Reflective Essay on Is War a Good or Bad Thing to Participate In

War has both benefits and bad issues. For example, WWII and the Vietnamese war both used unique tactics to be able to win the war. Hitler and Nazi Germany used mass genocide to be able to eradicate millions of Jews, and in the Vietnam war, guerilla warfare was used heavily to jump down and sneak attack American forces. When Hitler committed mass genocide and forced millions of Jews into concentration camps, it showed how much of a tyrant he was and his goals for the war. When guerilla warfare was put into play in the Vietnam war, it shows how ruthless and brutal Vietnamese warriors were and how much hatred they had built up. What benefits and negative effects does war have? While it can educate us on how to be better humans, war has many benefits, yet also has many negative side effects because war is something countries start. It can cause many casualties, and many millions of dollars in damage and repairs. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, he uses many examples and stories of his personal experience in the war to inform readers about how the Vietnam War really went. 

While war may be incredibly grueling and may be very taxing on health, it has benefits for countries not affected. During World War 2, Hitler and Nazi Germany seamlessely murdered millions of innocent Jews, and the Jewish people who lived were forever scarred. Only a total of 300,000 Jewish people survived the holocaust (National WW2 Museum, 2017), and many German soldiers felt no remorse or sorry for killing people. The Jews that survived had major PTSD and feared they had lost all of their family and friends. Even in the Vietnamese war, Vietnam soldiers used guerilla warfare, and jumped on enemies from above. This caused many deaths and in total, 58,000 Americans were killed (Hack, 2019). Even after many years, soldiers still attempt to use guerilla warfare. Those are some negative effects, but the positive effects are as equally as unique.

Some wars had positive effects, but the bads outweighed the goods. When Adolf Hitler killed approximately 6 million innocent Jewish people (National WW2 Museum, 2017) it shows that his ultimate goal was to rid the Earth of Jewish citizens, and leave only his people standing. When President Harry S. Truman ordered the dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the goal was to stop the Japanese from invading America and causing many casualties. The conflict happening right now between Russia and Ukraine, many fear that another world war may begin, and the President of Ukraine is attempting to regain hold of Ukraine, and wants no help since he believes that his people can win the fight. 

Overall, war can benefit and hurt a nation and its people. Right now in Ukraine, Russia is invading them, and thousands have perished. In world war 2, millions of Jews were killed, and in the Vietnam war, thousands of innocent people and soldiers died. In the novel The Things They Carried, it says, “By daylight, they took sniper fire, at night they were mortared, but it was not battle, it was just the endless march, village to village, without purpose, nothing won or lost” (O’Brien, 15) which means that when O’Brien served in the Vietnam war, his platoon suffered many losses in their journey to win a war that seemed like it would never end. Going back to the thesis, What benefits and negative effects does war have? War is so bad due to the fact that it causes so much harm and pain in many families. Many people feel like a new way to think about war is that war brings more terror than help, war brings horror to many helpless people, and war brings destruction. Many wars claim many lives, and that is not acceptable.

SITES:

History.com Editors. “Vietnam War.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history. 

“What Is the Holocaust?” Anne Frank Website, 27 Jan. 2022, https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/what-is-the-holocaust/. 

O'Brien, Tim, and Tim O'Brien. “The Things They Carried.” The Things They Carried, Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY, 1990, pp. 15–15. 

Michal. “The Holocaust: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, The National World War II Museum, 22 June 2017, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust. 

“Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 1 Sept. 2010, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-bomber-drops-atomic-bomb-on-hiroshima#:~:text=President%20Harry%20S.,the%20Japanese%20city%20of%20Hiroshima.