Preview

Documentary Analysis: The Vietnam War

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
389 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Documentary Analysis: The Vietnam War
The new documentary on the Vietnam War by Ken Burns has already aired the first two episodes on PBS. So far, in my humble opinion, I think it is a rather good documentary, and I have personally learned some things about the geopolitical situation that was taking place during the time of Vietnam right after World War 2 ended. I hope Mr. Burns will not try to be politically correct and give the truth about the Vietnam War from all perspectives.

The Vietnam War defined a generation, still, does, and the war elicits deep emotions from many of the men and women that chose to fight in South Vietnam; whether drafted or enlisted. Estimates range from 2.7 to 3.3 million Americans that answered their country's call to stop the spread of communism throughout
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Dbq: Analyze the 1960's
    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dbq: Analyze the 1960's

    With Vietnam came the demise of the draft and Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights Act brought major changes to America. Many men burnt and refused to accept the idea of fighting, what many thought, as an unnecessary war. With so many people against the war in Vietnam, rallies even in the nation’s capital were known. This antiwar spark led to a new kind of political activism and political rallies that still have an impact today. The most lasting political effect was the change in the voting age from 21 to 18. This allowed soldiers being drafted in Vietnam to have a say in the way the government they were fighting for was run. Though hard to see, the war not only powered the sixties, but the civil rights movement.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    General Westmoreland Leadership Style Analysis
    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages

    General Westmoreland Leadership Style Analysis

    The Vietnam War lasted about two decades. The United States was engulfed in a civil war between North and South Vietnam and wanted to assist the south with preventing a hostile takeover by North Vietnam under the Communism banner. The Vietnam War was not only America’s longest War, but also costliest and deadliest. We spent over $150 billion and suffered close to $58 thousand American deaths and nearly 300 thousand wounded. By the time we decided to withdraw from the war, North Vietnam easily swept through the south and unified Vietnam under Communism. Still to this day, one of the most debated topics regarding the Vietnam War is why the United States got involved and why, when and how we should wage future wars. (Dunn, 2001)…

    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Vietnam Veterans Memorial Research Paper
    • 79 Words
    • 1 Page

    Vietnam Veterans Memorial Research Paper

    The dissipating war of Vietnam still continues to affect America today. The only thing that keeps Vietnam alive is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The memorial covers more than 58,000 American men and women who died in Vietnam fighting for our county. Lacking the glory and heroism the war memorial shows, there is a silent reminder of the losses of the American soldiers. What the war did to the United States was unspeakable and it still has an overwhelming morality.…

    • 79 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pain And Suffering In Vietnam Film
    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Pain And Suffering In Vietnam Film

    In the Vietnam trilogy of films, Stone admits to having learnt something about the concepts of pain and suffering. Through the movies, he became in touch with his suffering on `The Platoon' as a soldier. Then, after the Vietnam experience, Stone could live through the experiences of Ron Kovic in a wheelchair and empathize with what his brother in arms went through. Finally, through Le Ly, he was able to empathize with the experience of a Vietnamese peasant girl among other innocent victims of the war. The trilogy of Vietnam films gives the director and the audience the wider picture and idea of the Vietnam War (Riordan, p. 324).…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Working Class's Loss of Faith in the American Government During the Vietnam War
    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Working Class's Loss of Faith in the American Government During the Vietnam War

    Young men fight and die for their country in every single war, and Vietnam was no different. However, U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, on average, were the youngest in American history. In previous wars many men in their twenties were drafted for military service, and men of that age and older would often volunteer. During the Vietnam War most of the volunteers and draftees were teenagers; the average age was nineteen. In World War II, the average American soldier was twenty-six years old. At the age of eighteen young men could join or be drafted into the army. At seventeen, with the consent of a guardian, boys could enlist in the Marine Corps. At the beginning of the war, hundreds of seventeen year old marines served in Vietnam. However, in November 1965, the Pentagon ordered that all American troops must be eighteen before being deployed in the war zone. The soldiers sent off to Vietnam can be divided into three categories: one-third draftees, one-third draft-motivated volunteers, and one-third true volunteers. As the war continued, the number of volunteers steadily declined. Almost half of the army troops were draftees, and in the combat units the portion was commonly as high as two-thirds; late in the war it was even higher. These were the majority of the people dying in the war, from 1966 to 1969, the percentage of draftees who died in the war doubled from 21 to 40. Those who could avoid the draft legally through deferments were the upper class, while those in the middle and lower class who didn’t want to fight in the war had to figure out ways to avoid the draft. Because the draft threatened middle and lower class males between the ages of 18 to 35, they united together through protests to oppose the draft by burning draft cards.…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Real Monsters In Vietnam War
    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page

    Real Monsters In Vietnam War

    In the dense hot jungles of vietnam thousands of Americans took their last breath and disappeared into history. Most of them paid the full price of war but will forever be known as just a tally on a number of losses in a dark gruesome war. Brothers, fathers, uncles died everyday to protect the citizens of South Vietnam from the brutal North Vietnamese. Like all wars there's no easy way out; blood will always be shed and family chains will forever be broken. Vietnam was a terrible but necessary war. When the Vietnam soldiers returned, they were treated badly by their fellow citizens, by people who protested the war calling them child killers and monsters. It was not the soldier’s fault that their government drafted them into war. The real monsters…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam War In American Memory Analysis
    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Vietnam War In American Memory Analysis

