Steev
I'm working on a paper for my history class, and I need a few sources on the political and social outcomes of the vietnam war, including information on how it came to a close. Please include good sources.
Answer
The Vietnam War (now referred to as the Second Indochina War, 1959-1975) is probably one of the best documented wars in world history. The are many many good sources on the war and the topics you need for your paper.
I would start with Stanley Karnow, Vietnam. Probably the definitive narrative book on what happened politically, particularly from the perspective of the United States. A.J. Langguth's Our Vietnam is also very good in providing narrative detail from both sides. These were top-notch journalists who became historians of the war.
If you want a hindsight view, Robert McNamara wrote two extremely well-written and useful books on the war: In Retrospect and Argument Without End. The latter provides a dialogue between the principals on both sides conducted in the late 1990s. McNamara there goes into great detail what the effects of the war were on both Vietnam and the United States, and provides some lessons to be derived from this tragedy. For a shorter broad overview with new information, you should pick up Turley's Second Indochina War.
My take on your question would highlight the following. Over 3.8 million people Vietnamese died in the war. Many more were affected by birth defects or psychological trauma as a result of the war. Families were torn apart when elites in the South fled to the US. The War caused the dislocation of thousands more fleeing in boats to refugee camps.
The US lost 58,000 soldiers. Many more wounded. They were not given honor guards or ticker tape parades. They came home and nobody wanted to talk about it. People talked more at the massacre at My Lai and civilian deaths from bombing of North Vietnam than they did about the sacrifices of the American soldiers, sailors and airmen.
Politically, the US suffered substantial damage. The US violated international agreements it pledged to respect in the creation and support of South Vietnam, and then was forced to walk away from that ally. Despite assurances given to President Thieu privately, the US just abandoned South Vietnam to its fate, a conventional assault from the DRV.
The US pledged to multilateralism but then acted primarily unilaterally in prosecuting the war to the horror of its European allies. Congress voted continually against the war from 1969 on, eviscerating what the President was attempting to do in negotiating the best deal it could. The loss in the war substantially eroded our Cold War posture vis-a-vis the Soviet Union and hamstrung Ford and Carter in pursuing containment strategies. The war unleashed a very powerful Vietnam that was able to resist even an invasion from China in 1978.
There are many many more outcomes of the war, all covered in the books I mentioned and others.
The Vietnam War (now referred to as the Second Indochina War, 1959-1975) is probably one of the best documented wars in world history. The are many many good sources on the war and the topics you need for your paper.
I would start with Stanley Karnow, Vietnam. Probably the definitive narrative book on what happened politically, particularly from the perspective of the United States. A.J. Langguth's Our Vietnam is also very good in providing narrative detail from both sides. These were top-notch journalists who became historians of the war.
If you want a hindsight view, Robert McNamara wrote two extremely well-written and useful books on the war: In Retrospect and Argument Without End. The latter provides a dialogue between the principals on both sides conducted in the late 1990s. McNamara there goes into great detail what the effects of the war were on both Vietnam and the United States, and provides some lessons to be derived from this tragedy. For a shorter broad overview with new information, you should pick up Turley's Second Indochina War.
My take on your question would highlight the following. Over 3.8 million people Vietnamese died in the war. Many more were affected by birth defects or psychological trauma as a result of the war. Families were torn apart when elites in the South fled to the US. The War caused the dislocation of thousands more fleeing in boats to refugee camps.
The US lost 58,000 soldiers. Many more wounded. They were not given honor guards or ticker tape parades. They came home and nobody wanted to talk about it. People talked more at the massacre at My Lai and civilian deaths from bombing of North Vietnam than they did about the sacrifices of the American soldiers, sailors and airmen.
Politically, the US suffered substantial damage. The US violated international agreements it pledged to respect in the creation and support of South Vietnam, and then was forced to walk away from that ally. Despite assurances given to President Thieu privately, the US just abandoned South Vietnam to its fate, a conventional assault from the DRV.
The US pledged to multilateralism but then acted primarily unilaterally in prosecuting the war to the horror of its European allies. Congress voted continually against the war from 1969 on, eviscerating what the President was attempting to do in negotiating the best deal it could. The loss in the war substantially eroded our Cold War posture vis-a-vis the Soviet Union and hamstrung Ford and Carter in pursuing containment strategies. The war unleashed a very powerful Vietnam that was able to resist even an invasion from China in 1978.
There are many many more outcomes of the war, all covered in the books I mentioned and others.
How did parents learn from the Vietnam war?
Sara
I'm writing an essay for history and I need to know what the parents of a Vietnam soldier killed in action might have learned from the Vietnam War? This is one of those topics that we never really talked about in class, and i've looked in my text book and online for information, but I can't find anything on what the parents might have learned? Help? :)
Answer
Seeing how i was in the Vietnam war, Many colleagues of mine were Killed in Action back in Saigon. I was sent with the task to tell the parents of these KIA soldiers, that they didn't make it. And share memories, slightly before the attacks. I can tell you this though, Parents disliked the Vietnam War.. Sure it was a duty to serve the country of the United States. But for a life.. it wasn't really worth it.
Seeing how i was in the Vietnam war, Many colleagues of mine were Killed in Action back in Saigon. I was sent with the task to tell the parents of these KIA soldiers, that they didn't make it. And share memories, slightly before the attacks. I can tell you this though, Parents disliked the Vietnam War.. Sure it was a duty to serve the country of the United States. But for a life.. it wasn't really worth it.
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