Domestic instability, ethnic and racial relations, labor relation, immigration, and wars and revolutions are examples of social disagreement and collaboration. In August 1964, the US government received word that two North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Vietnam: The War That Killed Trust Initially, US citizens strongly supported the idea that it was not a mistake to fight in Vietnam. WebIn any case, American disillusionment with the war was a product of many causes, of which the media was only one. Changing attitudes about benefits: The World Wars to Vietnam WWI veterans received minimal benefits from the government. Moose did not satisfy President Thieu, and it provided no more than a partial solution to the prostitution problem. Initially, US citizens strongly supported the idea that it was not a mistake to fight in Vietnam. Direct link to William H's post At the time of Vietnam th, Posted 7 years ago. Edelman, Bernard. Soon after, Tet would turn the course of the war towards an eventual American exit. Attitudes Towards War war Although Vietnam was fairly casualty-light in comparison to other major wars fought by the United States, especially considering Vietnams length, direct TV exposure to the war made those casualties more human and less of a statistic, a fact that was exploited heavily by the North Vietnamese: For each additional days stay, the United States must sustain more casualties. Instead, anti-war sentiment bloomed from, or The lounge quieted down as other passengers realized what was going on and joined in a wave of appreciation. Is there honor in a losing battle? WebAP.USH: KC8.1.I.B.ii (KC) , Unit 8: Learning Objective I , WOR (Theme) Learn about the war that enmeshed the United States in a battle against communism in Southeast Asia for more than twenty years. The Tigers proceeded to kill hundreds of civilians and compounded their crime by mutilating the bodies of victims, including old women and even babies. Americans attitudes toward veterans of the Vietnam War have been characterized by tension between a sense of virtue and a sense of shame. If anything it was the french's fault for everything. Overview Direct link to Sean Rim's post Agent Orange not only eff, Posted 7 months ago. Prostitution became a special problem. Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam War -Interview with Melissa Woodbury, conducted via Skype, March 25, 2017. Wright, who for his book interviewed about a hundred and twenty-five veterans, identifies four periods. Walter Cronkite reported every single night, we got the body count every night Usually it was something like we killed 7,000 of them and only 1,000 of us and then Westmoreland saying just a few more, just a few more, just a few more and more troops went. For many Americans, the South Vietnamese became an object of contempt, even hatred. Hed been working so hard in the anti-war movement that when Nixon upped it again and went into Laos he committed suicide he was so distraught.[26]. May 2, 2015. Casualties: A follow-up, (Analysis Report, May, 1969), 16-17. Poll numbers began reflecting an erosion of support that had held up for three years of a growing American war, even as anti-war demonstrations increased in size and intensity in the U.S. Across most of South Vietnam, the communist attacks were quickly repulsed, cities and towns re-taken in days, killing tens of thousands of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Some gauzy recollections benefit the veterans sense of honor but miss the sordid elements of the war. [11]Interview with Melissa Woodbury, conducted via Skype, March 25, 2017. With the rising prevalence of the television in American homes and news broadcasts increasing in length to 90 minutes a night, scenes from the Vietnam War regularly reached Americans during dinnertime. Vietnam War and the Shifting Tides of Public Opinion Walter Cronkite reported every single night, we got the body count every night and then Westmorland saying just a few more, just a few more, just a few more and more troops went. It does seem to have been unique in that (1) it was the first major war to be preceded by substantial, organized anti-war agitation, and (2) for Europeans, it followed an unprecedentedly peaceful century during which even war enthusiasts began, perhaps unknowingly, to appreciate the virtues of peace. Q: In March of 1965, Johnson deployed 3,500 Marines to South Vietnam. [5], The reason that support for both withdrawal and escalation decreased in 1965 was the massive deployment of troops that same year. The result was Operation Moose (Move Out of Saigon Expeditiously), implemented mostly during 1967. Attitudes Toward Vietnam Era Veterans. Is there honor in a losing battle? VIETNAM WAR Direct link to Zob Rombie's post The main reason the war e, Posted 4 years ago. The two countries were divided along the 17th Parallel, also known as the Line of Demarcation. It was against this drum beat of official optimism that the communist attacks unfolded. year deployment rule that was instated for draftees to try and improve public opinion did little more than to force the expansion of the draft and increase casualties, as the ranks of the military were flooded with inexperienced, green troops (40% of American deaths were men who were on their first three months in country compared to the 6% who were on their last three). Relations with South Vietnamese soldiers were likewise strained. As the participants and chroniclers fade away, some of the heat has diminished but not totally gone away. