...Vietnam Protest: Government Against Civilians Brian Garcia Introduction to Comparative Politics Midterm March 19, 2015 Political violence has been experienced in every country throughout history, whether the government in place has been a democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, or a hybrid regime. Political violence, or collective political struggles, includes events such as riots, civil wars, revolutions, and peaceful protest movements (Neil, 2013). In 1965 the Vietnam War sparked one of the largest protests, in the United States, the world has ever seen. The United States citizens rose against their government in a public forum, in order to convey their message against the casualties that had resulted due to the war in Vietnam. After World War I, Vietnam created the nationalist movement, which formed separate states for each nation. During World War II, Japan invaded Vietnam, causing the Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, to liberate his people. Minh used guerilla warfare, private non-state affiliated men to attack the Japanese (Neil). Upon Minh’s win, he attained the territories once belonging to France and created a new nation under the communist government, a political system that “eliminates individual freedom to achieve equality” (Neil). Because of Vietnam’s government as a form of communism, the United States was not able to help finance them after the revolutionary, instead, President Truman helped fund France and provided them with militarily aid. Eventually after the...
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...undergo through his time throughout the war. Men can deal with uncertainty, anxiety, and death around them in impudent and horrifying ways. When Ted Lavender dies, Cross leads his soldiers into the village of Than Khe to scorch, pillage, and murder everyman they discern, Ted would deal with anxiety by abusing drugs, and Rat would deal with the death of Lemon by shooting a water buffalo 'til it was dead. Firstly, when Ted Lavender is shot in the head while taking a leak when one of the soldiers is searching a hole for Vietcong. Jimmy cross deals with Ted’s death by leading his men to a village named Than Khe where they “burned everything” (O’Brien, 15) and slaughtered everything in sight. The soldiers didn’t falter after being ordered to cause this cruel unhuman act of murder, subsequently the soldiers wanted to kill as it would also help them deal with his death....
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...The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1959 and 1975 to prevent the reunification of Vietnam under a communist government. They participated the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), with the support of the United States and other nations, against the local guerrillas of the Vietnam Liberation Front (Viet Cong) and the army of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), backed by China and mainly by the Soviet Union.The decade of the 60s, was of deep transformations in the most powerful country of the world that tried to maintain the military and economic hegemony achieved with the defeat of fascism in Europe, a summer of 1945. When, in January 1973, the Peace Accords in Paris were concluded, most Americans were relieved that the Vietnam...
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...During the sixties Americans saw the rise of the counterculture. The counterculture was a group of movements focused on achieving personal and cultural liberation, was embraced by the decade’s young Americans. It included rejection of conventional social norms, reaction to political conservatism of the Cold War period and to extensive Military intervention in Vietnam, and the rejection of racial segregation (lect.,”Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll”, week 6). Because many Americans were members of the different movements in the counterculture, the counterculture influenced American society. As a result of the achievements the counterculture movements made, the United States in the 1960s became a more open, more tolerant, and a freer country. One of the most powerful counterculture movements in the sixties was the civil rights movement. In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act to end racial discrimination in employment, institutions like hospitals and schools, and privately owned public accommodations. In 1965, congress returned suffrage to black southerners, by passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Foner 2009). In the case of Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional(Foner 2009) . Because of the civil rights movement in the sixties, minorities gained more rights than they had prior to the 1960s. During this time, a group of writers became known for jump-starting the rebellion of the youth culture...
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...Christopher Marr Unit 2 Individual Project HIST105-1202A-17: U.S. History American InterContinental University Online April 1st, 2012 Vietnam Conflict 1. Analyze two to three (2–3) major consequences the conflict had on United States’ society. The Vietnam War started during the end of World War II, Japan invaded and occupied Vietnam that had been under the administration of the French since the turn of the 20th century. The League for the Independence of Vietnam was formed by Ho Chi Minh to fight back the oppression of both the Japanese and French colonial administration. Japan eventually withdrew it's forces in 1945 leaving Emperor Bao Dai in control of an independent Vietnam. Ho's forces quickly rose up and seized Hanoi declaring a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and Ho became the president. Backing Bao, the French set up the state of Vietnam (South Vietnam) with Saigon being the capital in 1949. Bao was pushed aside by Ngo Dinh Deim to become the president of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN) in 1955, after the call for the country to be whole again in 1956. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower supported Deim and the South Vietnam, giving training and equipment from the U.S. military and police forces gave South Vietnam the ability to crack down on the North supporters in the south, who were ultimately called Viet Cong or Vietnamese Communists. 1959 marked the start of engagement of the North fighting back against the South...
