Source B is a photograph which was published during the actual Vietnam War. This is a very famous and powerful image taken during the Vietnam War; it illustrates the consequences of the Napalm war. Napalm was a chemical weapon which inflicts terrible burns. The use of chemical weapons and Agent Orange shocked the US public and influenced the peace movement by presenting them on Television as well as making the Americans believe that it was a wrong to kill innocent victims. The fact that the American public would have seen images like this is significant because it shows that it is cruel and wrong.
Source C is writing from a journalist which is not in favor of the war. This is demonstrating that by 1970 there was widespread opposition to American
involvement in Vietnam. Hammer describes this by clarifying that the soldiers are fighting using techniques that are exterminating innocent inhabitants. This demonstrates some of the reasons for the peace movement for the reason that people did not maintain the war as they thought Americans won’t succeed. This source is important because soldiers in Vietnam were fighting an ideological war, and many US civilians did not identify what they were fighting for.
Another very powerful reason for the peace movement was the effect that military spending was having on American domestic spending. Fighting the Vietnam War was costing the government approximately $20 billion per year. President Johnson had been elected on a promise to create a “Great Society” but however this was demolished. Johnson promised a Great Society which meant feeding and finding shelter for the homeless, and also to provide more education and medical care, nevertheless the American people realized that Johnson was wasting all the money on fighting the war and not helping the American people.
Source D illustrates this as there is a cartoon image which shows the “Great Society” being burnt to pay for the Vietnam War. But however Source D has its limitations because it was mainly the poorest parts of the American society and often Black Americans who suffered the most. Black Americans made up 10% of Society but 25% of Vietnam casualties.
One very significant motivation on why there was an anti-war movement was for the reason that Vietnam was the first media war. This indicates that the Americans were observing the war on T.V. This affected them because they felt that they did not maintain the war. Source E illustrates this by mentioning that people did not support the war even when the unsympathetic parts were been shown on T.V. This would have influenced the American people because the American people were disgusted at all the people being killed.
However there are many reasons why there was an anti-war involvement that we need to consider, which are not mentioned in the sources, for example they used Napalm to burn villagers suspected of hiding in Vietcong; this was a bomb filled with jellied petrol. The sources didn’t mention other facts such as over 50,000 US soldiers
were killed in Vietnam. The sources do not also mention that a South Vietnamese village called My Lai was housing Vietcong troops, the US soldiers killed approximately 347 unarmed civilians, this included men, children and babies being shot and women were also raped and shot.
Overall, the motivations of why there was a protest movement were due to the following reasons: the Napalm bomb constructed appalling damages and by showing this on T.V made the US people believe that the war was unpleasant; the US soldiers scored very low on their intelligence test; soldiers used fighting schemes to execute innocent victims due to this the American people did not sustain the war as they assumed that they would not win; Vietnam War was the first media war, meaning the American people were watching this on T.V; making them feel as though they didn’t support the war. Fighting for the Vietnam War meant that it was costing the government approximately $20 billion per year; all these reasons can be found in the sources.
I feel that the most important reason was that the war was publicized on T.V, the reason why I think this is due to the fact that the people who had seen the war on T.V must have seen some unpleasant sights of people dying in pain, furthermore people usually dislike watching an innocent person getting hurt for no particular reason. I feel that this must have had a major effect on the American people as no one would want to suffer from the harsh conditions some of the innocent people suffered from.