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The general consensus of the American public on Vietnam seems to be that it was an unwinnable war, fought for a questionable cause that ultimately led to nothing but dead Americans and a loss of faith in the U.S. government. [18] Even more drastic was the fall in support for the Johnson administration, which hit a record low of 26% by the end of the Tet Offensive. American Its a powerful film, but its brief historical setup, which blames only North Vietnam for violating the 1973 Paris Peace Accords ceasefire when all sides did so, protects American viewers from recognizing their countrys guilt. http://www.historynet.com/vietnam-war-the-individual-rotation-policy.htm. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/opinion/vietnam-war-americans-culture.html. More than that, however, the war intruded directly and tangibly into the personal lives Agent Orange not only effected Vietcong but also US Infantry so that was more horrid than anything I could think of of. After 1965, the United States took on the burden of defeating the enemy militarily. Conflict and cooperation among social groups, organizations, and nation-states are critical to comprehending society in the United States. Attitudes Toward Vietnam Era Veterans. Americans attitudes toward veterans of the Vietnam War have been characterized by tension between a sense of virtue and a sense of shame. Others, however, proudly joined veterans groups, spoke and wrote of the war, and took sides in support or oppositionmost notably the young naval officer John Kerry. WebThe process through which the change took place owes much to British war aims and to their efforts to get the United States into the war. The newspaper should include an editorial, a letter to the editor from a parent of a soldier, two articles about events during the war, and photos from that time. Some envied the opulent lifestyle of the Americans, with their enormous bases equipped with all the conveniences of home, including air conditioning, shopping centers and movie houses. Those who were not disabled in combat received, as the Veterans Administration today describes it, little more than a $60 allowance and a train ticket home. Military analysts soon discovered that Tet was part of an extremely predictable yearly pattern of communist activity, and subsequentoffensives in the following years continued to grow weaker, but it was too late. [For] the fist time in American history a war had been declared over by an anchorman.[21]. Vietnam War Vietnam War Fused the Modern American Right [17] By October 1968, 63% of the population believed that, Average Action Cycle in Vietnam (Courtesy of Thomas C. Thayer), Vietnam was as mistake. However, many experts who have studied the role of the media have concluded that prior to 1968 most reporting was actually supportive of the U.S. effort in Vietnam. The actions of the Tiger Force were replicated with even more savage results at My Lai, in Quang Ngai province, in February 1968, where American soldiers killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians. This draft disproportionately targeted certain populations, mostly the poor making it very unpopular. On August 2nd, in a defensive move, the navy of North Vietnam sent torpedo boats to drive away the US Navy ship. Direct link to zander musser's post "In August 1964, the US g, Posted 4 months ago. Walter Cronkite was probably the most trusted man in the country (that is the CBS news anchor). America didnt just lose the war, and the lives of 58,000 young men and women; Vietnam changed us as a country. or did they just enlist and were picked randomly? George C. Herring, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Kentucky, is the author of Americas Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975.. "8 The war certainly had an enormous impact on the attitudes of many Vietnam veterans. After that, all restraints came off. Direct link to PiggyCosette's post The government most likel, Posted 3 years ago. Most of them had been warned to expect a hostile reception. The animosity was probably less widespread than had been predicted, or than is now remembered, but