The Vietnam war was the longest war in American history, which was an event in the Cold War. There was 60,000 Americans deaths and 2 million vietnamese deaths. Vietnam was divided between communist north and anti-communist south. The South refused to hold elections in 1956, in 1958 the communist-led a guerrillas which war a battle with the south's government.…
The Vietnam War was a place of death, destruction, and confusion. Not only was the war a failure, but many soldiers were forced to fight. This lead to many negative effects that I must bring to your attention in this paper. The negative effects on soldiers during and after the war were depression, regret, desensitization, insanity, and the loss of friends.…
Both historical events were devastating for everyone involved. The first theme is an obvious one which is adversity. Adversity is peppered all through both of these books. Starting with "Hard Times," the Depression Era and the adversity that it caused people was not exclusive to one race as it mainly was in "Nisei Daughter." The adversity forced upon people in Terkel's book affected all races, ages, and gender. This can probably be expected with the Depression affecting all corners of the nation. "Black and White, it didn't make any difference who you were, cause everybody was poor" (Terkel, 41). Adversity is probably putting it mildly for most living in America in the 1930's. From people losing children from traveling from place to place such as the young baby that died of soot and smoke inhalation riding through the train tunnels (Terkel, 15) to wealthy Anglo men not being able to handle the pressures of such a time by killing themselves. "They weren't able to live up to the standards they were accustomed to, and they got ashamed in front of their women" (Terkel, 83) The shame these men felt led to their…
Tormented. Beaten. Herded like cattle. Imprisoned within walls lined with barbed wire. Cowering with fear when in the shadow of a tall, strong soldier. All hope depicting escape has faded away and been replaced with dread. No one would dare attempt to abscond from the camp for it would result in immediate death. Blood spilled on the dirt floors, living in filth and scars.…
“Vietnam: A Necessary War” is a summary of a book of a similar name by author Michael Lind. The book addresses the viewpoint that the Vietnam War was both moral and necessary for eventual victory in the Cold War. Michael Lind graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with honors in English and History, received an MA in International Relations from Yale University, and a JD from the University of Texas Law School. In 1990-1991 he worked as Assistant to the Director of the U.S. State Department’s Center for the study of Foreign Affairs. From 1991-1994 he was Executive Editor of The National Interest, and from 1994-1998 he worked for Harper’s Magazine,…
The author of The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, incorporates various messages within his book. One of the most important messages within the text greatly deals with war and everything associated with it. As a veteran of the Vietnam War, O’Brien is exceedingly qualified to provide readers with an accurate depiction of what it feels like for a soldier to live in a constant state of war. The series of stories within The Things They Carried present us with the difficult choices forced upon those who have dealt with the conflicts of combat (Chen). O’Brien’s stories also show us that a war is never truly over; a great number of soldiers who survive a war must often face the damaging repercussions of warfare long after it has ended. Consequently, the message being presented in The Things They Carried by Tim O 'Brien is the notion that war has the power to transform people, altering and skewing their mental states, their principles, and their sense of morality by stripping human beings of their humanity, and instead replacing it with fear and trauma.…
In her article, “The Vietnam War in American Memory,” Marilyn Young discusses that the Vietnam War “happened among Americans.” What Young is saying is that there was a war going on in Vietnam, but there was also animosity between the American soldiers and citizens. It was a horrifying and devastating time in American during the Vietnam War and Young even describes it as, “American civil War.” Young inquiries the government on why America got involved in this war in the first place. In the film Platoon and the article “What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy,” there is a discussion on how to interpret the Vietnam War.…
Being a part of the American Dream, most people are disgusted by the use of hard drugs. But little do most Americans know that soldiers during the Vietnam War were corrupted by the conditions of the war and left with no choice but to use hard drugs such as heroin in order to cope with their pain. Looking through Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried the troops in his novel were guilty of using hard drugs in order to cope with the war. The Vietnam war was a highly disputed war in the United States many Americans were against the fact that we were participating in this war in the first place. It infuriated the American population because their men were going to be stripped from them in order to fight in a War, they had no business being in. At first it was thought that drug use in Vietnam derived from the inability to withstand the temptation of an easily accessible drug. But when analyzing the behaviors and actions…
