Vietnam War :: essays research papers

Vietnam was a small Asian country, 9000 miles away from the United States. Yet America felt that its national interest was threatened strongly enough to fight a war there. The explanation for this lies in the fear caused by the spread of communism at that time. The role of communism was extremely important in this conflict. You see, the US had to enter the war to stop the spread of communism in Asia since North Vietnam was communist. If North Vietnam was to succeed in converting Vietnam into a communist country , it could become very powerful and go on to persuade other countries to become communist. The US believed that Vietnam could become powerful, and it was willing to go through anything to stop that, including sending millions of US troops to Vietnam and watching them die live on TV, and this greatly effected the American culture and society. The Vietnam war. It changed the lives of many people, and in many unfortunate cases eliminated those of others. "By the end of 1965, 184,314 troops were in Vietnam" (Internet), sacrificing their future, their lives. "Within a year, the number had grown to 385,000"(Internet). For those back in America, the hardship was felt as their sons died overseas. imagine waking up one morning and turning the local news of and seeing your son's face on the TV screen as one of the few hundred who died just last night. It was horrifying . All this effected American society greatly. Moms were losing sons, sisters were losing brothers, and children were losing dads. The Vietnam war had a harsh outcome. "More than 47,000Americans were killed in action,11,000 died of other causes, and 303,000 were wounded"(Internet). As more and more Americans continued to leave for Southeast Asia, the American people responded with disillusionment and it caused the American society to lose faith in the government ,as a series of powerful protests took place across the nation.Opposition to the Vietnam war in the United States developed immediately after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Early protests were organized around questions about the morality of Us Military involvement in Vietnam. As each key event of the war occurred, the antiwar sentiment steadily rose. "Students and professors began to organize "teach-ins" on the war in early 1965 at the university of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, and the University of California at Berkeley"(Encarta). eventually, virtually no college or university was without an organized student movement.