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...In the 1960’s the United states was on the brink of war. A while after the bay of pigs invasion president Kennedy was killed. The effects of politics on the United states influenced the next generation to make completely different choices. President Nixon was in office and started offensive operations in vietnam which warranted the creation of the war powers act. The Vietnam war started in the mid 60’s and started a new movement of peace. The main influence to the new generation was the music. A new type of music was created and appropriately named “acid rock”. “Acid rock” was a category of music that used the effects of drugs to boost the feeling of the music. The hippies adopted this music as their own. “Acid rock” brought on a new type...
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...The Vietnam War Elizabeth Guerra Chamberlain College of Nursing The Vietnam War had first started as a “police action” for the United States. In 1954, France had lost control of Korea and they signed an agreement with Vietnam called the Geneva Accord. The country was separated into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The terms of the agreement stated that each side would not have a leader until 1956 when an election would be held to determine if they wanted the country to be unified. The United States was afraid that because North Vietnam was a pre dominantly communist country, that the spread of communism would flow to South Vietnam. In 1955, Unites States helped Ngo Dinh Diem win the presidential election. Early into his term, Ngo Dinh Diem claimed that North Vietnam, which was called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was attacking South Vietnam. In 1957, America began to give military aid to help South Vietnam stop the spread of communism. President Eisenhower started the ‘police action” and it continued through until after President Kennedy was assassinated. In August of 1964, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam attacked two American ships that were anchored in the gulf of Tonkin. The gulf of Tonkin was supposed to neutral waters. This gave President Johnson the ammunition he needed to use his Congressional resolution that gave him broad war powers. In 1964, the police actin ended and Johnson started to send troops to South Vietnam. Johnson wanted to fight this war with...
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...Sex and drugs and rock and roll Hypothesis: the 1960’s were the most influential decade when popular culture changed the world Of the many significant events in the 20th century, the two world wars, the cold war and Vietnam, space exploration and the dramatic impacts of automation and technology on everyday life, culminating with the popularity of personal computers and the birth of the internet towards the end of the millennium, arguably no other decade had as significant an impact on popular culture as did the 1960’s. What we witness is a transition from a conformist society at the start of the decade to a counter-culture of anti-war protests, pushes towards racial and sexual equality, free love and drug influences like never before. As...
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...America's war on drugs, marijuana is one of the biggest enemies. And since alcohol and tobacco, two life threatening substances, are legal it is a relevant question to ask why marijuana is illegal. The taxpayers of America can partly answer this question when they fill out their tax forms and when they hear the hash rhetoric used against marijuana by the government. The fact that marijuana is illegal is sufficiently caused by the amount of money, jobs, and pride invested in the drug war. In other words, the government cannot turn back now. In order to demonstrate this cause, the difference between illegal and legal substances (specifically alcohol and marijuana) must be abolished. Alcohol, as we all know, was once illegal. The reason that it was illegal was because the ill effects of alcohol led many people to fight for the prohibition cause. Some of these ill effects are direct and some alter the behavior and motor skills of the drinker, helping them do things they would not usually do. More often than not, the direct effects result from heavy drinking, like "depression is frequently diagnosed in alcoholics" (Rittenhouse 140). But just getting drunk can do serious harm. "Accidental trauma forms the major cause of brain damage from alcohol" (140) would indicate alcohol as a threat to human health. Marijuana on the other hand seems a little out of place in its classification as illegal. The source previously cited notes that, "Although it is classified as a Schedule I drug for...
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...The American Experience Since 1945 HIS The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a Cold War military conflict started in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The war was from November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on the 30th April 1975. Right after the Vietnam War the first Indochina War was fought between North Vietnam was support by it communist allies and the South Vietnam, was support by the United States.("The Cold Warrior", April 9,2010, p. 1) Student unrest draws a lot attention when the war started; during Vietnam War the draft took place for the first time since 1942. There were two viewpoints in 1960 that evolve. One group felt Vietnam was for a purpose and we should stay until the job was done. The other side felt it was such a burden both socially and economically that United States needed to get out of Vietnam.(Ryan, 2008, para. 1) The Baby Boomers both men and women were eligible to be sent off to fight in a war that was a conflict begin question for the American involvement. Students that could afford going to college went after college they would then be eligible to be sent off to Vietnam. To protest the war large demonstrations took place on college campuses. This was an incentive to protest the war and tried to put a stop to it before they could be drafted. The young men who could not afford collage were outnumbered by the upper class and middle class. The war was long a drug out war as the resentment grew so did the financial cost. With the...
