Archive for year: 2015

My opinion about the Vietnamese War has always been against it. I’ve always thought that war was meaningless and the Vietnamese war was no exception. The idea of sending thousands of people to fight, and to die is worthless and the fact that they put so much meaning into it is really frustrating to me. The government uses pride and patriotism to force men and women to fight their battles is ruthless. So many lives could’ve been saved if they solved their problems with words instead of with war and fear. I feel that if I lived in the sixties when all of this was happening I would’ve been among the people who protested against the war. And among the many angry letters being sent to President Johnson demanding to bring back my friends and family. Which from what I saw in the documentary, protesting against the war most likely would’ve gotten me killed. At the time though we all have freedom of speech most people who actually rebel either get threaten, hurt or killed.

What’s really sad is that the government knew that more than half of the people were against the war and yet they didn’t even attempt to stop the war. It’s really funny how so many people trust the government with their lives yet when it comes to it, we don’t matter. Honestly I think that war in general just shouldn’t happen, peace treaties are results of war but after time those “peace” treaties are broken and there’s more war as a result of the treaty being broken.

Most of the letters I had the opportunity of going through was angry mothers demanding the government to stop the war and to bring back their kids. It was all very depressing for me to read because if one of my family members were recruited to fight in the war I would’ve died inside. As much as it was depressing it was really inspiring, just by reading their letters I could feel how strong these women were, to have the strength to fight against their own people takes real courage. My letters were all from the year 1966 and though not that many civilians were protesting a good amount of women were. The letters that weren’t written by angry mother were written by confused men. Most of them were questioning what the real reason they were fighting for and honestly they didn’t really see any point of continuing the war and were proposing that they stop the war before more lives were lost. One of the things I found amusing were that some of the letters were really short telegrams that were feisty, rude and straight to the point, since most of them were written by women the government didn’t really know how to properly respond to them. Their responses were polite but surprised that so many people were against the war, not that they were going to stop the war because they wanted a victory not a retreat. This is mostly where their pride always gets in their way.

After doing some research and watching the documentary all the information I’ve gathered just supports my opinion about the war. From the documentary it seems that President Nixon pretended that he was going to end the war but he continued it because it would benefit him for the election. So the government was using the war to make profit without actually caring about the lives that they are killing.  In a way it’s good that some people can see what can happen in the future and be prepared.

    It’s always been made apparent to me in past history courses that there was massive unrest over American presence of American armed forces in Vietnam and Cambodia, but I always seem to forget the extent to which this unrest reached. The dedication of college students to not only attend, but plan and organize protests and demonstrations all over the country astounds me, largely because I have never experienced that in my life time, in spite of there being reason for there to be demonstrations. While there have been the “Occupy” movements and more recent demonstrations in places such as Ferguson, it makes me wonder why there were no massive movements for the war in Iraq. The reasoning behind this, as I was exposed to in a critical thinking class this semester, may be that this generation of Americans have become so used to sensationalism and violence in the media and on the news that we have become complacent to actual issues. It had, however, been unknown to me that the movements of young adults were not just occurring in the United States at the time- as pointed out in the documentary, college students of countries such as France and Italy were all fighting and speaking out against their governments. Their motivations were much the same as those held by the American public- peace and fairness.

The documents from the folder I was given were primarily arguing against the war, and I found most of them to driven out of anger and fear. The emotions were clear as day on the page, whether it be through swear words, messy handwriting, or aggressive language. The letter that I selected stood out to me because of its restraint. Considering that it was written by a married couple who were able to maintain a calm demeanor as they wrote, I can assume that this was likely an older couple, since the younger activists were all driven highly by emotions such as anger and resentment, as was made apparent in the documentary. It hadn’t occurred to me that the writers may be older until I had seen through online research, as well as the documentary, that America’s youth was running on pain and hostility. This couple instead expressed feelings of loss for their patriotism and belief in their country. Though they still refer to America as “great,” they sound defeated in that their respect for the United States has diminished.

    I understand that Congress was acting in part according to the desires of the American public, at the start of the war, to take action overseas. It is so easy to try to place the blame entirely on Congresses shortcomings; however, I feel that it would be narrow-minded to make such an accusation without thinking contextually. Prior to looking further into the national and international context of the sixties, I also would have placed blame entirely on the governments actions. What I have realized, though, is that the government was not just acting- it was reacting. They were trying, at least at first, to circumvent communism and to satisfy the fears of the American people. Though it is my personal belief that there came a point where the deaths and refusal to remove ourselves from the war would have to be considered the fault of the government, I don’t believe that they were acting entirely outside of their bounds as representatives of the general population of the United States.

    I would not say that m opinion has necessarily been changed, but I would say that it has expanded. In spite of having some knowledge on the military actions in Vietnam and Cambodia, it has been made apparent to me that this knowledge had actually been more limited than I would have expected. This small introduction into the process of research has been an experience unlike any that I have experienced before. Being able to interact directly with and physically hold pieces of history gives a new level of depth to my prior understanding of what happened during the sixties.

CSUCI ENG 330 Website

This is our class blog site for reports on writing research and professional practice. Please plan to read the reports before class and respond to them with a question or meaningful comment. You can also site these for your midterm and in other course materials.