Johnson called North Vietnam a fourth-rate raggedy ass little country. How do sources C, D and E contradict this view?

Source D

Source D gives us a table of the U.S Government spending in 1968. The U.S Government spent 41% on Defence expenditure of which Vietnam only spent 13%.  Education welfare has only 12% more money is being spent on the war in Vietnam.  At the time the U.S. were more focus on the present war and less about the education meaning the future of the youth  were less important than the war.  The U.S. government was putting so much money into the war in Vietnam, how could a “forth-rate raggedy ass little country”, keep up with U.S. military strength.  Vietnam is a third world country without massive amounts of money and they were still able to beat the raff of the U.S.

Source E

Source E  is a cartoon with five presidents.  The presidents were Eisenhower {1953 – 1961}, Kennedy {1961 – 1963}, Johnson {1963 – 1969}, Nixon {1969 – 1974} and Ford {1974 – 1977}.  The cartoon has all five presidents in a line and above them it says “victory just around the corner”.  If victory is just around the corner then why has the forth-rate raggedy ass little country not been defeated.  This cartoon was published after the withdrawal from Vietnam, therefore it does contradict Johnsons statement.  

Conclusion

The sources contradict  the statement because in source C, it shows how many troops were sent to Vietnam over the years until the ceasefire.  This proves that Vietnam were hard to beat .  Source D shows the amount of money put into the war against a third world  country and that the U.S. were still unsuccessful.  Source E  shows the length of time it had taken to get the ceasefire, it took six presidents.  Johnson was wrong in saying that Vietnam was a “fourth-rate raggedy ass little country”, because the U.S. did not win the war in Vietnam.

Darcy Seward

12 GSW.