- Overall, I think that these two sources, C and A, really agree with each other, as both of these sources are from Vietnam Veterans who may have experienced the same type of things during the war. Source A says that the War turned Steve, a US Soldier, into a machine. Source C agrees with this, by saying that the war had turned Bruce, another US Soldier, into someone who was “not normal”. Both of these sources say that, because of the Vietnam War, it had changed them into people who could not live normally ever again, and were made to live in exclusion, in the Washington Olympic Peninsula. Sources C and A also say that they were good at killing, Source A says, “very effective machines”. This means that they were very good at doing something without feeling anything: killing. Source C says, “Every means that I had to survive, I used.” Another thing that both these sources agree together with is that they are both personal case studies, not studies about the public in general, as it is only about one person, not anyone else.
However, Sources C and A slightly disagree with each other as they are saying slightly different things. For example, Source C says that the soldier being interviewed actually felt guilty about killing people; “anyone who says they can and not feel guilty about it is lying.” Source A, on the other hand, says that the soldier being interviewed had become a “machine”, meaning that he could not have any feelings, thus meaning that he did not feel guilty about killing people. This is the main disagreement between the two sources; Source C says that he feels guilty about killing people, but Source A says that he cannot feel guilty about killing.
Sources C and B agree with each other, as they are both saying the same type of things. One example is that Source B says that America has “created a monster”. Source C says “I’m not normal”. Both these quotes mean that the Vietnam War had changed American Soldiers into people who did not care about other people, and liked to torture and hurt others. Both these sources also say that when people come back after serving their terms in the war, they end up loving violence. A quote form Source B to support this is when John Kerry says, “taught to deal and trade in violence”, meaning that they know nothing apart from violence. Source C says, “I killed a man”. This quote means that this person who was being interviewed was so obsessed with killing in Vietnam he did it right where he was, America. These two similar quotes show how the Vietnam War had changed you g soldiers into these types of people, people who liked violence. However, Sources C and B do not agree with each other, as Source B is mainly about the general public, but Source C is a personal case study about one soldier only.
In conclusion, I think that Sources C and A agree with each other more than Sources C and B. This is because C and A are mainly about one person only, agreeing with each other.
- The Vietnam War affected the American Soldiers so much, as it was mainly due to the fact of the training that they were given before being sent off to Vietnam to serve their term. During their training, they were brainwashed into killing; “...only thing that was going through my mind was exactly what was planned.” This quote, from Source A, means that they were only made to think about one thing, which was to kill communists. Another point in Source A is that after they returned from the Vietnam War, soldiers became paranoid about the Vietcong being ‘round the corner’, and they became lonely and depressed. The soldier on Source A lives in the forests of the Washington Olympic peninsula, meaning that he is living in an isolated area, all by himself.
Another reason as to why the Vietnam War affected US soldiers so much as because they were so frustrated and angry. They felt this way because they could never find the Vietcong, as they used guerrilla warfare. This meant that they only came out into the open when they made an attack, then hid back in the forests after the attack. They were also very hard to find as they did not wear any uniform, making it easier for them to blend in with the innocent civilians.
American soldiers also could not adjust to what had happened in Vietnam to them going into America, in such a short space of time. American soldiers, after they had served their terms, went back to America on the same day. For example, if someone was to leave, they fought in Vietnam in the morning, then left to America in the afternoon, then landed in America in a few hours time, and then they would feel paranoid, as to when they were going to be attacked. Consequently, this means that they could not re-adjust to normal life in such a short space of time.
When soldiers came back to America, they were criticised. This would put down the euphoria of them coming back to America, after war, and bring them down, as people would hate them for what they did, even if it was not everyone who actually did the terrible things, like torture and rape. Another thing that caused them to lead towards depression was the fact that they were not treated as heroes. This war was also the first war that America had lost, and this loss was not towards a developed country, but a developing country that was quiet poor.
America had lost in 1973, after the Paris Peace Agreement, but communists only took over in April 1975. There also was not a proper memorial for those who had died during the Vietnam War until 1980, seven years since the end of the Vietnam War, and it was the Veterans that had to pay for the memorial to be built, with their own money. This may have been because everyone just wanted to forget about everything during the Vietnam War, and imagine that it never actually happened. I also know that approximately 100,000 Vietnam Veterans committed suicide, a lot compared to the 58,000 that had died in action. All of these figures, however, are nothing compared to the approximate 2 million people dead in the whole of Vietnam during the War, in a tiny country.
- Source B is useful as evidence of how the Vietnam War changed America as the speech was made by John Kerry, who was well known for being awarded medals for bravery in the Vietnam War. The source is also useful as it is from an experience US soldier, who experienced the Vietnam War first hand, therefore, we may be able to trust him. John Kerry also knows about what he is talking about, as he is also talking with the knowledge of interviewing 150 veterans, and what the soldiers did during the time of them serving their terms. John Kerry also says that the war had changed America by turning them into “monsters”. Kerry also says that they were “as bad as Genghis Kahn”, who was a Mongol Empire in the 1200’s. Another point that he makes is that America had taught them to “deal and trade in violence”.
However, Source B is not useful as evidence of how the Vietnam War changed America because Kerry was against the war, anti-war, and may have been biased about the war, and wants to portray the war as being a mistake. John Kerry may also have over exaggerated the effects of the war a bit, as he mentions in his speech about millions of men being turned into monsters, even though he only interviewed 150 Vietnam Veterans, meaning that he may have extrapolated. In his conclusion, he over exaggerates a bit as well, so we cannot totally trust that bit of his speech.
Overall, Source B is not so useful about telling us how the Vietnam War affected America, as it only tells us what the soldiers did, not what America as a whole country actually felt like due to the terrible things these veterans had done during their terms.
