paper 4

- Sorry it was late my computer crashed, but my rough draft was saved so i had to get it fixed and the file recovered in order to post it because i didnt want to lose my work and start over.

Mike Tramontelli 3/31/09
AMST 072W Prof. Palmer

Was the Vietnam War Fought in Order to Protect Freedom or Impose it?

Soldiers as well as the American people seemed to be searching for the real reason why the United States of America was fighting Vietnam War. American soldiers came to Vietnam knowing the dangers and possible imminent destruction that they might encounter while fighting in South East Asia. These young men were scared out of their minds when they arrived and hated the experienced so much that some soldiers even keep a mental journal about how many days they had left in Vietnam. In a biographical account of the Vietnam war, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box me up and Ship me Home written by Tim O’Brien, soldiers kept track of the days that they’d have to be in Vietnam. Many of the brave soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War didn’t choose to travel to Asia to fight for our country; Uncle Sam chose them himself. The Vietnam War was fought in some of the most turbulent years of the Cold War and the United States couldn’t look weak, so the US was forced into the war in order to stop the spread of communism as well as to keep face as a national power on the global scale. The main connection that can be made historically with most of the perennial powerful nations is their plethora of accessible resources. The idea of consumption plays a major role in the Vietnam War because America consumed a great deal of its resources in order to fight in this war. Resources are not limited to natural resources such as coal, potable water, and lumber but people as well. America was a cold-blooded country that would do anything it could in order to keep face. Tim O’Brien wants reader to realize that even though on the outside the government wanted to keep the Vietnam war going in order to quell communism, the factual reality was that the US wanted to keep its omniscient status even though the American citizens themselves had to endure damages that the government would have classified as “expenditures”.
“My real problem is one of conscience and philosophy and intellect and emotion and fear and physical hurt and a desire to live chastened by a desire to be good, and also, underneath, a desire to prove myself a hero, I explained in the broadest terms, what troubled me” (O’Brien 57). Many of the soldiers didn’t even know why they were drafted, fighting the war, or even the underlying reason for America fighting but they still had to fight even though deception and lies, perpetuated by the US government, shrouded their comprehension. It was known that America has been considered the nation that stepped in when others had problems, but the reality of the Vietnam War was that America didn’t know what it was up against. The war was fought on foreign soil, thousands of miles away in a land that very few Americans had even visited, but that didn’t stop the government from having a quarter of its military fight this war (O’Brien). This one fact embodies how America viewed consumption because the USA would let one fourth of its military fight a war that it may not win. The American military was very strong and had an exponential amount more resources, but the reason why the American military was at a tactical disadvantage was the fact the Vietcong knew the terrain. This didn’t stop the American soldiers from pushing on without any regard for the safety of its own people. The US was willing to endure the death of thousands of its soldiers in order to advance its position. Moreover, the US didn’t only consume resources of its military; the United States Army consumed the resources of the people and land of Vietnam.
“With daybreak, Captain Johansen and the artillery lieutenant walked over and found a man with a bullet hole in his head. There were no weapons. The dead man carried a pouch of papers, some rice, tobacco, canned fish, and he wore a blue-green uniform.” (O’Brien 98). The tactics used by the American military had one main goal, kill as many Vietcongs. It didn’t seem to matter that the conventional way of fighting over in Vietnam had total disregard for life. If soldiers died during the war then it is considered fine because it is a war and the same idea carried over for the Vietnamese people. The military would use napalm, airplane bombings, gun barrages, as well as any other explosive device it had in order to quell the Vietcong. However, this meant that many Vietnamese people suffered casualties because of the lack of morality and decency displayed by the American military. In addition, many soldiers stated that they couldn’t tell the soldiers and civilians apart. They wore the same uniforms, lived in similar areas, and since there was no apparent age requirement to be a Vietnamese soldier, the person’s age couldn’t be a deciding factor. Many American soldiers were order to kill on sight even though they didn’t know if the person was a soldier or civilian. Furthermore, the countless foxholes where Vietcongs hid proved to be a massive hindrance on the eradication of the Vietcong and the advancement by the military. The military was scared that if it had advanced too far that the Vietcong hiding in the foxholes could secretly surround many soldiers. So as a result, the commanding officers ordered many late-night ambushes of the foxholes by the infantry. The military sent in the lowest, youngest, and most inexperienced soldiers to figure out whether there were either a series of mines or camouflaged soldiers waiting for them when they came down. Apparently, the lives of the young men in this country seem to be worthless due to the simple fact that the higher ranking official didn’t go underground probing for danger and maybe have to suffer what a less important soldier would. It seems that O’Brien wanted the reader to understand that every military action was well thought out and the potential costs and benefits were examined very carefully.