The Vietnam War last from 1964-1975 for America and was it longest war. Throughout those eleven years many stories and letters were written and many more would come long after the wars end. While officially the conflict was considered to be a police action, many consider it be just rough and brutal as any other war fought in modern history. The majority of soldiers who did return home came back to an America far different than the one they left behind and were subject to the hatred of anti-war protestors and many came back changed and haunted by the things they had seen and done in Vietnam. Some, like Tim O’Brien, found solace several years later by writing of their own accounts of what they witnessed while overseas.…
I am a “boot” adjusting to my new life in kilo company, and corporal has recently returned from a nasty deployment in iraq. He says that he is my father and that he knows what’s best. he kicks sand at me while i am timed to see how fast i can pick up all the yellow cigarette butts he dumped on the floor to “fix” my attention to detail and remind me of my ignorance, as he yells, “you are going to war soon, and I won’t be there to babysit you!” During the deployment workups in the states, we spent weeks patrolling, looking for something that we knew wasn’t real. Digging into defensive positions and waiting the night out for an enemy we knew would never come. Spending rainy nights in muddy holes, fearing what our leaders might do to us if we fell asleep. Firing machine guns, shooting rifles and launching grenades at little green targets…. All of it was just training ops.…
Picture a world where ash falls from the sky like snowfall in the winter; meanwhile, the sound of military guards and rifles replace the cries of laughter that once belonged to the children. Signs stating “We are at War!” or “Curfew for all citizens at 8:00pm” cover the building walls that used to fill the city will art and color. These dark and depressing traits resemble the war referenced in “William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech” and the dystopian society represented in the short story, “Harrison Bergeron”. Both authors are trying to get across a similar and important messaged to the audience; for example, the impact of war on humans psyche, the importance of sacrifice during low social times, and the overall message behind both authors.…
When you are someone’s support system you take on multiple roles that indirectly deteriorate your self preservation. Being a listener or a shoulder to cry on, requires sacrifices that, in the moment, you do not even recognize as imposing. Voluntarily and willingly being there for someone begins with the unwavering doubt that you and your own problems cannot and will not prevail over your person’s immediate crisis. Depending on the duration of your duty, a somewhat selfish thought of inconvenience is bound to surface. But, that wave of retraction is almost always combatted by a riptide of dedication and loyalty that brings you back to sea, where all you can do is tread. In turn, the suppression of self regarding issues regularly comes with a layer of obligation and a sting of bitterness.…
Many pundits who opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq now compare it to the invasion of Vietnam by viewing the daily attacks on U.S. soldiers as indications of repeating mistakes that were made in Vietnam. In their view, “the United States has yet again stumbled into a foreign quagmire – a protracted and indecisive political and military struggle from which they are not likely to remove themselves without considerable loss of life and currency.” (Terrill, p. 1) However, profound differences separate the domestic and international objectives of the Vietnam and Iraq wars even though there are many similarities these similarities can be misleading.…
The Cold War was a period of military and political tension from the year of 1947, until 1991. The first part of the Cold War began a couple of years after the end of World War II, and the United states started to challenge the power of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union imagined the United States would use their military strength to defend themselves, but with their strong military resources, the United States made it clear that they could not only use their power to defend themselves, but they could also use it to attack. The Cold War was a battle between the United States and the Soviet Union; a fight over capitalism and communism. Although there was not just one contributing factor to the end of the Cold War, the actions of the United States…
People believe that there is no benefit to war. Others believe that there is benefits to war. War is necessary and beneficial for many reasons, those reasons are; to maintain alliances, to make new allies, and to provide jobs.…