there was no Welcome home, he said, and in some cases there were protests and even outright hostility. Direct link to nick nelson's post The Allies promised Vietn, Posted 6 years ago. Oh, I think that if you consider the Holocaust or the slaughters at the time of Indian partition, you might find things more horrible. US attitudes to the Vietnam War Map showing the division between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. They struggled to uphold their dignity and autonomy. The carnage stopped only when the operation ended in November. It declined to establish a combined command structure with the South Vietnamese, as it had in Korea. Peoples attitudes towards the Vietnam War differed immediately from previous conflicts, where early days were dominated by propaganda and patriotism. HSP Recipient of Library of Congress Grant, The library is open for research by appoin. Military officials understood this well enough to lie routinely about the progress in Vietnam, until the fabric of falsehoods was shredded by undeniable facts on the ground. Within a couple of years, Wright said, people felt sorry for the kids who were forced to fight in a war we shouldnt be involved with., In the third period, news of crimes of warfare tainted the American military. When the United States technically "lost" the war, did it seem like an utter waste of time and resources? The Attitudes Toward Vietnam Era Veterans Survey, conducted by Louis Harris and Associates for the Veterans Administration from November 17 December 19, 1979, asks extensive questions about Americans feelings toward the Vietnam War generation. As the war continued and more young men were drafted, it became increasingly unpopular with the American public. Alternatively, students could be split into groups and assigned to write a newspaper set during the Vietnam War. All Rights Reserved. How has social disagreement and collaboration been beneficial to American society? Live Stream every Sunday 11- 12 pm (Facebook LIVE- JudyBrownMinistries), We don't find any widget to show. Attitudes Toward In the last two days of January 1968, the North Vietnamese army and its communist guerrilla allies in the South, the Viet Cong, launched attacks across the South during what was supposed to be the Asian lunar New Year holiday, known as Tet in Vietnam. A U.S. infantryman moving Vietnamese civilians from their village northwest of Saigon to protect them during a firefight with Viet Cong snipers. Troops would round up villagers, burn their hooches and relocate them from their ancestral lands into squalid refugee camps. [10] Melissa Woodbury echoes this view: It was awful. Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a1f748efe538edd225d770a1459e4d23" );document.getElementById("ff1bca0241").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Commanders abetted their vengeance by setting a body count goal of 327 kills (to match the number of the 327th Infantry Regiment, of which the Tigers were a part). Thousands of troops married Vietnamese women. Within a few years this number was over half a million. Between 1950 and 1965, Americas role in the region, while significant in terms of money and matriel, occupied a limited footprint in the lives of everyday Vietnamese. I would like to be able to trust the government and have faith in my electedofficials, stated Melissa Woodbury at the end of her interview, I would like to have fact be recognized as fact, but somehow weve lost all that.[29], [1] WESTMORLAND,The Washington Post,(WP Company: 09 Feb. 1986): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1986/02/09/westmorland/878f7d1c-7619-4a2e-8806-298e5fb7fc6d/?utm_term=.2a72bdd26b12. Lessons of Vietnam: how war She is very prolific in delivering the message of Jesus Christ to the world, bringing people everywhere into a place of the victory God has prepared for them. Thank you for your service, they said. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/the-campaign-that-changed-how-americans-saw-the-vietnam-war. Analyze a primary source for accuracy and bias and connect it to a time and place in United States history, Contrast multiple perspectives of individuals and groups in interpreting other times, cultures, and place. Henri Huet/ap Legendary Welsh war photographer Philip Jones Griffiths captured the battle for Saigon in 1968. The general consensus of the American public on Vietnam seems to be that it was an unwinnable war, fought for a questionable cause that ultimately led to nothing but dead Americans and a loss of faith in the U.S. government. Office: House Divided studio Westmoreland had told Congress as recently as late November 1967 that victory was in sight. Please add some widgets by going to. The war in Vietnam had lasting consequences for US foreign policy. Webpresidential election, close to half of the electorate cited the Vietnam War as