He lies on the bed and thinks of the men and hopes to God that they have found some sort of courage from his speech before the war.
In one of the last verses it talks about the soldiers having the fate of their country in their hands. Seeing that it is a Chaplin he says may God give you strength? These are the sort of things Chaplins say.
The last verse describes a graphic and vivid picture of the morning the soldiers return. It says they return with tears in their eyes. It also talks about the stench of death which drifts up to the skies and the young soldiers so ill this is a very morbid scene. The very last line in the song repeats the word never three times. This tells me that they are trying to get their view across of the dreadful war which has took place. So overall this song is a stirring song.
I have all ready mentioned a song which highlights the opposition towards the war now I shall do a poem. The poem which I have chosen beyond the doubt shows growing opposition towards the war in Vietnam. The poem I have chosen is called America by Curt Bennet. I have specifically chosen this poem because it shows the Vietnam War from the American soldier’s point of view. In the poem it begins to tell us from the start about the suffering they went through. One of the quotations from the poem is
“And wiped the dry and caking blood from my dead friends face.”
This makes the readers of the poem feel a touch of compassion for the soldiers which make the war sound a pointless waste of time. It is also heartbreaking to read in a poem about a friend dieing because these soldiers did not only see their comrades dead but witnessed them dieing which, must have been awful. This adds to the fact that the soldiers were helpless and they couldn’t do anything to stop their friends from dieing. Another line in the poem which tells the reader of the hatred and great opposition towards the war is
“Creating lies to justify sending young boys off to die”
This shows the author Curt Bennet anger towards the leading figures of American politics. The people who are dieing are someone’s son, brother, father, uncle or even someone’s boyfriend or husband. But from this poem I can tell that the politics of America and even the American leaders do not care about what is happening in the Vietnam War. They don’t even care about their own people. I know this because the American leaders refer to the soldiers as a number. This is very degrading in my opinion. Lastly, the poem America reveals the reaction of the American public towards the war, as it says.
“Slow, rising hate makes people march and demonstrate”
The American public was so opposed to the war that they wanted to protest against it.
Another song which also highlights the opposition towards the war in Vietnam War was a song called Goodnight Saigon by Billy Joel. This song also shows the perspective of the soldiers. The fear which, is faced by the soldiers are showing in the song.
“Prayed to Jesus Christ with all their might.”
They knew at any minute, hour or day they knew they faced the fate of death but with this mind they had to remain brave. The lyrics
“And who was wrong? And who was right?”
Makes reference to the futility, the uselessness of the people dieing due to the war. This makes the loss of life more heartbreaking and tragic. They don’t even know why they are fighting and what for. The song also tells us how the attitudes of the soldiers have changed towards the war.
“Camera’s to shoot the landscape.”
This tell me as the reader that their minds. The minds of the soldiers have changed to suit their surroundings. The surroundings consist of violence, devastation and destruction. As well as the violent surroundings and form of mind the language they use is violent. Because it says,
“And we were sharp as knives,”
This shows that the soldiers as people have change during the war. And not in a good way. They have changed into heartless killing machines this is dreadful.
Yet another song about the Vietnam War which verifies the huge amount of people who oppose the Vietnam War. Bob Dylan Masters of War. This song tells the viewpoint of the people behind the war, these people include creators of weapons and leaders of countries who where involved in the war. These are the people even though they were part of the war they can leave it behind with no harm not even a tinge which, affects them or their families. Some soldiers when they turned eighteen responded to the call of the war. They were forced it was required of them to fight. The quote
“You play with my world like its your little world”
This shows and tells me as a reader that most of the soldiers felt like they were being controlled, forced and even dictated by their own leaders. It also shows how deceitful their leaders could be.
“Like Judas of old you lie and deceive.”
This quote from the song is referring to one the twelve disciples, the one who betrayed Jesus and the one who led him to his death. So here the soldiers are comparing their leaders such as Johnson and Eisenhower to Judas for the soldier’s feel like they have been betrayed just like Jesus was and this was the cause of their deaths. The Vietnam War also affected generation, which came after the war. I found this out from the song for it says
“You’ve thrown the worst fear that can be hurled, fear to children into the world.”
Worst of all the song highlights to most terrible and tragic effect of the war on children which are children not feeling safe. Instead the live in fear. This was due to the Vietnam War. The sounds of the bombs terrified the children they weren’t able to sleep at night this must have been dreadful.
There are also films, which outline the opposition towards the Vietnam War such films as Apocalypse Now. It was released in 1979. It was a film which let the world see what really happened in the Vietnam War not what the leaders said what happened. The film Apocalypse Now way really controversial when it was first released in 1979. Francis Ford Coppola produced the film it was described as
“A groundbreaking masterpiece.”
The film was realistic about the war as for the image, which the leaders made about it. The suffering, which the soldiers went through and the deaths of their fellow friends etc, were highlighted in the film. The film points out the fear, the violence, confusion and the horrendous nightmare that was the Vietnam War. The film Apocalypse Now showed lots of gruesome scenes off America’s viciousness and savagery. There is a scene in the film, which shows the Americans blowing up a Vietnamese village killing innocent people in the process. There is a quote in the film, which shows us off the changed attitudes of the American soldiers.
“We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig, cow after cow, village after village, army after army.”
It seems that the American soldiers are there just to kill and destroy the war has become a massacre killing everyone in sight. It doesn’t matter to them about the amount of violence they use as long as the kill someone. A lot of people were shocked when they witnessed this film for the first time and saw what really happened in the Vietnam War and what it turned the American soldiers into. In this case it was cruel heartless monsters. So overall Francis Ford Coppola got his point across which was a negative one.
Yet another film, which obviously shows great opposition to the war, is Platoon. Oliver Stone produced the film platoon. He had a different type of film for he followed the war on foot on ground level. He saw what happened first hand for he followed in their footsteps literally for he served in the Vietnam War. The film is based Stone’s times out here. It shows how inhuman the war turned out to be. He added a personally touch to the film because he is recalling his memories and personally experience of the war. We feel empathy for the soldiers because of all the things they went through. This film is a firsthand example of showing
“War callous futility,”
Another quote that shows opposition to the war is what people think about it says that the film shows soldiers fighting a war there want no part off or support – men’s boat is stopped by soldiers to leave.
There was also newspapers which expressed their opinions for example “life” even though most newspapers were conservative this one was different. It was introduced in 1969 to the public, the contents where shocking it stunned everyone into antiwar protest. Even though it was an anti war magazine it didn’t force it readers to be antiwar but give them a choice. This magazine did accomplish one thing and that was swaying the opinions of most of the American civilians. They managed this by showing pictures of up to 250 young men who had been killed during the Vietnam War. This was upsetting to the American public.
So overall the Vietnam War faced massive opposition from any kind of people. Some people wrote poems others songs and films but whether they wrote a song, poem or film they all thought the same about the war. They wrote whatever they wrote to show their anger. The Vietnam War itself was portrayed as pointless resulting in millions losing their lives. Still today many people suffer from the war some suffer mentally with flashbacks, not being able to sleep at night and not able to live their life or they could suffer physical such as scars. All resulting from the Vietnam War.