    In her article, “The Vietnam War in American Memory,” Marilyn Young discusses that the Vietnam War “happened among Americans.” What Young is saying is that there was a war going on in Vietnam, but there was also animosity between the American soldiers and citizens. It was a horrifying and devastating time in American during the Vietnam War and Young even describes it as, “American civil War.” Young inquiries the government on why America got involved in this war in the first place. In the film Platoon and the article “What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy,” there is a discussion on how to interpret the Vietnam War.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ighram Vietnam War
    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ighram Vietnam War

    The article written by Veronia Majerol in New York Times Upfront, titled “The Vietnam WAR” talks more on how the war divided America, mostly between generations, the older crowds supported the war and the younger crowd resisted even…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Effects of the Vietnam War on Australian Society
    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Effects of the Vietnam War on Australian Society

    The Vietnam War had a lasting impact on Vietnam Veterans, who although they fought their hardest for their country, they returned to a country who saw them as less than heroes. They suffered both psychological and medical problems from open battles, sniper attacks and chemical warfare, and stress from war-life. Although the Vietnam War had some negative impacts, the Vietnam War was the turning point in Australian society, changing to a multicultural community we are proud of today.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Most Significant Events In The 1950's
    • 1882 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Most Significant Events In The 1950's

    Millions of armed forces, billions of dollars in war funding, and loss of over 50,000 American lives made Vietnam the deadliest and most expensive war the United States had ever endured. This war was so important because of the divide it created among people of the United States. Some accepted the war, while other protested it whole-heartedly. College students were the most adamant against the war because of the draft, and student unrest quickly ensued. The draft forced young men to join the Selective Service before they turned eighteen, and kept them on the list for two years, unless they planned to attend college. Many people did not believe the United States should be involved in the war with Southeast Asia, much less giving up resources needed at home. The Vietnam War also changed how people viewed each other, especially in regards to soldiers returning home who had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These soldiers did not receive a warm welcome, and many with mental and physical disorders caused by the war were ignored or spoken poorly of by others (Adams, 2011). After the Vietnam War, the United States fell into a recession that carried on throughout the 1970s into the 1980s. Massive government spending for the war effort, funds sent overseas not returning, and strain on the nation’s industrial market forced the economy to plummet, promoted inflation, and wore down…

    • 1882 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    US Involvement In Vietnam
    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages

    US Involvement In Vietnam

    With World War II not being over long, and already being back at war with the Soviet Union, America’s involvement with the Vietnam War became a highly controversial topic. The draft system was being used again and it had a good portion of America’s population on edge. However, the fear of communism and its possible spread to other places kept Americans willing to fight during both the Cold War and the Vietnam War. America’s involvement in the Vietnam War spanned six presidencies. The average age of a solider that left to fight in Vietnam whether they were drafted or volunteers was between 19 and 21. The United States involvement brought up many important questions, “such as should they stay out of other countries business?” “Should the draft…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Difference of Vietnam Veterans
    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Difference of Vietnam Veterans

    There were approximately 536,100 American soldiers that fought in the Vietnam War, and about 58,220 were killed (Estimated n. pag.); this meant that there were many veterans of the war. The war in Vietnam was different than most, not because of the way it was fought or what it was fought over, it was different because of the veterans. The war created many Vietnamese veterans, and they were different than those of almost every other war. They were different in almost every aspect, therefore setting them apart from all others. The veterans of the Vietnam War were different than the veterans in other wars because the war in Vietnam was highly controversial, the veterans were treated poorly, and many veterans were actually against the war.…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    United States Involvement In The Vietnam War
    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages

    United States Involvement In The Vietnam War

    The Vietnam War was a defining moment in American history, due to the fact that the American people where concerned about the war and the actions of President Johnson. The lack of trust kept on growing between the American people and the government, which left a lot of unanswered questions. After the country’s involvement in two world wars and the cold war, America felt the responsibility of imposing its way of life on the world to stop the growth of the communists. War has an impact on all the parties involved, and the Vietnam War was the most expensive and longest war in American history. The country did not just suffer financially, it cost the people involved greatly, physically and mentally.…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why Did The Vietnam War Changed America
    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Why Did The Vietnam War Changed America

    The Vietnam War greatly changed America forever. It was the longest war fought in America’s history, lasting from 1955 to 1973. The Vietnam War scarred America’s self image by because this was the first time in history the United States failed to accomplish what they planned to do in war. The war also had great effects on the American people. It was the first war ever broadcast on TV.…

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Opposition To The Vietnam War
    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Opposition To The Vietnam War

    The Vietnam war is one of the most talked about events in history. The war made the American people resent their government. At first people supported the government in their plan to stop communism, but as time went on people wanted it to end. There were several reasons that people felt opposition towards the war, such as: the government was shady and was feeding people lies about the Vietnam, thousands of lives were lost and the people saw soldiers watched them do it all, and lastly how much we spent and how much we are in debt. These were the last straw for the American people.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics