Vietnam Propaganda/ Nationalism
American Nationalism * Domino Effect:
The Americans believed that if Vietnam became a Communist country the rest of the countries around it would also become Communist and this was the last thing that the Americans wanted during the Cold War. * The North Invaded the South:
The US government advertised to the public that North Vietnam invaded the South and was trying to take them over. They used this image of US going to save the weak South from invasion even though we were going for our own political purposes. * Racism:
The US was very racist towards the Vietnamese people and this gave our soldiers a hatred towards them. This also gave the soldiers a feeling that the NVA and Viet Cong were worthless in that they could mass kill these people with no feelings of regret. Main Idea: The US was in this war to prevent the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia and losing more friendly countries to Communism. The reasoning came from the Cold War and the fear of Communism in China and the USSR. The US instituted a draft so that we could have enough soldiers to fight this war. The only thing that unified the soldiers was that they were all in this together.
Vietnamese Nationalism * Total Control of Vietnam:
The NVA fought the Vietnam War because they were trying to protect their own existence and they were trying to unify all of Vietnam under communism. * Support:
The NVA and Viet Cong both had support from all the Communist nations in the world at the time, so they had an outside influence helping them and influencing them into the conquest of South Vietnam as China and the USSR both wanted to have a foothold in Vietnam.
Main Idea: The whole country was raised on this idea of Communism and that it was the good government and that they should take over all of Vietnam to spread it. The US came in to get rid of Communism and they saw it as them trying to be conquered again just like the French