how did the feeling towards the vietnam war change as it progressed?

Answer 1

negatively

Answer 2

Your question is to open, meaning are you asking the person who was just going to Vietnam or the person that just returned or the person going back for a second tour. Are you asking the college students of that time or the draft dodgers? Are you asking the people that only read the papers and believed what they read or the people that really new what was going on? Each will give you a different perspective and most changed their view over time and even today if you do real honest research on the Vietnam War you would be very surprised at the disinformation being feed from the news services as well as from our own government. It was a long WAR not a conflict, a lot of people died, over 56 thousand Americans more then 1millon on the other side and we did stop the communist expansion of Asia. But was it worth it??

Answer 3

I wasn't there but, I was in high school and planning to enlist as soon as possible after graduation. The war ended before I could graduate in 1976.
From my perspective it was an obviously tough fight, much tougher than Desert Storm. Our troops lost the PR campaign, not the actual fight. I agree that after the Tet offensive, Cronkite aided the NVA . In the documentary "The Ten thousand Day War", NVA General Vo Nguyen Giap stated that after Tet of 1968, the NVA and the civillian leadership of North Vietnam were planning on seeking a peace deal but Cronkite and the peace movement in the US convinced them to keep fighting.

In 1975, the NVA attacked on a wholly conventional strategy and were vulnerable to US airstrikes but our Congress denied any use of any American military force to intervene. President Ford wanted to intervene but was prevented from doing so. The fall of Saigon was an enormous boost for the Soviet Union then. The Democratic party was the best ally the Soviet Union ever had.

Answer 4

I was only 16 when my father and older brothers went to Viet Nam in 66; by late 69 I was there. Yeah, my feelings toward war in general changed pretty significantly.

People talk about war as if it is a movie to go and see or a ball game to participate in; it is neither. War is a way of life while you are in it. If you learn to be in that environment you have a pretty good chance of not only surviving but also have an opportunity to move forward within yourself.

The Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians and Chinese, (not a typo), like most poverty ridden countries, have lived war for hundreds if not thousands of years. Trying to explain war to somebody that has not lived it is like trying to explain to an Eskimo what living in South Africa is like. Showing pictures and having people talk about "their" experiences gives an imaginary look at the environment but never completes the picture.

The South African bushman leads a much different life than the South African city dweller. The Iowa farmer leads a different life than the Chicago urbanite and even among Chicagoans; the slum resident has a different life than the million dollars a year businessman.

Why do you think that men, women and children fight, kill and die? It is certainly not for politics or, usually, even religion but rather because it is a way of life for them. This is why the US can never win a police action like Korea, Viet Nam or the Middle East campaigns. We are trying to change a way of life for these people and it just can’t be done.

Sorry I ramble but the action in the Middle East will fail because the people that live there do not want peace. Just like in Viet Nam, they know no other way of life. Preaching and badmouthing the US government isn’t helping either. The people of the US believe that they are doing good or the soldiers wouldn’t be there. We need to bind together and become a strong nation once again because I guarantee you, we will have a battle to fight on our soil before your children have children.

God Bless and help America find her way.

Answer 5

After TET Americans realized they had been lied to and that we were involved in a Civil War. Draftees were being sent there and morale plummeted. By 1970 it was obvious the French Quisling Government in Saigon was so unpopular that it would have fallen if there were no Communists.
After the US Forces left it was just counting the days.

Just like Iraq.

Answer 6

They same as it is going now. We are up to our a>>es in alligators when our initial mission was to drain the swamp. We were thought of as a ship without a rudder. To many lives being lost. To many activist getting involved, turned the whole scenario sour. Pressure to get out before more lives were lost.

Answer 7

It depended on whether or not you listened to the Communists as to what your feelings were and how they changed.