the most important problem facing the country (Converse et al., 1969). Who knows, maybe they were doing all sorts of things that we didnt know about, but there was no assumption of shading the story one way or the other. Such atrocities were not typical of American behavior, and even at My Lai there were soldiers who pushed back against their commanders orders to kill. That was the first time that war came into our living rooms. [12]Kevin Robbie, Crack the Sky, Shake the Earth A Look Back at Tet, (University of Illinois: Feb. 14, 2015):http://www.thursdayreview.com/TetOffensiveVietnam.html, [13] Robert W. Merry,Cronkites Vietnam Blunder, (The National Interest: July 12, 2012):http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/cronkites-vietnam-blunder-7185. But one truth towers above them all. A US Navy Warship, the USS Maddox, was in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin conducting spy operations on the sovereign nation of North Vietnam. from Johns Hopkins and his MA and Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They say G.I. The communists, headed by Ho Chi Minh, would govern the northern half, with its capital at Hanoi, while South Vietnam, with its capital at Saigon, would remain non-communist. Some believe that the media played a large role in the U.S. defeat. Webthe interminable bloodbath of Vietnam, and because of it, the great changes of the war's decade were ones of sensibility, awareness, and attitudes, not of institutions. Direct link to Jacob, Samour's post 1) It became involved in , Posted 7 years ago. However, they were probably mostly focused on stopping the spread of communism because of the domino theory. In his classic 1971 account, Tet, the author and journalist Don Oberdorfer described how the brief battle in Saigon was reported back to the U.S, in print and even more so on television. He received his B.A. Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Areas of suspected enemy strength were bombed and shelled and burned with napalm, often with little consideration of its impact on civilians. The McCarthy movement, which both mobilized the right and threatened to fracture it in the 1950s, emerged from a reaction to the Chinese Communist Partys victory in the Chinese Civil War. The US military faced this question in Vietnam. [4] Interview with Melissa Woodbury, conducted via Skype, March 25, 2017. Americanization of the war also produced among South Vietnamese a takeover effect, inviting them to stand by and let the Americans fight the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. Ad Choices. There was ABC, NBC and CBS (CNN didnt exist even, certainly not FOX). Direct link to armor.pro57's post When the United States te, Posted 2 years ago. Changing Attitudes towards War: The Impact Some needed to melt into invisibility, hide whatever trauma they carried, and bury their experiences in silence. Bangor would be the arrivals first contact with American soil since they left for the zone of combat. Fearful that the war would jeopardize his domestic agenda, Johnson concealed the extent of the military escalation from the American public. The Tet Offensive began in stealth 50 years ago in Vietnam, but it ended up being splashed on television sets all over America. Theirs was a patron-client relationship. Hed been working so hard in the anti-war movement that when Nixon upped it again and went into Laos he committed suicide he was so distraught. It also left Saigon more vulnerable to the urban attacks launched by the Viet Cong during the 1968 Tet offensive. Three decades after the last U.S. troops left what was then South Vietnam, the 10-year conflict that included Laos and Cambodia remains at once a lesson, a caution, and for some, a specter. [16] Interview with Melissa Woodbury, conducted via Email, April 8th, 2017. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. The Vietnam War: A Concise International History. What was important, they argue, was that the Johnson administration and Westmoreland had been promising a victory around the corner for so long, that the sight of enemy soldiers at the U.S. Embassy shocked and disillusioned the American public. Historical skills (organizing information chronologically, explaining historical issues, locating sources and investigate materials, synthesizing and evaluating evidence, and developing arguments and interpretations based on evidence) are used by an analytical thinker to create a historical construction. See how this article appeared when it was originally published on NYTimes.com. Tragically, American actions encouraged dependency in a nation whose independence it sought to sustain. How did the American public react when they heard the news? Nobody disputes this. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Direct link to David Alexander's post Question 1: "did it seem , Posted 4 years ago.