vietnam veterans against the war statement?

Question

"vietnam veterans against the war statement". Summarize Us entry into the vietnam war and the rise of the anti-war movement. how did the war itself fit within US cold war policy in general? How did th anti-war movement challenge that policy? and finally, in your opinion, what were some fot he lessons learned as a result of this war?

Answer 1

The organization is still around, fighting against the current folly in Iraq. Here is their website:
http://www.vvaw.org/

Wikipedia has some good background history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Against_the_War

Answer 2

Vietnam was a place divided for years long before American soldiers began arriving. The US had soldiers (mostly military advisers) starting as early as 1950. In 1956, the US military assumed control over training the S. Vietnamese Army from the French. Starting in 1965, the US began actively participating in the conflict in support of the S.Vietnamese.

By the end of the war and estimated 1,000,000 soldiers had died on both sides of the conflict with a further 1,000,000 civilians begin killed on both sides as the war raged throughout the region. After the war was over in 1975, with the fall of Saigon, a further 2,000,000 people were killed in a frenzied bloodbath that lasted nearly five years.

In 1967, the VVAW was founded by six veterans as a tax-exempt organization forwarding the idea that we needed to pullout. One of the more notable spokesmen for the group came with John Kerry testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It is now widely recognized that Sen. John Kerry did not actually deserve the medals given to him in Vietnam and much controversy surrounds his actions (or lack thereof) in Vietnam. Some of his former 'boat mates' have come forward to testify that he was not there on the days in question and that he should never have received the medals back after he threw them away on April 23 of that year.

There has much debated about this war, but from a soldiers perspective the comparison is simple.

Vietnam War;
58,000 American soldiers killed (230,000 more S. Vietnamese)
600,000 enemy soldiers killed (65% were N. Vietnamese)
1,000,000 civilians killed (mostly killed by the Communists)
2,000,000 civilians killed after were gone

"OIF"; Operation Iraqi Freedom
2,948 American soldiers killed (6,694 Iraqi Army/ Police)
6,370 Insurgents (some 'foreigners' from Iran/ Syria/ Egypt)
150,000 civilians killed (mostly by insurgents)
750,000 civilians killed by J.H. study (mostly by insurgents)


If we use the two as a comparison, the region will descend into a bloodbath the moment we pull out unless a stable government can stop the two factions from killing each other. In this region, Sunni and Shi'a are at war with each other. This is NOT a Civil War, but a religious conflict like that in Serbia not a decade before. It is religious genocide in a war over which one interprets the Qu'ran correctly.

Answer 3

The one lesson to be learned from the VVAW is before you listen to one ask to see his DD-214. VVAW = Liars club