USA — Vietnam War and Its Effects on the American Society and Politics
Umut Kurtçu, May 2023.
Has the Vietnam War weakened the United States of America’s power to dominate the unipolar world (although some argue that the United States is not the only pole and world leader)? How did Vietnam defeat the US in the war so many times more powerful than itself? What were the reasons that caused the USA to lose the war? How did US policy change during the war? These kinds of questions help us to understand the US-Vietnam war in the past. The Vietnam War was a war in which millions of people died, in the end the communists and the eastern bloc won, the USA was disgraced and fled without looking back. In this essay, from the beginning to the end, the US — Vietnam war will be discussed, the impact of the war on the USA society will be looked at, and how the war was reflected in the USA films will be examined.
After the retreat of French army in the Vietnam, thanks to the USA president Eisenhower, the country was divided into two as North and South Vietnam. There was communist regime in the North Vietnam whereas South Vietnam was under the anti-communist regime and supported by the USA. North Vietnam got big helps from the China and USSR after the agreement. Diem who was the leader of the South Vietnam, thanks to the USA’s helps because of the fear of spreading of the communism in the Pacific Asia, he tried to build authoritarian order. The USA president Eisenhower sent its troops to Vietnam as military expert. The USA presidents thought that if they lose the Vietnam politically and the Vietnam became communist in any way, this causes the domino theory and other country’s switching sides would be continue. Then, the US president John F. Kennedy sent over 16.000 troops in order to protect the experts. After a while, the USA president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and Lyndon B. Johnson became president. It is not shocking that, in the same month, Diem who was the leader of the South Vietnam was assassinated in 1963. We can basically summarize that the America started to entering close combat against the Viet Cong gradually in the years but in the end, they could not be successful.
Because of the Brinks Hotel where was the hotel of USA experts bombing by the Viet Cong in the 1964 the real war could start but it did not. After that, because of the bombing the US navy in the Asia, the USA declared the war against the North Vietnam. Thousands of troops were sent into the area in order to fight against Viet Cong. The number of American soldiers increased to 500.000 in the Vietnam. Moreover, there was a sandwich shop that services for American and European journalist. After years that true came out, that shop was actually the centre of the Viet Cong in the South Vietnam. Famous Tet Offensive was commanded in that shop against the USA soldiers. About the Vietnamese tunnels, Mehmet Ali Birand said that ‘’The Viet Cong’s greatest weapon was the underground tunnels in the forests. At that time, the US, which had one of the world’s greatest technologies, was unlikely to notice these tunnels. The tunnels contained all sorts of things, from ammunition to hospitals. The tunnels were interconnected and if someone entered from one end, the other end would come out of another country. Some tunnels were longer than 2000 kilometer. In others, tunnels were dug large enough for a jeep to fit in for the shipment of military equipment. Thanks to these tunnels, the USA could not stop the aid and support coming to the Viet Cong.’’¹ In addition, the USA started to suffering heavy losses because of the unending Viet Cong guerrilla attacks. After the Tet Attack, the USA lost big power in the war. Also, cost of the war was increasing and the president started to think about retreat. In 1973, the U.S. and the Undersecretary of North Vietnam agreed in Paris, ending the war, and the U.S. withdrew from South Vietnam. The peace was thought as limitless but after the 2 years in 1975, the North Vietnamese army set out to capture southern Vietnam. The conclusion of the war was, 5 million Vietnamese dead, 1 million was injured and 60.000 USA soldier was killed. Moreover, the USA lost over 3500 helicopters, plane on the air and lots of tanks and cars.
Mehmet Ali Birand, who was a Turkish journalist, said that “The war was taking place thousands of kilometers away from his country, in a war they did not believe, between US soldiers fighting for the free world and short, dark, nationalist, Viet Cong (Vietnamese communists).’’ ² North Vietnam, on the other hand, supported the communist guerrilla groups in southern Vietnam by land. The US did everything to cut this support. First, they tried to kill the guerrillas. They burned the villages that supported the guerrillas with special flamethrowing machines and destroyed the houses with tanks. It wasn’t enough, he bombed it from the air with planes. The United States has turned Vietnam into a bomb testing ground. From the largest chemical weapon to the smallest explosive, he tried all kinds of weapons, machines, tanks and helicopters. He committed many war crimes. Everyone knew that the United States could not be judged, so no one could say anything on the international area for years. It is also worth mentioning the success of Vietnamese propaganda in the war. With the United States in the war, North Vietnam began to carry out effective American anti-government propaganda. With this step, Vietnam was making propaganda radio broadcasts for the US soldiers in Vietnam in order to demoralize the US soldiers and suppress their demand to fight. Aim of the radio streams were making enemy soldiers fear and demoralising. The names of the dead US soldiers were read from the radio in order to spreading fear, playing kinds of music, allowed some interviews that supports the peace and being against the USA occupation in the Vietnam happen. As a result, the war was won by the Vietnam against the USA not just on the ground, but also through intelligence, communications, supports, tunnels and propagandas.
