In order to truly understand the history of an era, one must first gain a sense of the people who lived it. In the introduction to their book The Century, Todd Brewster and Peter Jennings wisely note that experience, not the simple act of memory, constitutes a living history. They also observe that true history is not made up of the noted people but from the unknown masses. During the years between 1960s and 1970s society experienced great loss and pride. The Vietnam War, the Kennedy assassination, and the Apollo 11 Moon landing accurately depict the 1960s as and age of loss and gain. In the 1960s, NASA landed the first man on the moon. Before Americans could successfully travel to space NASA had to build a functioning rocket and find
…show more content…
After the end of French colonial rule in the Indochina colonies, President Ngo Dinh Dien canceled the election that was to be held in South Vietnam which could potentially have brought together Vietnam (Vietnam War). In the article “Vietnam War” the author tells the audience “Elections scheduled for 1956 in South Vietnam for the reunification of Vietnam were canceled”. The canceling of the election angered the communist in Vietnam. Diem’s government would seek help from the United States (Vietnam War). Still, he could not stop the growing Communist led army, the Viet Cong, who practiced guerrilla war tactics and established the National Liberation Front in 1960 (Vietnam War). South Vietnam established a treaty with the United States leading to the arrival of U.S. support troops and the formation of the U.S. Military Assistance Command. The United States involvement in the war was motivated by their desire to stop the spreading of communism (Vietnam War. . Thousands of men were sent to fight and lost their lives in a war that many thought was a costly mistake and that it was not the United State’s place to get involved (Vietnam War). The South’s resistance would fail and the North Vietnamese would take Saigon on April 30 1975. Vietnam would be reunified in
After the end of French colonial rule in the Indochina colonies, President Ngo Dinh Dien canceled the election that was to be held in South Vietnam which could potentially have brought together Vietnam (Vietnam War). In the article “Vietnam War” the author tells the audience “Elections scheduled for 1956 in South Vietnam for the reunification of Vietnam were canceled”. The canceling of the election angered the communist in Vietnam. Diem’s government would seek help from the United States (Vietnam War). Still, he could not stop the growing Communist led army, the Viet Cong, who practiced guerrilla war tactics and established the National Liberation Front in 1960 (Vietnam War). South Vietnam established a treaty with the United States leading to the arrival of U.S. support troops and the formation of the U.S. Military Assistance Command. The United States involvement in the war was motivated by their desire to stop the spreading of communism (Vietnam War. . Thousands of men were sent to fight and lost their lives in a war that many thought was a costly mistake and that it was not the United State’s place to get involved (Vietnam War). The South’s resistance would fail and the North Vietnamese would take Saigon on April 30 1975. Vietnam would be reunified in