United State's Involvement in the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War is truly one of the most unique wars ever fought by the


Unites States of by any country. It was never officially declared a war. It


had no official beginning or an official end. It was fought over 10,000 miles


away in a virtually unknown country. The enemy and the allies looked exactly


the alike, and may by day be a friend but by night become an enemy. It


matched the tried and true tactics of World War Two against a hide, run, and


shoot technique known as "Guerrilla Warfare." It matched some of the


best-trained soldiers in the world against largely an untrained militia of


untrained farmers. The United States' soldiers had at least a meal to look


forward to unlike the Communist Vietnamese soldiers who considered a fine


cuisine to be cold rice and, if lucky, rat meat. The Vietnam War matched the


most technically advanced country with one of the least advanced, and the


lesser advanced not only beat but humiliated the strongest military in the


world. When the war was finally showing signs of end, the Vietnamese returned


to a newly unified communist country while the United Stated soldiers


returned to be called "baby killers", and were often spat upon. With the


complexities of war already long overdrawn because of the length of the war


it is no wonder the returning solders often left home confused and returned


home insane. Through an examination of the Vietnam War, in particular an


event know as the My Lai Massacre, and the people involved with both, it can


be proven that when the threshold for violence of a person is met or


exceeded, the resulting psychological scarring becomes the most prominent


reason for war being hell.


            Although officially, the Vietnam Conflict had neither a beginning


nor an end, for the purpose of this paper it can be best examined...