Vietnam and the End of the Liberal Era, Essay Example

Introduction

The outcomes of the bloody, horrible, long-lasting war in Vietnam are familiar for every intelligent individual, within and beyond the borders of the US. A powerful democracy intruded into the war that was doomed to defeat for all Europeans and Americans coming to the lands of Vietnam; thousands of people were dead and thousands more returned home crippled. They would never again get calmness and harmony of peaceful lives because of blood-freezing recollections of the Vietnamese’ cruelty and inhumane atrocities they conducted during the warfare.

The Vietnam War surely had an enormous set of outcomes, both on the social, economic and psychological level for Americans who never came across such inhumanity and blood-thirst. In comparison with the Pearl Harbor tragedy that marked the major part of victims during the Second World War, the Vietnam War represented a true massacre for inexperienced soldiers who came to the unknown land to perish for unknown goals. The US society that has just experienced the Cold war against the Soviet Union that was marked by strong ideology imposition, absence of any contacts and race of weapons was simply unable to perceive the necessity of the next war. More than that, the unlawful intrusion into the life of a newly-born Asian country was considered immoral by a certain part of the society.

From the 1964 announcement of Lyndon Johnson in favor of help to France in the war against the Vietnamese and their leader Ho Chi Minh marked the beginning of the years of horror, grief and warfare for the whole US society; it was fiercely conducted on the territory of the US, in the jungles of Vietnam and in the heart and mind of every separate citizen who had to understand whether he or she was for or against the invasion. The 1965 beginning of military actions brought about the irreversible consequences for the whole US nation that remain in the hearts of former soldiers, generals or journalists who witnessed the atrocities at the Vietnamese land, and in the hearts of parents, friends and spouses of those who did not return from the fatal jungles. The scope of influence of the Vietnam Era is very broad, so each particular sphere of the US life that was affected by it should be discussed separately.

Social and Cultural Changes Brought by the Vietnam Era  

It is impossible to exaggerate the changes caused by the Vietnam War on the social and cultural life of the US population. The first step to the social protest was made when through the introduction of the draft system calling young men who still did not get proper education and did not become mature enough to go to war. They went and died at the war their country did not need, so soon came the time when the society of the US recognized absence of necessity to burn and destroy the land which they initially wanted to protect, together with killing hundreds of Americans who did not even know why they were sent to Vietnam and what they fought for (Davidson et al., 2008).

The recognition of this fallacy led to the anti-war protests that had two aims: to stop bombing and destruction of Vietnam (there was a tremendous resonance on cruelties and massacre conducted by both sides on its territory) and to stop sending innocent young men to death without any visible reasons and purposes. The protests gained force and scale together with the war flow and the recognition of dramatic economic consequences of the war in Vietnam – inflation, further on stagflation and finally the energy crisis of 1973 resolved by Henry Kissinger ruined the perception of political power in the US (Davidson et al, 2008). The events that followed straight after the beginning of the war showed multiple defects in the policy of Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, which marked a huge social process of disenchantment in the political power (Davidson et al., 2008).

At the early stages of anti-war movement rise the most common form of the protest was to burn draft cards – these young men were called ‘card dodgers’ and publicly expressed their refusal to take part in that unlawful massacre (Schomp, 2001). Further on, protests gained power and scale – they involved people from all classes, of all professions and ages. However, that opinion was not unanimous; there also were some proponents of the war in Vietnam. They were mostly veterans of World War II who really considered communism a deadly menace and were ready to sacrifice thousands of young men of their country to stop the expansion of communist influence. Here one can see the roots of the world-famous generation gap phenomenon (Schomp, 2002).

The 1960s and 1970s brought about the innovative cultural phenomenon ‘sex, drugs, rock-n-roll’ that won the hearts of young men and women and marked the split of the nation into aggressive camps. The society was split, lost and disenchanted – everyone was occupied by the fight, either for the rights of African Americans, or for the rights of women, or for the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, or for several of those cultural trends. The country was looking for its way through the crisis, which proved to be extremely hard in the context of the aggravating economic crisis and inflation (Schomp, 2001).

