For those who were old enough during the Vietnam War...did it seem like an endless prospect while you were..?

Question

living it like the Middle East problems do now? Did you have a feeling it would never end...and what did it feel like when it did? Was it an amazing feeling? I was born in 1967 so was really unaware of what was transpiring overseas....

Thanks..just looking for a little first person opinion on the subject..and wondering if our current situation will ever be concluded...and what it will feel like when this is, if ever, over, and America turns its attention again to domestic things...

Answer 1

I graduated from high school in1965, out of my graduating class of 106 three very nice boys were killed in Nam. At the time it felt like it would never end. It actually took more courage t0 admit that it wa an utter and horrible mistake for us to be there and pull our troops out than it took to go in the first place. There was a lot of Anti-war feeling expressed in peace rallies and marches. The one thing that seems to be better this time is there is more recognition that we need to show support for the troops who are doing their jobs and risking their lives even if we do not support the war. There wasn't really an amazing feeling when we pulled out, it was more a sense of relief that no one else was going to die or be injured. In my opinion the United States needs to quit thinking it can and even more has the right to tell other nations how to live.

Answer 2

I was 13 in 68 - when my first boyfriend died stepping on a land mine. I have to say, it did seem like an endless thing. Especially if we wanted to "win" it. They seemed to have endless people to throw out there, as if it didn't matter what happened to any of them. You ask what it felt like when it ended? For me it was a feeling of shame and sorrow, that so many lives were wasted and in the end, there wasn't much result - except a whole generation was messed up one way or another. I still feel the grief I felt at 13 when I heard about Michael's death. And for those who have lost someone who matters to them, the domestic things weren't the same at all - and a lot of us didn't bother to go back to them, which I see as kind of what's wrong with us now. There was also a small feeling of elation at the end - that people you knew who hadn't yet been killed, might get to come home and live the lives they should have had - if they could forget - even a little - the things that they saw and did over there.

Answer 3

So someone says that a lot of young men joined the Navy to keep out of combat. I joined the Navy because that is what I always wanted to do. Did I avoid combat, no. I spent my time in Vietnam delivering 500 pound bombs to all the cities on the coast, Saigon (which is up a canal), and Can Tho, which is 200+ miles up the Mekong and 250 miles W of Saigon. We went through the very active Mekong Delta so many times that I feel more at home there than I do on the banks of the Tennessee River where I was born.

98% of all materials needed in Vietnam were brought on ships, most of which were Navy ships. When we first went into Danang, we were under fire, Chu Lai also, Qui Nhon, up the Mekong Delta.

Answer 4

Yeah, the Vietnam war drug on and on, and, if you can imagine, it was far more unpopular than what's happening now. There were numerous accusations of collusion with the weapons manufacturers, there were protests, marches, guys fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft, other guys publicly burning their draft cards, all going on almost daily. Then, after all that, there were mixed feelings about it's being over, about the way it ended. It turned out to be and ignominious defeat with absolutely nothing having been accomplished. Sadder still, despite all the furore to have the troops home, people shunned them and cursed them for supposedly committing atrocities or simply having participated in what was considered an immoral war. Vietnam was anything but an event in American history to be proud of.

Answer 5

I was born in 66, so I was too young to remember much except attending a peace rally with my parents. I would like to thank you, however, for a very good question. I love the well thought out answers, and I learned a lot, so I'd also like to thank those people (except no. 1, he's not old enough).

Answer 6

It was much much worse, because of the draft.
Lots of late teens enlisted in the Navy rather than get drafted into one of the services where you were more likely to become a ground soldier (read: casualty).
All teenagers breathed a sigh of relief when it ended!

I am fortunate. I was too young to be drafted, and too old to have to register for the draft when that came.

Answer 7

I graduated from high school in 1971 and Vietnam seemed like it was always there and would never end. I was certain that I was
doomed to die in Nam and that my death would be for nothing.
Fortunately despite Nixon I survived.

Answer 8

In some ways it was the same and in some ways it was different. It was the same in the sense that we were fighting an enemy that was against the U.S. and wanted us out of their country. It was different in the sense that we are fighting a different kind of enemy. Yes they are against the U.S. and want us out of their country, but they also want to control the rest of the world.

Answer 9

well sonny, it seemed very scary at first but then it became very contriversial because we were sent home don't ever vote people to be sent home. it pisses off the soldiers