The Controversies Of The Vietnam War

When one thinks about America’s history of conflict, the Vietnam War is extremely likely to come to mind due to the fact that it has claimed the spot of the nation’s longest war. It may also suggest itself because it is the only foreign war in our nation’s history that ended in a defeat for the United States, making it somewhat unpopular among the nation. What one may not consider, however, are the hardships, controversies, and the lives of the people, both the soldiers and the families they left behind, affected by this war. One of the biggest controversies about the Vietnam War was the draft of young citizens to fight the communist armies. According to an article titled “Vietnam-Era Draft”, many people argued that it was unjust to force people, especially those of such a young age, to …show more content…
Unlike previous wars where cities held huge homecoming parades and hung banners for the returns of their loved ones, the soldiers who came home from Vietnam were hardly greeted at all. “The thing that just plain ticked me off was when I was arriving home from the war, there was a big crowd … screaming and chanting at us: "WOMEN KILLERS! BABY KILLERS!" They were throwing things at us. It made me so mad because they didn 't know what we had been through, what we had dealt with. All I wanted was to be out of that uniform” said Jimmy, a veteran of the Vietnam War when being interviewed by his high school aged niece (“Vietnam War”). It is no shock after reviewing all of these testimonies and facts that the Vietnam War was named to be the most unpopular United States foreign war of all time. This resulted in the nation’s public to pretend like it never happened- the public tried to forget the war ever happened and, sadly, they tried to forget all the soldiers who bravely fought for the cause against