Vietnam2 essays

Vietnam2 essays American intervention in Vietnam began with a generation of boys born to the veterans of the second World War. Boys who lived in the afterglow and dreamed of the glory. Patriotism was thick in a country who came out of the second great war stronger than it had entered. We were unbeatable. America had survived to continue its fight against injustice and for liberty. The new fight was against communism. The war might never have taken place had the United States aided Ho Chi Minh in the fight to liberate Vietnam from the French, a fight the Americans had experienced themselves not all that long ago. In light of France being an ally the United Stated did not see their way clear to assist a colony from French Philip Caputos book, A Rumor of War is full of painful honesty about the fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. The boys from working class families were doing the fighting and the dying in a land ten thousand miles from home. Caputo speaks of a nation divided in its opinion on the war and the soldiers who fought in Born on the Fourth of July tells the story of the return of a Vietnam veteran. The country the veterans returned to was one that wasnt proud of its soldiers, nor was it grateful for the sacrifice they made. They came back to a community that was largely disgusted Taken together, the book and the film tell a great deal about the impact the war had on Americans. Considering that hindsight is 20/20, the reasons seem obvious now. On one hand, the military is creating a favorable report from the field to make it appear as if the war will soon be over, the newsmedia is flooding television with images of burning villas and dead civilians and the politicians keep insisting they are ...