Is there sufficient evidence in sources A to F to explain why there was an anti-war movement in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s?
MODEL B:ASSIGNMENT:VIETNAM Robert Nelson 11H
Is there sufficient evidence in sources A to F to explain why there was an anti-war movement in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s?
As the Vietnam war heavily covered by the media, the devastating images were broadcasted across the globe. People were able to watch the war from their armchair and many American people were disgraced by the images of children dying and innocent people being shot dead in villages. A perfect example of this, is the My Lai massacre which took place in 1968. The images appalled people all over the world, especially American people who felt ashamed of their country’s soldiers. ‘Middle America’ began to realise the harsh consequences of the Vietnam War.
I believe that the media coverage sparked the protesting across America, however there were individual groups who protested against the war, they all had different beliefs about the war and had different methods of protesting, but they all had one thing in common, they wanted to stop the war in Vietnam. Hippies, blacks, students and veterans were amongst these groups of protesters.
I will use the sources, with the aid of my own knowledge in order to attempt to come up with an answer to why there was an anti-war movement in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Source A was taken from the book ‘four hours from My Lai’. It was written by Michael Bilton and published in 1992. The source allows me to understand that the American soldiers lacked intelligence. “An increasing number of recruits scored so low on intelligence tests that they would never have been let into the peacetime army.” This passage suggests to me that the U.S army was inefficient, as with low intelligence, the likelihood that a soldier would survive in the conditions of the jungle was low. I think that ‘middle America’ would not agree with sending young, inexperienced men to Vietnam as they were not likely to come back home. “Soldiers were most likely to die in the first month”. I think that this would spark protest because as soldiers were dying within the first month, it meant that even more soldiers had to be sent to Vietnam, who would also be likely to die within the first month. I think that this would have led to protesting of students, as they were strong believers of free will. “The tour of duty in Vietnam was one year”, “Just as a soldiers began gaining experience he was sent home”. These two statements suggest to me that the death rate of American soldiers would increase. Just as a soldier has adapted to the jungle and the way of life in Vietnam, he would be sent home and an inexperienced soldier, not used to the jungle would be sent to Vietnam and the chances are that he would not survive the first few months. I think the veterans sent home from Vietnam, would have a huge impact on the protest movement, as many had lost limbs and were scarred, some even emotionally scarred. The veterans would have told many stories about the awful conditions of the jungle and the terrifying images that will never ever leave their minds. This source definitely has sufficient evidence to explain why there was anti-war movement in the U.S.A.
