Reasons Against US Involvement In Vietnam

In the 1960s, the movement against US involvement in Vietnam began with a group of peace activists and intellectuals on college campuses. It gained national attention in 1965, when the US started bombing North Vietnam even more. The vast majority of the American people still supported the US involvement in the Vietnam war, but by the end of 1965, a small, outspoken, liberal minority was making its voice heard within the US. Most of this minority included college students, members of the hippie movement, artists, and a growing number of young adults who rejected authority and were more or less rebels to the American culture. The Vietnam war seemed to divide the US into two groups. One was the Hawks; the hawks believed that because of the aggression in North Vietnam, it forced US into the war. The other group was the Doves; they believed that the problem in Vietnam was a civil war, and that the US had no right to be involved in their conflict. The doves also thought that the US was spending too much money on a war, when the money could be used for much better things. …show more content…
Throughout the course of the war, nearly 60,000 men were killed-in-action, over 150,000 were wounded, and some 1,600 went missing. Along with the cost of human life, the war itself cost over $173 billion. Benefits for veterans and interest would add another $250 billion to that cost. A lot of Americans looked at these costs and wondered why the US was involved in such a costly war. There was also a question of the morality of the Vietnam war. Innocent Vietnamese peasants were being killed in the crossfire between the North and the South. There was also environmental damage caused by American planes dropping defoliating chemicals onto the