The Vietnam War and the Fragmentation of American Society
At the end of World War Two, Americans experienced a period of remarkable national consensus and of “fervent faith in American exceptionalism.” Despite having deployed atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which caused the excruciating deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, many Americans viewed their country as exceptionally benevolent in its treatment of others. As historian Christian Appy writes in American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity, American exceptionalism, the idea that America is a uniquely powerful and virtuous nation, was the “central tenet of […] American national identity.” The period of national consensus and of unquestioning faith in American …show more content…
The discrediting of American exceptionalism can be traced to several turning points during the war, namely, the My Lai massacre, the Tet Offensive, and the Fall of Saigon. In December 1969, Ronald Haeberle’s photographs of a horrendous massacre of Vietnamese villagers were published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. As details of the infamous My Lai massacre and the army’s cover-up emerged, many Americans were disenchanted by the revelation that American soldiers were responsible for the massacre of some 500 unarmed and unresisting villagers. Public outrage over the atrocity led to a military tribunal of dozens of soldiers from the Charlie Company. An immediate consequence of the trial was the further fragmentation of the American public into those who supported Lieutenant William Calley–the only soldier convicted at the tribunal–and those who were against him. In addition to dividing the American public, the My Lai massacre also fueled a national debate over the validity of American exceptionalism. For some, the events at My Lai drastically undermined the notion of American exceptionalism as it demonstrated that Americans were just as capable of committing atrocities as people of any other nation. They argued that “no nation had a monopoly on goodness, truth, honor, and mercy.” On the other hand, proponents of American exceptionalism generally emphasized that My Lai was a single incident and that atrocities are part of every war. In doing so, however, they inadvertently undermined the basic principle of American exceptionalism–for if all conflicts are capable of producing atrocities, then “how could the United States continue to regard itself as exceptionally
At the end of World War Two, Americans experienced a period of remarkable national consensus and of “fervent faith in American exceptionalism.” Despite having deployed atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which caused the excruciating deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, many Americans viewed their country as exceptionally benevolent in its treatment of others. As historian Christian Appy writes in American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity, American exceptionalism, the idea that America is a uniquely powerful and virtuous nation, was the “central tenet of […] American national identity.” The period of national consensus and of unquestioning faith in American …show more content…
The discrediting of American exceptionalism can be traced to several turning points during the war, namely, the My Lai massacre, the Tet Offensive, and the Fall of Saigon. In December 1969, Ronald Haeberle’s photographs of a horrendous massacre of Vietnamese villagers were published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. As details of the infamous My Lai massacre and the army’s cover-up emerged, many Americans were disenchanted by the revelation that American soldiers were responsible for the massacre of some 500 unarmed and unresisting villagers. Public outrage over the atrocity led to a military tribunal of dozens of soldiers from the Charlie Company. An immediate consequence of the trial was the further fragmentation of the American public into those who supported Lieutenant William Calley–the only soldier convicted at the tribunal–and those who were against him. In addition to dividing the American public, the My Lai massacre also fueled a national debate over the validity of American exceptionalism. For some, the events at My Lai drastically undermined the notion of American exceptionalism as it demonstrated that Americans were just as capable of committing atrocities as people of any other nation. They argued that “no nation had a monopoly on goodness, truth, honor, and mercy.” On the other hand, proponents of American exceptionalism generally emphasized that My Lai was a single incident and that atrocities are part of every war. In doing so, however, they inadvertently undermined the basic principle of American exceptionalism–for if all conflicts are capable of producing atrocities, then “how could the United States continue to regard itself as exceptionally