The USA — Vietnam War never could not find the support that they demand by the people. It was the war that the Americans were able to watch live on their TV for the first time. Thanks to the TV, they watched the war, 19.000 km away, live on the TV in their living room. Watching real footage of war and blood increased the desire for peace among the American people and put pressure on the government to stop the war. As the war progressed, the American people became discontented. The voices of peace rose. Those who lost their relatives in a war that did not belong to them began to rebel. Also, the war caused to starting of the hippie movement. In addition, this war, in particular, led to the globalization of the world. Thanks to the television apparatus and journalism, this globalization has reached its peak. Since 1960s, the opposition of the war began to increase. When the dates were 1970s, %60 of the people were against the USA — Vietnam War. For example, the publication of the “Pentagon Papers”, as well as the news of the wholesale massacre of Vietnamese civilians by the US troops in the village of “My Lai”, shook the public opinion. Such that President Johnson claimed that he will not be a candidate for next elections because of the diminishing votes and supports that caused from the war and Richard Nixon became new president. To summarize, the USA-Vietnam war leads to increase the peace protests in the USA, increased the importance given to human rights and law, radio and journalism gained importance, and anti-war increased.
Taxi Driver (1976) is one of many Hollywood movies about the Vietnam war, such as 7 Good Morning Vietnam, Hamburger Hill, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now. This film is about the new life of a former Marine who served in the USA — Vietnam War after returning to his country after the Vietnam War and his forced retirement from military service. The film has many social, economic and political repercussions from the 70’s of USA. Presidential candidates use election slogans such as “We are the people” for the presidential elections. There was almost a state of anarchy in the country and whoever could afford would rob or kill each other. Socially, many minorities lived together in the country and this constituted a cultural degeneration. The main character of the movie, Travis Bickle, was a character who had returned from the Vietnam War and struggled with the psychological effects of the war. In the movie, Travis was constantly advocating the removal of minorities from the country. My guess is that in the mind of this ex-soldier, he was thinking of the minorities in the country as a Vietnamese soldier invading his country. Moreover, our main character, Travis, was always wearing a military jacket. This, I think, shows that this military spirit in his mind does not get old. In the film, Travis is constantly on the lookout for something, but is unhappy with his life and in constant trouble with illness. Indeed, as seen with many the USA soldiers after the Vietnam War, Travis was also a former soldier in the movie suffering from PTSD. For this reason, he played a very excited, sometimes uncontrollable, sick character in the movie. Also, our character Travis was a very lonely, low-talk character. He was shy. He spoke little with his taxi driver friends. He often saw life as gray. He spoke little to the people in the community. Maybe he forgot how he lived in real life because of the psychological effect of the war. In this respect, we can see the effects of a real Vietnam War on our character. Finally, at the end of the movie, I think Travis died right after shooting the bad guys. After this scene, although the movie continued for a few more minutes, I think these were the scenes Travis saw as his dreams while he was dying. Iris’ family did not write to him, Travis did not fall into a coma, did not take Betsy back as a customer after he recovered and returned to the taxi business. To summarize, many Hollywood movies such as Taxi Driver, have made films about the Vietnam War directly or indirectly about the effects and consequences of the Vietnam War.
To sum up, the USA — Vietnam War was a war which the winning party was Vietnam, decreasing power and honour of the USA on the international area, 6–7 million people lost their lives and the USA got a lot of reaction both inside and outside of the country.
Sources;
- ¹ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5bq5R1zT54 :Yakın Tarihin En Büyük Gerilla Savaşı “VİETNAM” | 32.Gün Arşivi
- ² : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5bq5R1zT54 :Yakın Tarihin En Büyük Gerilla Savaşı “VİETNAM” | 32.Gün Arşivi
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075314/ : Taxi Driver (1976)
- https://movieweb.com/vietnam-war-movies/?newsletter_popup=1#the-deer-hunter
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5bq5R1zT54 :Yakın Tarihin En Büyük Gerilla Savaşı “VİETNAM” | 32.Gün Arşivi
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
- https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/e-gifder/issue/49575/554951#article_cite :
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- https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/trta/issue/52035/645049 : Vietnam-Amerika Savaşı’nda ABD’ye Yönelik Propaganda Amaçlı Vietnam Radyo Yayıncılığı: Hanoi Hannah’nın Radyo Yayınları Üzerine Bir İnceleme, Mehmet Ali GAZİ, Yıl 2020, Cilt: 5 Sayı: 9
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- https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ankuayd/issue/1847/22523 : Türk Basınında Vietnam Savaşı: Ulus Gazetesi Örneği, Mehtap ŞİMŞEK, Yıl 2008, Cilt: 11 Sayı: 42
Umut Kurtçu, May 2023.
