Since the internet on both my home computers has been down for the past two days until now, I needed to do something with my Saturday afternoon that could entertain me as much as facebook or AIM. I decided I would go to Blockbuster and see what movies I might be interested and I came across a miniseries that aired in 1999 called "the '60s", directed by Mark Piznarski. I am not going to make this blog my critique on the movie, but I'd like to compare the 1960s with our present time. More specifically, I'd like to compare the war in Vietnam with our current war in Iraq.
After seeing this film I realized how many close ties the war in Iraq and the war in Vietnam have and how comparable and almost intertwinable the two tragic events in our history and present history are. When the soldiers were sent to Vietnam, they fought for our country, the country they respected and trusted. Those soldiers sacrificed their lives because, even though they were not told the details of why they were truly there, they had faith in the United States where they believed they would not be put in this type of situation unless it was necessary. Except, when those soldiers came back home, as like most solidiers who came back from war, they were changed men and some distanced and detatched themselves from society. Most reacted this way because they thought back on the sins and evils they commited and didn't really understand why, or what they were fighting for.
Also, if not importantly, American civilians were being lied to about the war, its meaning, the tragedies occuring there every day, and the depth of evil behind it. The government was secretive about most of the events happening there and most people would believer the Vietnamese were the enemies, that they should hate those people because there most of been something they did wrong to our country, that is why we are over there fighting. Ya, that's right, the thousands of familes, children, in Vietnam who were tortured, were all conspiring to hurt the U.S. in some way. Of course there is the lie that this was against the communism in Vietnam, but most of the people who were killed in the country were not affiliated and had no control over their corruptful government.
My main message of this blog, if people still can not see the similarities of the two wars, is hopefully the war in Iraq never gets as bad, or is as bad, as Vietnam was. I fear that there are secrets the government is not telling us and we do not know the extremeties of our current situation over there. I fear that our soldiers are going to come back home mentally changed and unstable. I fear that this war will not end because of stubborness. There is no winner in war, and until we realize that, then only more damage will be done.
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4 comments:
Yo
Obviously the reason we study history so intensely is because we should be able to identify similarities between the past and present and rise above previous errors in judgement. The government is obviously repeating a lot of mistakes by stubbornly keeping so many troops in Iraq even now that the objective of the war has become vague. This is a shame. But I think that the peopleeee of America are generally being very responsive. We have seen how the people protested against Vietnam and once this war started we didn't hesitate to follow their example and step up and be like hell no this is not happening again we have questions and we want answers. The citizens aren't letting the government get away with their usual bullshit because we are so educated of past situations that are similar to this present one. SO THAT IS PRETTYY SWEEEEETTT i'm proud of people. anyway. (GENOCIDE IS BAD.... whaaaat?? ahahahahah) <33333333333 xoxoxoxoxox
Hey Jasmine,
Well, I just wanted to say that i agree with you. In fact, there are many smilarities between the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq. I agree with you on the fact that if people don't realize the similarities, the consequences of Vietnam may occur again. The government does sometimes hide secrets away from the citizens because at times it may to be revealing or it may corrupt the truth that people are usually accostumed to. The war like you said, has no winner because of the many deaths on both sides of the war. To be honest during my sophomore year I lost interest for the knowledge of the war because I had no idea why we were still doing there. It is stubborness that allows the troops to continue to stay there. More people's lives are being lost and we need to do something because if this continues, this war will almost completely resemble the Vietnam war. I remember someone blogged on the topic that war has become too chaotic, and there hasn't been any signs of huge improvements. Now a difference is that Americans are now well aware of how far down the well we've gotten in the war. In hopes of the new president, matters may change on how it will be viewed in the future has he/she enters office in 2009.
It is unfortunate that the old adage of "history repeating itself" still rings so true. However, I think that the American public in the 21st century is much more informed that in the 1960s because of all the advances in communicative technology. People have so many more ways of voicing their opinions, and almost everyone has something to say about the war in Iraq. I think that it is most important that the government listens to the people, instead of using the people to run their war. Even if the government has not learned from their mistakes in the past, especially evident with all the similarities between Iraq and Vietnam, the American public has learned, and we're fighting to stop the repetition.
I agree with you, excellent point!!!
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