Good Morning, Vietnam:

Sorry We Were Ever There

Emily Stevens

HIST 1700: American Civilizations

September 29, 2020

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America joining the Vietnam War was an event in US history that many Americans, both

back in the sixties and today, would agree should have never happened. To start, many would

argue that the Vietnam War was more of a civil war that created distrust in the American

government and a divide across the country, sort of like what we see today with far left-wingers

and far right-wingers. When America first entered the war in 1965, it was a time of peace and

love.1 The fact that it was at this time America entered Vietnam could almost be considered as

scandalous. Another reason the US should not have joined the war is because it destroyed the

future of our country at that time. Mere boys were being drafted into the war. The most

important people in any country are those that are getting married and having children. Instead of

this age group actually getting married, having children, and becoming a real part of society, they

had to fight in a war where they died or were terribly injured (both mentally and physically). The

American people were lied to by several presidents: from Truman to Ford [ CITATION

USA17 \l 1033 ].2 While researching more about the Vietnam War, I came to the conclusion that

the overall reason America even became involved in the first place was because of the fear that if

Vietnam became a communist country, then communism would spread throughout Asia and

continue spreading around the globe. The U.S. intervened, even if it shouldn’t have, and it led to

an awful, bloody war.

There were more than 58,000 Americans that died during the Vietnam War [ CITATION

USA17 \l 1033 ].2 Those that managed to survive and return to America came home to a divided

1
. History.com Editors. “Vietnam War Timeline.” History.com. A&E Television Networks,
September 13, 2017. https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-timeline.

. “Vietnam War: 6 Personal Essays Describe the Sting of a Tragic Conflict.” USA
2

Today. (Gannett Satellite Information Network, September 15, 2017), Par. 1.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/09/11/vietnam-war-voices/105499474/.
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country that shunned the poor soldiers who fought in Vietnam. One veteran, Roger Harris,

remembers that when he first arrived in America trying to get to Roxbury, New York, where he

lived, six taxicabs passed him by as he was wearing his green uniform that was decorated with

ribbons and metals he had earned while serving in Vietnam. This is certainly not the only veteran

that experienced prejudice and discrimination after coming home from the tragedies of the

Vietnam War. Kent State protesters set the college campus’ ROTC building on fire to protest the

war.3 And an ROTC student William Knox Schroeder, was shot on his way to class.

[ CITATION Wik \l 1033 ]. The Kent State shootings were the result of one of the biggest

protests in America at this time. This is when the division in the US was very evident. The

students’ (a) didn’t agree with the war in the first place and (b) argued that if you’re not old

enough to vote, you shouldn’t be allowed to be drafted into the war. This is the point in time

where people stopped blindly following the president in thinking that the war was good. Eva

Jefferson Paterson, a woman who was alive during the Vietnam War, said, “I remember being a

freshman in collage and actually saying…’We have to support the war because the president says

the war is good, and we must support the president” [ CITATION USA17 \l 1033 ]. For a while

during the sixties, everyone in America had this sort of mindset. As soon as reporters came back

from Vietnam with real photos of the actuality of what was happening in Vietnam and the

detailed, gory stories, people started to ask themselves if America should be involved in the war.

Bill Zimmerman used to think of himself as a patriot when he graduated from high school in 58’.

He wanted to be a military pilot. His ideas and values quickly changed when he found out what

3
. KANOReporter, KRISTA S. “Alan Canfora Recalls Events of May 4, 1970.” Record.
Record-Courier, August 1, 2019. https://www.record-courier.com/news/20190801/alan-canfora-
recalls-events-of-may-4-1970.
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“military pilots were doing in the skies over Vietnam”[ CITATION USA17 \l 1033 ]. He became

an avid protester in the antiwar movement that was established in the sixties. Zimmerman and

the rest of the antiwar protesters learned the harsh truth that presidents do in fact lie to the

American people and it isn’t always a good idea to blindly be loyal to the government. It’s

important to think for yourself. Zimmerman said it best, “Most important, Vietnam taught us to

reject blind loyalty and to fight back. In doing so, we meet our obligation as citizens…and

become patriots.” Thinking for ourselves is when we truly become patriots.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, most of the people being drafted for the war were

not men, they were boys. Fresh out of high school, out into the real world with a brain that is no

where near being fully developed. It was severely damaging to those young men to go from

living a carefree life just going to school and being an American teenager in the sixties to going

to fight in a war (in a country not their own) that could not be won. One account I read from Tom

Smith, an ex-Marine, describes what these boys saw nearly every day. “The company runner lay

talking calmly. I held him. He asked for a cigarette and asked if he would be OK. Sure, I said.
4
The back of his head was completely gone. Shortly afterward, he died.” Not only did these

young teenage boys witness awful sights like these daily, but some were captured as prisoners of

war. POW’s experienced even worse situations. One account I came across while looking for

prisoner of war stories from those that survived is from John McCain. He spent more than five

years as a POW. He was a Navy flier that was bombed down. He ejected out of his aircraft with a

broken right leg, broken left arm, his right arm broken in three places; landing in a lake in the

4
. HistoryNet Staff. “U.S. Marine Tom Smith's Firsthand Account of the Vietnam War.”
HistoryNet. HistoryNet, February 13, 2019. https://www.historynet.com/us-marine-tom-smiths-
firsthand-account-of-the-vietnam-war.htm.
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corner of Hanoi which is located in North Vietnam. John was “rescued” by some North

Vietnamese from nearly drowning and taken to Hanoi’s main prison. There, he was questioned

every day for military information. The rule was, “You will not receive any medical treatment

until you talk.” Eventually he was taken to a hospital, but as one can imagine, it wasn’t clean and

well kempt. It was filthy and the room McCain was located in was on the lower level. This

means that when it rained, an inch of water would pool on the hospital room floor.5

Sam Johnson, another prisoner of war tells his story of being held at the Hanoi camp as

well. “I knew I was about to begin fighting as I had never fought before…It was psychological

warfare.”6 Being a prisoner of war was exactly that. A mental fight. POW’s are starved, deprived

of sleep, and deprived of any sort of comfort possible.

The Vietnam War was not a war America could win. We should never have entered the

war in the first place. The toll it took on the American people and on all the branches of the

army, it just doesn’t outweigh anything that may have happened had America not joined the war.

The Vietnam War led to a divided country, young men coming back to the US severely wounded

with no support, and the death of many that could have been avoided had the US not entered the

war.

5
. “John McCain, Prisoner of War: A First-Person Account.” U.S. News & World Report.
U.S. News & World Report. Accessed October 8, 2020.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/01/28/john-mccain-prisoner-of-war-a-first-person-
account.
6
. Sam Johnson. “Articles.” Firsthand Account of Congressman Sam Johnson, Vietnam
War POW | Humanities Texas, March 2015.
https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/firsthand-account-congressman-sam-johnson-
vietnam-war-pow.
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Bibliography