Before watching this video I knew of some of the controversies regarding the Vietnamese war. However, I did not know of the extreme amount of chaos and social uprising that this war brought about. I was unaware that similar to WWI and WWII that men between the ages of 18-26 were forced to enlist and of those men only the ones of lesser intelligence were forced to go. This caused anger throughout the college youth and a feeling of injustice which sparked rioting at universities, rioting at major metropolitan cities, as well as violence against police and military officials. Many people did not believe in the war we were fighting halfway across the world which created this unrest amongst military-aged men and citizens of the United States. This caused extreme division against citizens of the United States and caused anger amongst the man deployed and why they were forced to fight when these other men were not obligated to do so.
I did some further research on this topic and discovered that Vietnamese women, as well as children, were forced to fight in the war as well. This caused again extreme unrest amongst American citizens and as long as US soldiers were being sent into Vietnam to fight Vietnamese women, as well as children, would continue to fight. It made me question what my actions would have been if I was a college-aged student during this time period. Would I have protested or would I have served my country in Vietnam? This also calls into question the psychological principle of mob mentality where people take actions they would not usually take if their identity was known because there are no immediate repercussions.
I definitely thought of the moral controversy as well– would I protest or would I serve– and it’s interesting because there were plenty of people (i.e. poor, uneducated, often African American) who did not have the choice. The draft favored white, educated men and if they had college degrees or were married, they would be deferred.
I also agree that mob mentality is a large factor of the Vietnam War protests, but understandably. How can one not be highly emotional and act out while being oppressed on such a large scale.
I vaguely remember learning in high school that Vietnamese women and children were forced to fight. I can’t imagine what is must have felt like as a US soldier knowing that you were fighting children.