One more aggravating social phenomenon that led to the drastic changes in the community’s perception of the power and themselves was the Civil Rights Movement initiated by Martin Luther King in the 1950s. As a result of the long-term oppression and discrimination by the white part of the population African-Americans who were free from slavery for more than a century still failed to get equal opportunities and access to equal welfare in the US with the whites. Some tragic cases with racial violence and segregation finally led to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement that was headed by Martin Luther King. This priest was an inspirer and activist of this movement for nearly a decade until he was assassinated in 1968. He opposed the Vietnam war fiercely, stating that the US should be more concerned with the war against poverty, racism and inequality at home than the war against communism abroad (Schomp, 2004).

Economic Changes Caused by the Vietnam War

Since Lyndon Johnson thought the country’s prosperity in 1965 reached the unrivaled level and no war would affect it, the Vietnam War was unleashed without proper economic considerations and planning. It does not cause any surprise judging from the fact that after World War II the USA was the richest, the most powerful country with the strongest economy (Schomp, 2001, p. xv). Americans enjoyed prosperity, acquired modern conveniences, appliances and overall welfare. “Baby boom” was the natural phenomenon resulting from economic and social welfare together with the governmentally imposed ideology of nuclear families instigating reproduction and child birth.

Along with the invasion to Vietnam the nation felt positive emotions – anti-communist feelings were still fresh in their minds, so they wanted to bring communist dominance to an end. However, three years passed, the cost of the Vietnam War continued to grow, requiring more soldiers, weapons and other resources, which inevitably caused inflation (Davidson et al., 2008).

Aggravation of the situation happened after the election of Nixon for the US Presidency. Despite much progressive action he conducted in the sphere of Vietnam seize-fire, Nixon also tried to pursue domestic welfare strategies initiated by Johnson (called “guns and butter”). Both fronts were not paid through tax increases and generated the economic stagflation. Such negative tendencies made Nixon turn to a series of reforms in the economic field including shifting more power from federal government to local authorities, initiation of “New Federalism” program, adoption of a series of environmental reforms etc. (Davidson et al., 2008). If Watergate scandal were not revealed, he would have been successful in his further career as the US President.

Continuing to fight stagflation, Nixon initiated tight wage and price control. However, further political instability, scandals and Nixon’s resignation led the nation deeper into the crisis. The energy crisis happened because of the Middle Eastern Arab countries’ boycott. Upon finishing any involvement in Vietnamese affairs the USA started to recover, though with the clear understanding of its limited power and economy being not that powerful (Davidson et al., 2008).

Despite the destructive influence of military financing that exhausted the USA and caused serious stagflation, there are arguments for the positive influence of Vietnam War on the US economy. The full employment program ensured sustainable conditions for the working class, shift of power to state authorities turned out to turned out highly beneficial, and governmental control introduced in the period of debilitating inflation still proves successful to a certain extent regarding the public welfare. Still, there is much to restore for the US including the external debt and ensuring prosperity for the nation, but positive seeds were sewn in the Vietnam era – this fact causes no doubts. The main governmental task now is to pursue them wisely and to avoid repetitions of Vietnam-like crises.

Political Changes in the US History

The beginning of tension was marked by the Cold War, the nuclear threat, anti-USSR aggression and races of armor conducted by the two superpowers. Anti-communist moods strengthened and the internal controversies together with the tight ideological control added to the overall hysteria. The US leaders were afraid of the potential communism gained, so they saw a significant menace in the Southeast Asia where intense fight against colonizers was conducted with the help of Communist forces. Eisenhower compared the countries of this region with a set of dominoes – it was enough to push one, and all of them would quickly fall (Schomp, 2001). For this reason it was impossible for the US to allow the establishment of the Communist reign in Vietnam, which served the main argument for intrusion into the war:

The decision to use US forces to defend South Vietnam was the culmination of 20 years of political and military actions by which the United States had become progressively involved in preventing Communist domination of Vietnam” (Gibbons, 1995, p. 2).

Surely, it is possible to say that Lyndon Johnson’s decision was a logical step due to close attention to Indochina for a long period of time (Kennedy’s interest to Laos, Eisenhower’s view of Indochina strategic importance, Truman’s approval of French dominance in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia etc.) However, it was Lyndon Johnson who declared the US participation in the war against Vietnam in 1965. The initial claim that justified the intrusion was to protect the Vietnamese from communist invaders and to establish democracy and freedom on the territory of the country. According to Johnson’s plan, the peaceful solution would be inevitable as soon as the US soldiers won the dominance over the territory of Vietnam, so no strict deadlines were established.

