Worldwide students protested against the Vietnam War. There was a fight between anti war protesters and the Chicago police during a national convention held by democrats. They burned half of Chicago down with these protests that commonly occurred. There was looting and mass hysteria in the streets. Because there were so many children from the baby boomer’s, “the odds of social violence are much increased.” (Sibley, 2008, p. 1)
According to Sibley (2008), “A youth bulge is when 30 to 40 percent of a nation’s male population is between the ages of 15 and 29.” (Sibley, 2008, p. 1) After a youth bulge there is more competition to get a job. Sometimes competition is good but not this kind. Too much causes men to get angry and frustrated. This inevitably resorts to violence.
I believe students had more to reasons to protest during the Vietnam War. The war was a political move because they didn’t want communism to spread. Thousands of people died and women and children were being killed over there. I am sure there were many protests about that which caused many people to not look at American soldiers as heroes. The truth is that they were doing what they were told and most soldiers did not know why they were fighting.
Then you have to consider that the draft was active so anyone could be called at any time. This worried students and I believe is the reason why students protested the war. They saw the people coming back from the war and wanted to get there education not go to war and come back disabled. The other factor is that many of their brothers and fathers were sent to Vietnam. People understand that we have to fight to keep our freedom but everyone wants their loved ones home.
Many immigrants and refugees came to the United States after the Vietnam War. This caused a social disturbance in the United States. Americans just got use to minority voting rights and women’s rights. Again the U.S. would have to deal with another culture and tradition. The Vietnamese were oppressed by their communist government and many were tortured.
According to Quan (2008) The Vietnamese encountered language barriers, culture and traditional differences. They had to learn how to assimilate to the American dream or be alienated completely. Because we just went through a war with the Vietnamese Americans alienated and discriminated against them.
Could you imagine being a soldier coming home and seeing the people you were fighting in your home town? Something as small as that could cause a Veteran to have flash backs. The U.S. government spent a lot of money on the Vietnam War. Kissinger promised to provide aid to the North Vietnamese to fix what was destroyed during the war. Needless to say we were thrown into a recession after the Vietnam War.
I believe that between the Agent Orange scandal and the secrets about Vietnam War crimes the public did not trust to government. These are things that conspiracy theorists thrive on and were created by. Vietnam Veterans were not welcomed home like they should have been. Instead they were booed and had little respect from the American people. You know that had to make these Veterans unhappy with the government.
That was a big problem after the Vietnam War the government lost their public trust. Veterans from the Vietnam War had to deal with many challenges because the war was so controversial. According to Tetsuya and Fujiwara (2009) many Veterans questioned the effects of Agent Orange. Agent Orange was herbicide that destroyed Vietnamese crops. The U.S sprayed 11 million gallons of Agent Orange mostly in South Vietnam.
Conclusion
The Vietnam War caused many problems with students who were protesting worldwide. The Vietnam War was known as a war that could not be one. Because of the youth bulge prior to the War the unrest was more pronounced. There was a lot more protesting going on than any other time. They were protesting for gay rights, Latino activism, choices of American Indians, feminism, equal rights and abortion.
Students did not want to be pulled out of school to go to war and maybe die or come back crippled. That is very stressful and when faced with so much stress they had to let it out somehow. The way they let it out was by protesting. Many refugees from the Vietnam War came to America which caused more social conflict. People worried about losing their jobs to more people. The American people did not trust the government and had very little faith in them.
The Vietnam War should have never happened because we really had no reason to go there and get in between their civil war. It caused many people a lot of hard times and cost a lot of government dollars.
References
Ha, Quan. (2008). The Vietnamese-American 1.5 Generation. Review of medium_being_reviewed title_of_work_reviewed_in_italics. Ethnic Studies Review, 31(2), 201-202. Retrieved November 28, 2009, from Ethnic News Watch (ENW). (Document ID: 1788845141).
Robert Sibley. (2008, May 12). Youthful rebellion; Those of an idealistic bent will find it hard to accept, but the upheavals of the spring of 1968 may have been mostly due to misdirected testosterone. The Ottawa Citizen,A.11. Retrieved November 28, 2009, from Canadian Newsstand Core. (Document ID: 1478717281).
Fujiwara, Tetsuya. “Vietnam War, disability and.” In Burch, Susan, ed. Encyclopedia of American Disability History. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. American History Online. . Retrieved November 28, 2009, from Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
