{"id":1729,"date":"2019-11-17T13:45:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T18:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/?p=1729"},"modified":"2019-11-17T13:45:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T18:45:56","slug":"the-vietnam-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/2019\/11\/17\/the-vietnam-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vietnam War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before watching this video, I understood that the Vietnam War was a highly contested, extremely divisive moment in American history. I had heard about the shooting at Kent State and the enormous role students took in the protests. One thing I wasn\u2019t taught in school was the way the draft targeted specific populations. By getting married or going to college, men would be deferred from the draft, leaving those without the means to do so vulnerable. It also led to a disproportionate amount of young black Americans being killed in a war many of the troops fighting didn\u2019t even believe in, as evidenced by them throwing away their medals during protests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing I didn\u2019t understand was the government – particularly Nixon\u2019s – role in fostering division among the American people. When Nixon took office, he promised a quick, peaceful end to the war and removal of American troops from Vietnam. However, within the year following his inauguration he had not only not ended American involvement in Vietnam, but further increased it in what many viewed as an invasion of Cambodia. He also actively pitted anti-war protesters against those who supported it by calling those in favor of the war \u201cpatriots\u201d and using derogatory terms for those who were against it. He added to this by defending the National Guard who open fired on college students merely using their right to protest. I knew Nixon because of his later mistakes as president, but learning this about him made me think about the president\u2019s role in our country. Not only should they be transparent about their actions and follow through on their word – things Nixon didn\u2019t do – but they should also work towards peace among the American people instead of quite literally the opposite. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before watching this video, I understood that the Vietnam War was a highly contested, extremely divisive moment in American history. I had heard about the…<\/p>\n

Continue readingThe Vietnam War<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4446,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4446"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}