Veterans History Project
In this project we interviewed Vietnam veterans about the war. and what they thought of it and how they would have changed it if they could we also made interview questions for them. Now that we have the interviews we are going to send they into the library of congress.
Project Reflection
In this project I have learned war has advanced so far that humans are soon to be eliminated from the entire picture. War has been solving conflict for hundreds of years, dating back beyond the middle ages. Throughout the ages war has changed in many ways. In the Middle Ages war was glorified in many ways soldiers went into war knowing full well what was ahead of them. Now war is miss understood the weapons are bigger and more deadly. Soldiers are seen as only affected physically and never mentally but the truth is that almost all physical wounds can be healed but mental is almost impossible and much more long lasting.
Gulf of Tonkin In Class Writing
Some people may think that the US had a justifiable cause to attack Vietnam but they did not what they did was unprovoked and uncalled for; when they did this they started a long, expensive, bloody war that they had no part in.
The US is assisting the peoples of the southwest Asia to protect their freedoms. Using reading the silences we can see that arguments that we need to go to war with Vietnam are insignificant compared to the overwhelming evidence that proves otherwise. The US government states that their battleships where fired upon by the North Vietnam government. This is an act of war buy the Vietnamese and can only be replied to in kind. One of the worst enemies to the US is communism. Their for it is essential the Vietnam War was fought so that we could ensure that the domino effect would not turn all of south Asia into communists. This could well be the end of capitalism and the US as a whole.
The war in Vietnam was a waste of time, resources, money, and most importantly young American’s lives. “If I could go back and change history then I would stop the war from happening America should not have fought that war” (Vietnam Veteran). Using close reading I concluded that the risk of communism was great but not nearly worth the cost all of the young Americans. The Vietnamese might not have even gone become communistic their declaration of independence closely resembles ours. "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" as you can see there are some extremely similar traits and with word like those I don’t see how the US’s concern could have been justified.
Truth of War Project
Project Reflection
This project was extremely eye opening for me I never thought about how not only are our troops suffering but the people in each country they probably get the worst of the war for each of our deaths there are 10 of them are they just less human? In this day and age we all have morals but most of us never have a reason to question them. In war many soldiers have a reason to question them because of the position they are put in. War is portrayed as a great honor to participate in and veterans are to be respected. Over the years our views of war have changed dramatically without war our society would be much different. It is hard to estimate how much war affects our society, but I think that without it the world would need some seriously self motivated people so society could advance. The truth is that with the absence of war and competition between nations there is no nationalism to support countries and give them pride. Enough on that tangent I think that war is as unstoppable as an ice berg as terrible as Chinese wasps and as necessary as water.
Final Essay
The Truth of War
War has advanced so far that humans are soon to be eliminated from the entire picture. War has been solving conflict for hundreds of years, dating back beyond the middle ages. Throughout the ages war has changed in many ways. In the Middle Ages war was glorified in many ways soldiers went into war knowing full well what was ahead of them. Now war is miss understood the weapons are bigger and more deadly. Soldiers are seen as only affected physically and never mentally but the truth is that almost all physical wounds can be healed but mental is almost impossible and much more long lasting.