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...the wars the United States fought in. A United States Army battalion directed by William Calley, entered then My Lai village anticipating to discover participants of the Vietcong. Instead, the Charlie Company killed approximately 500 innocent civilians brutally. This massacre was not stopped until Robert Thompson, a helicopter pilot saw all the lifeless bodies and flew down to figure out what transpired. Calley claims Ernest Medina ordered him to execute the killings. When Calley was indicted for murder the nation broke out in a "Free Calley" movement claiming he was innocent. William “Rusty” Calley was born June 8th 1943 in Miami, Florida. His father was a United States Navy veteran from World War II. He attended Palm Beach Junior College for a year, but had to drop out due to...
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...Vietnam & Nixon 1968 - 1974 President Nixon - war Henry Kissinger Assistant for National Security, Sec. of State Goal - Better relations with Soviet Union and Red China 1969 Bloodiest fighting of the war Vietnamization - build up of ARVN and turning actual fighting over to them as US ground troops are pulled out. 1969 - 480,000 1970 - 235,000 1971 - 160,000 1972 - 24,000 reduced American casualties make up for loss of ground troops by increasing the air war Anti war protest continued My Lai Massacre - Lt. William Calley ordered killing of over 200 unarmed SV civilians Media discovered in November 1969 Shocked the American public, increased demands to end the war NV insisted the US troops would have to be withdrawn before peace talks could begin 1970 Kissinger began secret talks in Paris with Le Duc Tho of NV Cambodian Invasion Kent State University May 4, 1970 National Guardsmen killed 4 protesters and wounded 9 others during anti war demonstration. Dec. 1970 Tonkin Gulf Resolution repealed by Congress -Prepared to cut funding for the war US soldier in Vietnam Came from poor working class with minimal education ‘Grunt’ Average age 19 Morale low, drug abuse common, mutiny common in platoons 1971 Pentagon Papers - Daniel Ellsberg confirm government dishonesty about the war 1971 ⅔ of Americans want US out of the war Nixon renewed massive bombing of North Vietnam (Johnson had stopped in 1969) Madman Theory NV became more determined...
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...When this film, and song Gimme Shelter, was made and released when America was fighting in Vietnam and many people did not support this conflict. Mick Jagger even stated in an interview that “it was a nasty war and people didn’t like it…people objected and didn’t want to fight it.” During the sixties and seventies there was a love revolution were people would protest to “make love not war,” and started to revolutionize the way people viewed one another. In a generation where people were trying to spread love and the leaders of the world were afraid of the spread of communism, resulted into riots at picket lines and at venues. The film sets an establishing tone to this period in American society were drugs were a popular topic. People were hyped...
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...with rock music, hallucinogenic drugs, and long, flowy hair and clothing. They were seen by some as disrespectful and dirty and a disgrace to society, but to many they are a reminder of a more peaceful, carefree part of America’s history. Hippies were strongly against violence and supported liberal policies and freedom of personal expression, their lifestyles centering around the concepts of peace, freedom, and harmony for all people. Generally, counterculture is used to describe the culture of a group of people whose morals, values, core ideals, and lifestyle differs, contradicts, or is polar to those of mainstream society at the time. Culturally, it is often described as a social equivalent to extremely liberal politics and radicalism. Who The hippies of the 1960’s were the teenagers of the baby boom generation, so they were found in large numbers. They were generally Caucasian, middle-class, white teenagers between the ages of 15-25 who were tired of the restrictions put on them by society and their conservative parents. Most lived in urban areas or came from an urban background. They were tired of conforming and began to express themselves in a radical way. Hippies didn’t care about money and worked as little as possible. Instead, many of them shared what they had and lived together in large communes, while others simply lived in poverty by choice. They had very liberal political views and strongly protested the government and the war. The lifestyle of a hippie centered...
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...military service in the Vietnam War. Only men were put into the draft lottery, receiving a random number that corresponded with their birthdays. The men with the lower numbers were called to serve in the war first . This meant many of our soldiers were young and not trained well. Many people were not in favor of the war in Vietnam. People believed the United States were fighting for a losing cause....
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