They both reinforced their beliefs in the Paris Peace Accords time and time again. While this is the image that they portrayed to the American people, who wanted no part in Vietnam to begin with, Nixon and Kissinger could be seen as men who only wanted to satisfy Americans but not intend to keep their promises of peace. Behind the scenes, it is ultimately realized that Nixon and Kissinger knew full well that the Paris Peace Accords were destined for failure and its sole purpose was to appease Americans domestically and remove POW’s from behind enemy lines (Madaras Pg. 378). As soon as North Vietnam violated the agreements of the Accords, which was all but a guarantee, Nixon would fulfill his promise to South Vietnamese President
AP World History March 22, 2013 The War in Vietnam The war in Vietnam is represented very differently among sources, and extreme differences can be seen in the points of view of Chris Harman (“A People’s History of the World”) and of Jerry Bentley and Herbert Ziegler (“Traditions and Encounters”). In particular, they disagree on the issues of American involvement in the Vietnam War and on the most important events that occurred. Harman and Bentley-Ziegler have opposing opinions when it comes to their summaries [details] of the Vietnam War. Harman’s perspective details cruelties done by the Americans to the Vietnamese, and he starts out his summary with details that lead up to America’s overconfidence in the war. “‘We have 30 Vietnams’, Robert Kennedy told a journalist.
One group of people felt that there were good ideas for getting involved in the conflict, however they thought it would be a useless battle with too much burden on the economy. The other group of people thought the United States had to get involved in Vietnam and that we needed to stay until we got the job done. The United States finally started pulling the troops out in the early 1970’s. Student unrest was a key aspect of the Vietnam War. Student activists brought about antiwar ideals and protested their opposition to the war.
To others, it was a fight that did not concern this country. Both sides of the argument had valid reasons as to whether or not the United States should be involved in the Vietnam War, but the anti-war protesters had a much stronger argument. Their arguments dealt with the legality of the war and the death of American boys whose lives should just be starting, not ending. The pro war advocates attempted to persuade the American people that Americans went to, and
1. What is ‘tet’ and why is it significant culturally? It would not be an exaggeration to argue that the Tet Offensive completely changed the face of the Vietnam War, it changed American war aims, and politics, and it alters the cold war consensus that had taken the US into Vietnam * 2. Why would an attack on the scale of the Tet Offensive be unexpected? Because it comes on the most important holiday on the Vietnamese calendar – New Year Celebrations * 3.
It certainly seems that they tried to mend the damage done by appearing on public affairs programs and making speeches about how the Tet was an allied victory and a Communist defeat, but it seems that the damage had already been done. [7] “The Johnson administration’s public relations efforts to salvage popular support for the US Vietnam War policy in the aftermath of the Tet assault failed. Maybe the media is given the same freedom to report and access today, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, as they were in Vietnam. It may just be that the heart of the American people today are just so hardened with hate for the people we are fighting that we just overlook the atrocities and incompetence that is reported. I am sure that looking back on it, the Johnson administration wished that it had a better handle on the media by maybe using more censorship and giving the media less access to the fighting.
Many people believed that the war was a losing battle that carried a heavy strain for the U.S., both socially and economically. In contrast, the other group of people believed that we went over to Vietnam with a job to do, and we should not leave
You cannot build up a standing army and then throw it back into a box like tin soldiers. "If this was the true feeling of militarism in America, then militarism assuredly played a role in America entering the war, because America may have subconsciously wanted to prove their strength by helping in this conflict.All in all, there is not one, certain reason that completely explains why America entered World War I. However, there are many reasons, that when combined, form a very reasonable explanation as to why Americans entered the war. This explanation includes events varying from being attacked by outside countries while they were making an attempt at neutrality, to America's relations with Britain, and even inclusive of the possibility that America may have only been trying to prove something to themselves. Conclusively, America entered the Great War because of a variety of reasons.
I will use the method of focusing on the misconceptions the press expressed to the public, false interpretations of the Tet Offensive regarding American military and government as well as facts that the press failed to express to the media. I will analyze two relative primary sources, one being a news broadcast and the other being a photograph. By the end of the Investigation I will express a complete understanding of the question, “To what extent did the media affect the American public’s opinion on the war in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive of 1968?” B. Summary of Evidence: • Tet offensive was expressed as a defeat by the New York liberal media but was agreed by many
They believe if they don’t police the world and give aid in certain disasters they will be seen as tyrants and turned against by foreign nations, and it is a well-known fact that the US cannot survive without foreign supplies, especially with its constantly failing economy. One of the main foreign supplies the US depends on is oil. We can relate many of our foreign to our need of oil and right now our foreign oil is below 50 percent and our government is beginning to realize just how deep our foreign dependency is (debate). Foreign oil is the reason we went into the war in Iraq (debate). If we didn’t enter the war in Iraq we would have taken a major dip in foreign oil, and we are already running low (politifact).