Vietnam War Opposition

Using your knowledge gained from previous readings in the Vietnam War reading, complete the following.

You are an opponent of American involvement in Vietnam. Use the evidence in this chapter to begin formulating ideas to make a poster or a leaflet putting forward your views. You can include stories and images from pages 353-61. However, you must also include an explanation that will convince the supporters of containment that the policy is not working in Vietnam. OPTIONAL: Instead of opposing the war, you can support it. Feel free to make a COUNTER-ARGUMENT that the war is necessary to contain Communism.

1. Note all of the reasons why you feel the war in Vietnam is wrong.
-Drafting young inexperienced American soldiers is not helping the war effort. It is basically drafting them and most of them get killed within the first couple of months. The ones who survive and become experienced are soon replaced with more inexperienced soldiers.
-American soldiers are killing many Vietnamese civilians since they do not know for sure if they are involved with the Viet cong and prefer not to take chances. This is extremely harsh and violent. Evidence of this was the My Lai massacre, where the US soldiers killed a whole town because they were suspected to be working for the Viet cong.
-Obviously the attempt at containing communism is not working. Evidence of this is the Tet Offensive, where even after the US sent money and soldiers to Vietnam, the Viet cong was still able to organize a large offensive against the US embassy.
-The US was spending a lot of money on the war and it wasn't worth it.
-The Americans directly saw what was going on in Vietnam because it was the first televised war. People saw the harsh reality right in their homes.

2. Note what you are trying to achieve with this poster. (e.g. to convince people to write to their Congressmen to get the troops out.)
Pointing out all of the reasons the war is wrong should show readers that this is a war we do not want to be involved with anymore. I want to spread the unpopularity of the war because the more people against it, the more protest and hopefully actions will be made to stop the war.

3. List possible images for your poster. Think about: background (e.g. destroyed villages); the central image (e.g. picture of a young soldier); whether you will need words to explain your image.
I think it would be effective to show scenes of destroyed villages with an explanation of an event such as the My Lai massacre to educate people about the specifics if they didn't already know. Showing an image of a young soldier who has been wounded while fighting would show that they are drafting inexperienced young men who are not ready for this kind of war. I think the fewer words the better because visual posters appeal more to people than blocks of text. Pictures with short captions/explanations/overviews are the most effective.


4. List some possible slogans for your poster.
"Stop Involvement in Vietnam"
"No More Unnecessary Violence"
Headline: We are fighting for containment, not aiming to kill many innocent civilians.

Vietnam War Turning Points

Using your knowledge gained from previous readings in the Vietnam War reading, answer the following questions.

1. Why was the Tet Offensive a turning point? Explain your answer.
The Tet Offensive was a turning point in the war because it put things into perspective for the United States. They started to think about how the Vietcong communists could have been able to launch a major offensive that took them completely by surprise if the US had put so much money and so many soldiers into Vietnam. The war in Vietnam was not that popular to begin with, and this event really turned Americans against it.


2. Are Sources 51 and 52 making the same point about the My Lai Massacre?
I think they are not making the same point.
I think Source 51 is focusing on the side of the issue that deals with moral choices and what is humane. This source is making the point that what the US soldiers did in My Lai was wrong. He compared them to Nazi's since they were just slaughtering whole villages, and obviously the American soldiers didn't go there to to that. They went their to get rid of communism, but this is what they ended up doing.
Source 52 is saying that they weren't there to kill people, they were there to destroy communism. This source implies that to destroy communism, people must be killed and there is nothing wrong with that.


3. Why do you think it took 12 months for anyone to do anything about the massacre?
I think it took 12 months for someone to do something about the massacre because they wanted to let the issue settle for a while. If someone had said something too soon they might not have gotten the response they were looking for- an investigation.

4. Why was the massacre so shocking to the American public?
It was really clear now to the Americans that this was not right. There were so many civilians being killed for no reason other than that they "might" be involved with the Viet Cong. The American troops seemed to be straying from the goal of getting rid of communism, and instead, they were just being really violent.