The Vietnam War - anti-war movement source based questions

Authors Avatar

ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT:QUESTION FOUR

Source two is an extract taken from a school textbook called “The Vietnam War.” It gives three examples of groups who opposed the Vietnam War and explains who opposed the Vietnam War and explains why.  It tells us that at the start of the war, opposition was only a small percentage.  It shows one method of opposition, with the demonstration and states that this was “the largest anti-war movement in history.” One could argue that this is a fairly reliable source because it is taken from a school textbook.  However we do not know that this was in fact a US textbook and the date of publishing would have been influenced by events.  If it was then Western bias may understate the full opposition during or after the Vietnam War. It is also full of assumptions, and tends to focus on the opposition at the beginning of the war.  The extract is not clear on this point, as it does not explain how opposition developed throughout the war. Thus, it fails to mention how other groups opposed the war.  It mentions that the opposition fell into “three broad categories” which were pacifists, liberals and left-wingers but did not mention such groups as hippies or war veterans etc. It also tended only mention the peaceful methods used of the war and left out the violent methods that were used.

Join now!

Source Three is a graph showing “trends in support for the war in Vietnam.” It gives opinions of the American people over a six- year period during the war and gives statistics, which are useful in showing the extent of opposition and support to the Vietnam War. It suggests that the opposition fluctuated with a general increase over time. It also backs up source two when it stated that “opposition was only a small percentage by the American peoples.” The advantage of this source is that it is only statistics and there is arguably no bias evident.  It is ...

This is a preview of the whole essay