The Vietnam War: The Seventies In The United States

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The Vietnam War was one of the most controversial wars America has ever been involved in. Our nation was divided into two bodies who argued the sanity of the other. Televisions and radios covered every inch of the war, from our soldiers to their families at home. Overseas our troops fought alongside Democratic South Vietnam to not only protect Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh and the growing communist threat, but to also put an end to the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia, as or postulated by the domino theory. The sixties and the seventies were a time of change, especially in the United States. Racial segregation flooded the south, this caused many problems not only in the southern states but in all states. Protests such as the March …show more content…
The two opposing forces were Democratic South Vietnam and the Communist North Vietnam. The Communist North fought to cut American ties to the South and the South fought to defend themselves from dictatorship. On August 2nd, 1964 The United States Maddox ship was docked in the Tonkin Gulf, when it was struck by a torpedo. After this and two other attacks were reported, our president Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on open seas and began airstrikes immediately. After the United States stepped in to assist South Vietnam, the fighting mainly occurred between North Vietnam and their Ho Chin Minh militia against the United States of America. The conflict ended when South Vietnam surrendered and fell to communism. Communism is described in Webster’s dictionary as “a political theory advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.” Communism was a very popular concept during this time period, thus the basis of the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory was first mentioned by Dwight D. Eisenhower in an effort to explain an idea where one communist country can influence another, which can influence another, and so on. This theory is often used to describe Eastern Asian countries and can explain why four of the five active communist countries today are in the Eastern Asian region. After the war and the falling of South Vietnam, the United States soldiers returned home to American soil, surprised to find bitter citizens. Unfortunately, because of American’s attitudes toward the war, many veterans arrived to divorced marriages, disrespect on the streets, and even in the worst cases, homelessness. Citizens used these soldiers as scapegoats for their anger at what they assumed was an unreasonable war for America to be involved in. A majority of United States citizens refused to

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