In my opinion the Vietnam War was a time a tragedy and loss. Many American soldiers lost their lives in a battle that was destined for failure from the start. In addition to these soldiers, many Vietnamese civilians were killed and their villages burned down because of fear that they might be the Vietcong. Upon the soldiers’ arrival home, many people viewed them in a negative light and frowned upon their actions while in the war. The fact is that these soldiers went through not only extreme physical hardships, but also had to deal with this physiological burden arising from the fear that their enemy was everywhere they went. I feel that if many of those that criticized these soldiers, as well as myself, were put into these extreme conditions the outcome of innocent civilian deaths and destruction of native communities would have been the same. These such conditions also caused soldiers' to have phsycological problems upon their return home, which still haunt many of them today. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5334479/
This image depicts the harsh terrain that these soldiers had to encounter, further causing a fear that their enemy was everywhere, since the jungle was all they could see.
1 comment:
I think it's important that you mentioned how countless innocent people were killed for fear that they were Vietcong. Many people don't realize that this war, unlike others, wasn't as simple as "shoot the bad guys". The Vietcong didn't always have uniforms and they most certainly didn't stick to the roads when they traveled. Because of this our soldiers could never really know if a civilian was actually an enemy or not so they had a choice. Kill innocent people or risk letting Vietcong go free to fight another day.
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