In war thousands of men die and men watch their comrades be torn to pieces all the time. Sometimes they will be killed directly next to you or use they dying body to protect you. These situations bring soldiers so close to death, and so close to insanity yet they continue to fight on. To a civilian everyday life is peaceful, men having their heads blown next to you is not a normal part of life nor should it ever be. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul states, “They talk too much for me.” (Page 168) Civilians have deferent goals in life than a soldier has. For a solider just being able to sit quietly and not be in constant fear of their life or just to have a filling meal. The goals of a civilian may be to fit, to get a high paying job, have a good healthy family life. The goal for a soldier is to simply survive. In the quote above Paul talks about how civilians talk too much and eludes to how civilians lives are to complicated, but a soldier’s only wish is to have some quiet time to escape from it all and not be in a life threatening situation for once. Soldiers not only live the daily horrors they in counter in a war setting, but after surviving the war they will take with them a distorted and broken image of their life and the life they may have lived if they would not have joined the war. To a solider being in life threatening situations is part of everyday life. Think about what kind of physiological affect that can have on someone. To imagine it think about the scariest movie you have ever seen then imagine yourself in a dark trench staying awake all night hoping that you are not the next victim and knowing that the only thing protecting you from that fate is the small rifle that just ran out of ammo. A soldier fighting in World War the only thing separating them from death, the only thing that protects them, it’s what shields them from the connection of killing a man hand to hand. So when Paul’s trench is destroyed it is destroying the one thing that creates a barer between him and the everyday occurrences of death in war. War is so uncertain; it puts men into positions every day that they may not know whether or not they will lose their lives. To never know if you are going to be alive the next minute would, for me, be unbearable. What would go through your head when your trench is gone; when the only thing that protects you has been taken away, and you face death without the slightest reassurance left? If that where me I would be wondering why? Why am I sitting here at the orders of an aristocrat giving orders from miles and miles away with only the slightest comprehension of the real gravity of their actions? Should we just call a truce and have a peace talk both so we could surrender to each other and no more unneeded blood would be spilt, and we could return home to our life and family and ultimately have peace. But no, we are under orders like so many unfeeling robots. We cannot escape the fate that our superiors have laid before us. Thoughts much like this run through the mind of a soldier all throughout the war and they know that they can never escape it. The fear of death will control their minds and it will drive them to kill or be killed. When they return home they will feel like strangers in their own home, unable to break free from their own memories and broken by the daily battlefield they will always experience no matter how far they run. The experiences that war puts a man in are promoting the chances of being killed, which leads us into the everyday life a soldier experiences in war.
A soldier will always carry the weight of war with them, and when the war ends he will carry that weight off of the battlefield and it will affect him forever. “I am very quiet. Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope…” (Page295). War can destroy men psychologically just as easy as physically. They stand in their homes and are complete strangers. The whole world has changed but they are stuck in time they themselves that have lost touch of their previous life their fragile root trying to take hold in reality. To most people losing everything is losing your job, belongings, money, etc. But there are far more damaging things that you can lose, you can lose your identity, and become a broken man, a man that can never be fully be put back together, this is a constant struggle for many soldiers on and off the battle field. When men return home they are like that one guy who can’t relax after retiring war is branded into their experience. The problem with this is that a man cannot simply fall back into a life of peace when all he knows is war.
There are almost as much philological All of these injuries are a result of traumatic incidences that made up their daily lives during the war. These injuries can come in the form of dreams, flashbacks, and other occupations that make up their life that may remind them of an instance in war. It takes a lot to carry the weight of a psychological battle. But soldiers don’t have to bear this weight alone. There are many programs that are based around helping soldiers make the transition back into a normal life setting. Some of these programs such as IAVA focus on welcoming a soldier back and helping them to feel comfortable in an environment out side of war. As well as specific programs to help soldiers, you can simply be a friend to them. Make them feel like they are at home and are in a safe environment. Stand beside them and help walk them through decisions, such as Bryan Adams Mother: “I behaved as if no laws applied to me, driving 80 in a 45, getting into fights at the bars and cursing anyone who disagreed with what I was saying. This continued for several weeks until one day when my mother, who has been a nurse for 27 years, had a very enlightening conversation with me. She was scared for me, for what I had become, she insisted that I change my ways; she said that if I didn’t change I would not live to see age 22. This was a much needed reality check. I made the decision to drastically change my lifestyle for the better.” (Bryan Adams) Standing beside a soldier and supporting them even in small ways can have a huge affect on them, and help them change for the better of their life. A soldier’s view on the world is a broken image of a real life, to us to come alongside them and help them to carry the burden of the truth of war.
