The People’s Influence

The course of the Vietnam War was reasonably stable in the beginning. With the Red Scare and the war against communism in effect, the initial periods of the war went without much question from the people. Later into the war, however — particularly between the years 1967 – 1971 — due to a mass amount of casualties on the side of the United States and an abhorrence for death the people began speaking out against the government, as noted in these letters to California congressman Harold “Bizz” T. Johnson. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though, that’s not to say that everyone was entirely ready to pull out of the war, including the congressman. Politics was still a game, and some of the people wished to maintain a strong stance against the dreaded force of communism.

Though it would come to pass, as the decade turned to the 1970’s, that it was a wiser move for government officials to stand by the action of pulling out. The letters speaking out for the war had grown quite numerous by 1971. People protested about the senseless death, and women and children pleaded for the men to come home before there wasn’t an opportunity for those of a young age to meet their fathers for the first time.  At the beginning of 1973 in January officials from both the United States and Vietnam met in Paris to sign a peace treaty. A more extensive article covering the specifics of that can be found here. That was a more official mark for the end of the war, finalizing in 1975 when the last of the American troops were lifted out of Vietnam; however, the true pivotal point was the beginning of the decade when the people vehemently spoke out. Though the question is still posed that if the government hadn’t been so lax with the voice of the people, then perhaps the tragedy and blunder of the Vietnam War would have been lessened.