Values/Beliefs

Family has always been a very important value in America and Vietnam. The war was really hard for families because of the draft. In Vietnam, they believe that the needs of the community are more important than individuals.

Tactics

A lot of different weapons were used during the Vietnam war like...

• pistols and revolvers
• infantry rifles
• sniper rifles
• submachine guns
• shot guns
• grenades and mines
• grenade launchers

Other tactics:

• Americans fought a high-tech war
• tricked vietcong into loyal areas by creating opposition
• their troops went on patrols then right when they were attacked, they were supported by their air patrol

Homefront

During the climax of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement was occurring also. There were a lot of peace movements lead by young people at the time. During the war there was mostly a lot of protesting and public opinion going on. After the war, it brought pop culture like movies and books about the war. There was also still a lot of peace movements and memorials.

Music

Bob Dylan , John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and more created inspirational and protesting music during the Vietnam war. All of their songs mention peace, frustration and anger. These songs eventually lead to the publics disapproval of the war and opinions that they want peace.

Propoganda

John Pilger wrote the book, Heroes, about how he visited Vietnam a few times and made reports about the war and wrote about it. His word choice and reports were written very analytical about the war. During this time of the war, a lot of other authors wrote books about the war.

Protests

The Vietnam War protests began a movement in America. Several groups of people started protests speaking against the Vietnam war along with the US being involved. These mostly occurred in places like large cities and school campuses.

Media

Since WWII, television was beginning to become more popular to the public. A lot of the war was shown on screen to inform the public about what was going on. Along with people buying more television's things like video recorders also became more popular.

Economy

Because of the war, America's production capacities lowered. The spending on military also caused a strain in America's economy during the Vietnam war. A lot of controversy began about how America's economy was handled during this time. At the end of the war, the debt was about $200 billion.

Government/foreign policy

After the war, the US ended military draft and created a volunteer army. The government ended up being a lot more strict as well as the foreign policy. Most Americans disagreed with the war, because they thought that the foreign policy should have been more prepared for war before going into it.

The Draft

The Draft was abolished in 1973, but men between the ages 18-25 were drafted to fight in the Vietnam war. A lot of the families put the draftees under a lot of pressure of exempting from the draft. Most men were able to be exempt if they were poor or working. The men drafted were usually from farming communities and very few who were upperclass.

Family roles

During the Vietnam war, it was very hard for families to continue healthy relationships together. There was little communication and a lot of relationships ended with divorce. Most children never knew their fathers since they went into war so early into their life.

Re-integration into society

Re-integration into society was hardest for the soldiers. Obviously they will have a hard time with little things, but most of them had PTSD which involves nightmares, flashbacks, anger, fear and anxiety. While having a long separation from family, the soldiers change a lot during war as well as the family. Most husbands and wives feel like strangers to each other.

Purpose

The Vietnam war had a huge affect on the United States. It was the longest and most expensive war in history. It also affected people's mental health and hurt them physically and mentally. All of these results were because of America wanting to stop Vietnam from being a communist country.

race equality

Vietnam was America's first racially integrated conflict. There were rumors that America was using the Vietnam war as a form of genocide. A lot of african Americans fought in the war, but still came back to racism, poor working conditions, and unfair treatment. Also during the war is when MLK gave his "I Have a Dream" speech and was murdered as well. The Civil Rights Act then came to place.