Context: the Quiet American
Context response:
Write Fowler’s news article reporting on events at Phat Diem.
Vietnamese Massacre
Death is something we all fear and scared by. I was reminded of this on my recent travels to Phat Diem, “[I] didn’t want to be reminded of how little we counted, how quickly, simply and anonymously death came”. I bore witness to the death of many innocent souls; the death of civilians caught in the crossfire. My thoughts ran wild with questions, as everywhere I looked there was bloodshed and despair. Will my turn come? How many need to die? At what cause are these people being slaughtered? And the most importantly, when will this all end?
Seeing the masses of dead in the canals, that was my tipping point to start questioning this war. Everywhere we went there was bodies left to rot in the canals. Is it righteous? Is the killing necessary? Are the means justified by the end?
No one wishes to claim the horrors in Phat Diem and no one will. The communists blame the French and the French blame the communists. It is simply a catalyst for more destruction in this beautiful country. However one would argue the communist force’s motives. The French wish to protect the people and therefore a succession of these slaughters may force the French into submission and surrender – much like Hiroshima did for the Americans and Japanese.
Has humanity not learned from their mistakes? Again with Hiroshima, the atomic bomb was a huge development in human warfare, although it caused huge casualties, somewhere from 90,000 to 160,000 were killed. Was it a means to a greater cause (to end of the war)? Or did they truly wish to kill innocent people out of hatred for the Japanese people?
The way the western world view war is very much skewed. It has been twisted by the media into a regular aspect of life. Mainly because “we only report victories”. This has to change if we are to truly help the people of Vietnam, to help prevent these massacres.
Are the ends justified when
Write Fowler’s news article reporting on events at Phat Diem.
Vietnamese Massacre
Death is something we all fear and scared by. I was reminded of this on my recent travels to Phat Diem, “[I] didn’t want to be reminded of how little we counted, how quickly, simply and anonymously death came”. I bore witness to the death of many innocent souls; the death of civilians caught in the crossfire. My thoughts ran wild with questions, as everywhere I looked there was bloodshed and despair. Will my turn come? How many need to die? At what cause are these people being slaughtered? And the most importantly, when will this all end?
Seeing the masses of dead in the canals, that was my tipping point to start questioning this war. Everywhere we went there was bodies left to rot in the canals. Is it righteous? Is the killing necessary? Are the means justified by the end?
No one wishes to claim the horrors in Phat Diem and no one will. The communists blame the French and the French blame the communists. It is simply a catalyst for more destruction in this beautiful country. However one would argue the communist force’s motives. The French wish to protect the people and therefore a succession of these slaughters may force the French into submission and surrender – much like Hiroshima did for the Americans and Japanese.
Has humanity not learned from their mistakes? Again with Hiroshima, the atomic bomb was a huge development in human warfare, although it caused huge casualties, somewhere from 90,000 to 160,000 were killed. Was it a means to a greater cause (to end of the war)? Or did they truly wish to kill innocent people out of hatred for the Japanese people?
The way the western world view war is very much skewed. It has been twisted by the media into a regular aspect of life. Mainly because “we only report victories”. This has to change if we are to truly help the people of Vietnam, to help prevent these massacres.
Are the ends justified when