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Discussion board posting 3a: Review the lesson plan: Events and People of the Vietnam War and then without consulting any other resources, (other than your own knowledge), post a description of what you know about the events and people of the Vietnam War.

So, this is a cool exercise. It is very hard for me not to peek. Here goes:

The Vietnam War took place from about 65 to about 74. I was born around the time it ended. LBJ got us in there (because I know it wasn't Kennedy), and I believe Ford got us out (because it wasn't Nixon or Carter).

Communism was spreading throughout Asia, and in Vietnam it reached a level that US authorities perceived to be threatening. So, we invaded Vietnam with the intention of quelling the communist movement and establishing a democratic government. The propaganda machine was in full effect, and dissenters such as Jane Fonda were censured harshly by the government and these rebukes were probably reinforced by many of the American people--at first. I suspect that it became harder to keep convincing Americans that this was a just cause. I think by 1970 serious questions were starting to come up, and by the very end, many people could see the futility of the effort.

Over our ~ten years there, we slowly crept up from the south, claiming bits of territory as we went (but ultimately without the sense of success), and we had military installations in cities such as Saigon and Denang. The Viet Cong, soldiers of the Communist party, were excellent in tactics of guerilla warfare, which was something that baffled our troops. In dense jungles rife with underground tunnels, the Viet Cong could move undetected. In an effort to get an advantage over the "enemy" in the foliage, we used such technologies as agent orange to defoliate the trees. This would have terrible effects on the health of people exposed to it.

From the several Vietnam war movies I have watched, I get the sense that soldiers found the war purposeless. Many soldiers found some solace from the horrors of war in using drugs such as heroin and marijuana and in visiting brothels in the cities.

The Vietnam War was probably the first to be televised in a current fashion, similar to what we have now with our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The number of casualties on the American side was extraordinary. And I really want to look it up, but true to this task, I won't. I believe it was around 500,000 American lives lost. I am not sure how many Vietnamese died at our hands, but I would think it was just as many.

We left Vietnam in disgust, really. We weren't certain that we had achieved much of anything.