Essay About Vietnam War

Essay About Vietnam War 

The Vietnam War began on November 01, 1955, and ended on April 05, 1975. The long, costly, and divisive war began by the ongoing spread of the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam that the United States entered the war for the reason of preventing a communist to rule over the region. So, on February 28, 1961, the United States officially became involved and fully associated with the Vietnam War in which impacted American Society in many ways. In such that the Vietnam War impacted the American society by changing the way we look at our government back then and the media influencing the American public. Society’s perspective about the Vietnam war’s The dispute has divided our country. 

 To begin with, the way American society viewed the United States government changed when America’s approach was adjusted from armed forces into an all-volunteer army to being draftees, meaning “…young men drafted into military service…who had been assigned a tour in Vietnam” (587). Drafting civilians into the military worried numerous people around the country that higher classed Americans eluded being sent away by paying their time on college. As for the poor or lower-class citizens, they were often targeted and took the burden to fight in the war. Also, this benefited many college campuses because it increased “…the number of students enrolled in constitutions of higher education…” (589). With this large group of students, they were encouraged to acknowledge the antiwar movement, forming the Students for a Democratic Society. They had begun to “…organize campus ‘teach-ins’ and demonstrations against the war…” (589). The antiwar movement pressured American leaders to put an end to the war and its conflicts. In other words, the antiwar movement was getting to the government. The Vietnam war caused many great sources of protesting, going against the government’s use of power, how far we could extend our rights of free expression, and lastly being in opposition to the violence of war itself.

 Secondly, when the American public was aware of the situation through televisions at home, in a matter of time it caused people to react and felt like they had to do something about it.  For instance, “new broadcast technology meant that television viewer in the U.S. got an intimate glimpse of events in the war zone” (589). 

This showed the death of the draftees being killed and many young people did not desire to be recruited in the military service just for unending fight and death. At this point, American and Vietnamese viewers of the war realized how big of a deal the war was and protestors overthought the issue.  Also, television journalism such as “journalist Mike Wallace reports from the front lines” (598) stated further about military conflicts. When the media uncensored the war, this impacted censorship on the American public and the lies they were being told were false of the war. However, now the media is represented as an empowerment of the control and command of the people. American views allowed them to evolve from their own sense of reality. 

 The Vietnam War influenced the society's own point of view towards the government and the media’s de-censoring the world’s image of the war. Public reactions and opinions placed pressure on the U.S. government. Then, the media unfolding the truth of the war changing the American views forever. This behavior s of society seemingly changes how they perceive things and their demand to be informed about such things.