Privilege is a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular group of people. The United States is what most people would consider a very privileged people. However, most of us do not think that is so. That is because we do not get what we want the moment we ask it. If only we could really see how privileged we are because other people in this world suffer so much. Like the quote that says if the whole world will throw away all their problems into one pile everyone would grab their own problems. That is because there are people with far worse problems in the world. The question that I am asking is how did the Vietnam War affect your view on being a privileged person? How does one answer such a broad question?
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The Vietnam War started because the United States wanted to contain Communism. Communism had become a wide spread movement across the globe. However, the main reason for this war was the conflict between Vietnam and France. After World War II the Vietnamese were sick of the French occupying where they lived. The French were a cruel people to the Vietnamese. A great number of Vietnamese did not have an adequate amount of food. Also, taxes were multiplied which most Vietnamese could not pay. Ho Chi Minh came back to Vietnam after almost spending thirty years away. He started the Viet Minh, which their main goal was taking back Vietnam for themselves. Minh gained support from northern Vietnam and established a new government called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. This was on September 2nd, 1945. The French were unwilling to give up what they thought was theirs. Minh turned to the United States hoping that they would ally themselves with Vietnam. However, the United States was intent on keeping to its containment policy. The United States was afraid that Minh would become powerful, so the United States combined with France to take down the Viet Minh. France had a startling defeat in Dien Bien Pho, so they decided to cut their losses. However, the United States interest was just getting started. In 1954, the Geneva Conference was held in hopes that France could somehow find a way to peacefully withdraw from Vietnam. They came up with …show more content…
This book backs up what Mr. Pugh was talking about. For example, Frederik Logevall talks about how Ho Chi Minh was talking about his country. Ho Chi Minh was trying to make a case for France to leave Vietnam. “We live in the blackest ignorance because we don’t have the freedom of instruction. In Indochina, they do their best to intoxicate us with opium and brutalize us with alcohol. They kill many thousands [Vietnamese] and massacre thousands of others to defend interests that are not theirs” (Logevall 12). Logevall goes on the explain about how peasants were treated poorly and were not considered important. “With their urban roots and middle-class concerns, party leaders tended to adopt a nonchalant attitude toward the issues vital to Vietnamese peasants, such as land hunger, government corruption, and high taxes” (Logevall 18). Things just kept getting worse for Vietnamese peasants because no one was fighting for them. The French and Japanese hoarded rice from the Vietnamese. March 9th turned into a day of terror for the Vietnamese when the Japanese seized France’s stocks. “Meanwhile poor villages in the north were succumbing by the thousands. In many areas, streets were littered with dying peasants, and oxcarts filled with corpses were a common site. Families roamed from village to village, hoping to find grain. Or they retreated to their homes, shared the few remaining morsels, and died
The Vietnam War started because the United States wanted to contain Communism. Communism had become a wide spread movement across the globe. However, the main reason for this war was the conflict between Vietnam and France. After World War II the Vietnamese were sick of the French occupying where they lived. The French were a cruel people to the Vietnamese. A great number of Vietnamese did not have an adequate amount of food. Also, taxes were multiplied which most Vietnamese could not pay. Ho Chi Minh came back to Vietnam after almost spending thirty years away. He started the Viet Minh, which their main goal was taking back Vietnam for themselves. Minh gained support from northern Vietnam and established a new government called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. This was on September 2nd, 1945. The French were unwilling to give up what they thought was theirs. Minh turned to the United States hoping that they would ally themselves with Vietnam. However, the United States was intent on keeping to its containment policy. The United States was afraid that Minh would become powerful, so the United States combined with France to take down the Viet Minh. France had a startling defeat in Dien Bien Pho, so they decided to cut their losses. However, the United States interest was just getting started. In 1954, the Geneva Conference was held in hopes that France could somehow find a way to peacefully withdraw from Vietnam. They came up with …show more content…
This book backs up what Mr. Pugh was talking about. For example, Frederik Logevall talks about how Ho Chi Minh was talking about his country. Ho Chi Minh was trying to make a case for France to leave Vietnam. “We live in the blackest ignorance because we don’t have the freedom of instruction. In Indochina, they do their best to intoxicate us with opium and brutalize us with alcohol. They kill many thousands [Vietnamese] and massacre thousands of others to defend interests that are not theirs” (Logevall 12). Logevall goes on the explain about how peasants were treated poorly and were not considered important. “With their urban roots and middle-class concerns, party leaders tended to adopt a nonchalant attitude toward the issues vital to Vietnamese peasants, such as land hunger, government corruption, and high taxes” (Logevall 18). Things just kept getting worse for Vietnamese peasants because no one was fighting for them. The French and Japanese hoarded rice from the Vietnamese. March 9th turned into a day of terror for the Vietnamese when the Japanese seized France’s stocks. “Meanwhile poor villages in the north were succumbing by the thousands. In many areas, streets were littered with dying peasants, and oxcarts filled with corpses were a common site. Families roamed from village to village, hoping to find grain. Or they retreated to their homes, shared the few remaining morsels, and died