When studying past events in history, a common theme tends to come up, wars. Wars have been a part of nearly every country’s history and can change the entire position of a nation. From internal conflicts to external threats, nations will get involved in wars in order to help themselves, help other countries for moral reasons, or just feel as if another country is a threat. As a result of war playing out in a country, it can destroy one’s infrastructure, cause innocent civilians to die, negatively impact one’s economy, or expand or decrease territory (based on motives). In taking history, when going over wars most people tend to focus on the reasons for war, strategies to win the war, battles the had an impact, important figures, and the overall
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These residents rely on the media’s coverage to keep up with what they believe are facts and base their opinion off what they have accessible. When a country goes to war, these people play a part in the war effort because they can boost morale and help keep the fighting spirit alive. Throughout recent history as more news has become more accessible, media outlets have been known to misrepresent, oppose, or blatantly show the honest truth in controversial events in order to spark a reaction and the Vietnam War is a perfect example of this. The Vietnam War will go down as one of the most devastating series of events in American history, which led to the distrust of the government and loss of national pride in the military. Opposing views in the media would contribute to this legacy because it influenced attitudes that would lead to …show more content…
needed an actual reason to get involved and the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a big part of formally declaring war against North Vietnam. The United States sent economic aid and weapons to help the South Vietnamese and French to fight off the communist rebels, they also sent over more military advisors to help set up self-defense. What some of these operations that the military advisors were teaching included training South Vietnamese sailors to attack radar stations, bridges, and other targets that could have been a threat located around the North Vietnamese coast. In the early hours of July 31, 1964, U.S patrol boats made an act of aggression on two Vietnamese islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. After hearing of the possible threat, The Maddox headed to the area of the attack to patrol only to be facing three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. That following day, the U.S destroyer Turner Joy was sent to reinforce the Maddox and in days following President Johnson would order air strikes against the North Vietnamese boat bases after Maddox and Turner Joy had been ambushed. After the fact, Johnson’s administration described the attacks as unprovoked, and one almost certainly never occurred. In private, Johnson expressed doubts about the whole incident and told a State Department official that, “Those dumb, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish!” (History.com, Greenspan). Captain Forrest L. Zetterberg, a pilot during the Vietnam War relives
These residents rely on the media’s coverage to keep up with what they believe are facts and base their opinion off what they have accessible. When a country goes to war, these people play a part in the war effort because they can boost morale and help keep the fighting spirit alive. Throughout recent history as more news has become more accessible, media outlets have been known to misrepresent, oppose, or blatantly show the honest truth in controversial events in order to spark a reaction and the Vietnam War is a perfect example of this. The Vietnam War will go down as one of the most devastating series of events in American history, which led to the distrust of the government and loss of national pride in the military. Opposing views in the media would contribute to this legacy because it influenced attitudes that would lead to …show more content…
needed an actual reason to get involved and the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a big part of formally declaring war against North Vietnam. The United States sent economic aid and weapons to help the South Vietnamese and French to fight off the communist rebels, they also sent over more military advisors to help set up self-defense. What some of these operations that the military advisors were teaching included training South Vietnamese sailors to attack radar stations, bridges, and other targets that could have been a threat located around the North Vietnamese coast. In the early hours of July 31, 1964, U.S patrol boats made an act of aggression on two Vietnamese islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. After hearing of the possible threat, The Maddox headed to the area of the attack to patrol only to be facing three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. That following day, the U.S destroyer Turner Joy was sent to reinforce the Maddox and in days following President Johnson would order air strikes against the North Vietnamese boat bases after Maddox and Turner Joy had been ambushed. After the fact, Johnson’s administration described the attacks as unprovoked, and one almost certainly never occurred. In private, Johnson expressed doubts about the whole incident and told a State Department official that, “Those dumb, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish!” (History.com, Greenspan). Captain Forrest L. Zetterberg, a pilot during the Vietnam War relives