IsThere Sufficient Evidence In Sources a-E To Explain Why There Was an Anti-WarMovement In the U.S.a In the Late 1960'S and Early 1970'S?

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IS THERE SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE IN SOURCES A-E TO EXPLAIN WHY THERE WAS AN ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT IN THE U.S.A IN THE LATE 1960’S AND EARLY 1970’S?

In the 1960’s and 70’s something caused the American public to begin an anti-war movement against the war in Vietnam. At the start of the war, it is said that the majority of the people supported the war, but as it commenced, more and more people turned against it. I believe the cause for this was the media coverage of the war. I am going to look at 5 sources to decide whether there is enough evidence in them to conclude that my theory is correct.

Source A in a short extract of writing from the book “Four hours in My Lai” by Michael Bilton. This section of text refers to the experience of the American soldiers in the Vietnam War. This particular source would not have reached the public in the time of the anti-war movement, as it was only published in 1992, however, the American public would here about the issues mentioned in this source in many other media documents and from returning soldiers. As relations and fellow countrymen of the soldiers who fought in the war, information like this would have hit hard, and infuriated the people whose sons, brothers, husbands and fathers had died during it. The source concentrates on the difficulties the American soldiers faced, and how ruthlessly their lives were thrown away. It states that members of the army were thrown into action without sufficient training, and there were many recruits who usually would not be allowed to partake in the normal peacetime army.  This inexperience led to most soldiers dying within a month of service, and the majority of those who survive this period dying within the first six months.  Because of the introduction of conscription in America, almost every civilian would know or know of someone who had to go to Vietnam. Such a high number of fatalities would quickly seep back to the public, causing outcry, grief and a terrible loss of morale for the war.  New recruits would quickly replace soldiers who returned after their year of duty.  As more and more men died, more and more inexperienced soldiers were called to Vietnam. Soldiers who survived this year gained the experience to the fight skilled guerrillas, which new soldiers could not decipher from ordinary civilians. However, once their year was up, they were free to go home, leaving others to face experienced fighters without adequate training and know-how.  The cost of this was the lives of thousands of young Americans, dying for a cause unclear to the public, who, like the soldiers, did not truly know who the enemy was.  All the American public saw and heard was how young lives were being thrown away, everyday in newspapers, on their television screens and from their radios.  The public would be outraged at the human cost for the war, and the terrible conditions, which their soldiers were thrown into, without enough training.  This ultimately turned the people against the war, creating anti-war views and eventually to an anti-war movement. There are limitations about this source, such as none of it contains first-hand experiences of the war. For all we know, Michael Bilton could be exaggerating or under-exaggerating the information he gives about the situations faced by the American soldiers. Also from this source we do not get an accurate account of the extent of deaths or casualties caused by the war. However, this source was published in 1992, so therefore obviously would not have been one of the many sources of information responsible for causing the Anti-war movement. For this reason, these limitations do not really apply to the source, as the extract simply gives us information similar to what the American public would have heard during the Vietnam War. It gives us an “idea” of why people would have been outraged and upset by the news of what their soldiers faced in Vietnam, and allows us to see why the Anti-war movement began.

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Source B is a still photograph from a clip of film showing napalm victims. The two victims are small Vietnamese children, an image which would have shocked the American public. At first the majority of the American people had supported the Vietnam War, they thought the war was the only way to protect their country- but seeing pictures like these would make them wonder who they were protecting their country from. Surely their great enemy was not innocent children, so why were these children being so cruelly harmed? The image would have struck hardest with people who had children ...

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