It took more than five years to understand the mistake and to seize it, returning the US soldiers home. The main contribution into the completion of the war was made by the next US President Richard Nixon who achieved the “vietnamization” of the war withdrawing the US troops and leaving the power in the hands of The South Vietnamese and the Iran Shah. These steps surely reduced the number of victims in Vietnam and initiated the beginning of the war end. However, this was done only after the inability of Nixon to pursue his policy of peaceful solution in Vietnam and aggravation of bombing despite his personal anti-war moods, and the imposition of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution governed by the intensifying public protest (Davidson et al., 2008).

The country that was unified by the feeling of common humanity began to realize the terror and uselessness of the war at which young, inexperienced soldiers died every day, and started to change their vision of the political power. The assassination of Kennedy who managed to make a step forward to peaceful settlement not only with the USSR but in Vietnam as well undermined the social belief in the political trustworthiness and power. However, the positive changes that the war brought are also numerous, despite the huge loss and drama that it caused for thousands of US families:

“US involvement in Vietnam – and the antiwar movement and other social causes inspired by it – also brought lasting change to the American home front. Many young people who had become politically active during the war years continued to work for a better society, through careers in politics or volunteer work in their local communities” (Schomp, 2001, p. 80).

Political activity was what the country really needed – the society still shocked and not restored after World War II and the Cold War were latent and passive, afraid of everything and unable to voice their opinion. However, the series of scandals and political revelations finally unveiled the dominance of political power in the USA, empowered the society and declared the beginning of the new era in the country:

“Just as dramatic were the changes in the way American see their nation and their government. Vietnam was the first war the United States lost. It shattered the widespread conviction that the US was so powerful that it could defeat any enemy and achieve any goal” (Schomp, 2001, p. 80).

Especially significant was the Watergate scandal that ended with the resignation of Nixon. The super-democracy that was proud of freedom of thought, expression, sacredness of privacy etc. proved to be as corrupted and rotten as any communist country they condemned. This deep disenchantment together with the civil rights movement of African Americans, the rise of feminism and other civil movements considerably loosened the ties the political power had over Americans and made them a much freer nation:

“Gone, too, was the American people’s blind faith in the honesty of their elected officials. The deceptions practiced during the war and the Watergate scandal that followed on its heels created a credibility gap – a doubt and mistrust of government – that has never been fully overcome” (Schomp, 2001, p. 80).

Conclusion

As it comes from the present paper and analysis of diverse changes that occurred in the US political, social, cultural and ideological life within the period of the Vietnam War, one can see that the United States experienced the profound effect of multiple civil movements and the unrivaled crisis that was unfamiliar for the US on the whole. The USA entered the war as a liberal, unified nation with the unified goal and transparent vision of the political power. The anti-communist moods led the country to the dead end from which it did not find exit for more than five years and which managed to destroy it from inside.

The scandals revealing the genuine essence of political leaders, the cruelty and inhumane massacre that took place in Vietnam and killed thousands of young American boys could not leave the nation indifferent. As a result, the period was marked by a set of deep social effects – the society that proclaimed equality, justice and prosperity appeared far from so ideal. Diverse movements such as the Civil Rights Movement, the feminist movement, the wild 1960s with sexual and drug abuse vividly illustrated how torn and split the nation was.

It is a proven fact that the main crisis came from the unexpected expenditures for the war and lack of governmental planning that was evident at its beginning. The reason for such pitfalls was the sacred belief in the power of the nation, in its being infallible and undefeatable. The sad truth revealed it was not so, and nowadays not all wounds of the Vietnam Era are still cured, giving people recollections and lessons to follow.

References

Davidson, J.W., Heyrman, C.L., Lytle, M.H., & Stoff, M.B. (2008). Nation of Nations, Volume II: Since 1865 : A Narrative History of the American Republic.McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Schomp, V. (2004). The Vietnam Era. Marshall Cavendish.

Gibbons, W.C. (1995). The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships. Vol. IV. Princeton University Press.

Schomp, V. (2002). The Vietnam War. Marshall Cavendish.