Indonesia. In this paper we will review the following: · Nixon’s foreign policy team (Kissinger) and the team’s actions · Nixon Strategy · Détente · Election of 1972 · Antiwar demonstrations and marches on the White House · The Silent Majority · Cambodia “invasion” · Kent State · Vietnamization and Laotian incursion · The My Lai Massacre · SALT Treaty I · The diplomatic strategies of the Paris Accord · Prisoners of War (POWs) · Vietnam Syndrome · Specific political and military legacies of the Vietnam War, both in America and globally Nixon’s Foreign Policy and Actions and Strategy Looking to end the war Nixon made several speeches to the public urging...
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