Vietnam War - la guerra del Vietnam, Prove d'esame di Cultura Inglese I

Scarica Vietnam War - la guerra del Vietnam e più Prove d'esame in PDF di Cultura Inglese I solo su Docsity! THE VIETNAM WAR PLAN Historical context: - What is the Vietnam War? - What were the main causes? - What were the major events during the war? - When did the war end? - What were the effects? Cultural context: - Protests - Music - Movies - Literature HISTORICAL CONTEXT Introduction The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1954 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam:  North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies, also called the Viet Cong.  South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist allies. Then, the conflict also spilled over into neighboring states, provoking the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War. What are the roots of the Vietnam War? Vietnam is a nation in Southeast Asia of the Indochinese peninsula and it had been under French colonial rule since the 19th century. In fact, France set up the state of Vietnam in July 1949 with the city of Saigon as its capital and was defeated in 1954. So, what are the main causes of this War? 1. The defeat of France in the French Indochina War in 1954, after which Vietnam was divided into the communist-dominated North and the democratic South. The battle prodded negotiators at the Geneva Conference to produce the final Geneva Accords in July 1954. The accords established the 17th parallel (latitude 17° N) as a temporary demarcation line separating Vietnam in North and South. But nationwide elections to decide the true future of Vietnam were to be held only in 1956. At the heart of the conflict, there was the desire of North Vietnam to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. 2. Increasing financial and military aid from the U.S. to South Vietnam as part of an attempt to contain, or limit, the spread of communism throughout the rest of Southeast Asia. The United States had provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnam’s government and military since Vietnam’s partition into the communist North and the democratic South in 1954. Tensions escalated into armed conflict between the two sides, and in 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy chose to expand the military aid program in order to confront the Viet Cong threat. The terms of this expansion included yet more funding and arms, but a key alteration was the commitment of U.S. soldiers to the region. → In addition, the U.S. government used the domino theory to justify its involvement in the Vietnam War and its support for a non-communist dictator in South Vietnam. This theory was a Cold War policy and predicted that the fates of all Southeast Asian countries were closely linked and that a communist success in one must necessarily lead to the fatal weakening of the others. 3. An insurgency of communist Vietnamese (known as the Viet Cong) against the South Vietnam army beginning in the late 1950s that grew into an ongoing guerrilla campaign. The Viet Cong (VC), a South Vietnamese common front under the direction of North Vietnam, started a guerrilla war in the south. → The name is said to have first been used by South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem to belittle the rebels. By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents of Diem’s repressive regime began fighting back with attacks on government officials and other targets, and by 1959 they had begun engaging the South Vietnamese army in firefights. The Viet Cong became in 1960 the military arm of the National Liberation Front (NLF). In 1969 the NLF joined other groups in the areas of South Vietnam that were controlled by the Viet Cong to form the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG). The movement’s principal objectives were the overthrow of the South Vietnamese government and the reunification of Vietnam. 4. A parallel increase in support to the North from both China and the Soviet Union. 5. Attacks on two U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 5, 1964. They attacked 36 provincial capitals, 64 district capitals, five of the six major cities, and more than two dozen airfields and bases. However, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to strike back quickly. This offensive was the major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian command and control centers. The name Tet Offensive was taken by the Lunar New Year name in Vietnamese. On March 10, 1968, The New York Times ran a story under the headline “Westmoreland Requests 206,000 More Men, Stirring Debate in Administration.” This request worried the public and convinced them that, America’s involvement was increasing at the cost of American lives in the face of an unfaltering and seemingly unbeatable enemy. For this reason, USA thought a solution in order to limit civilian deaths. Vietnamization The full-scale U.S. military commitment seemingly had made little progress in defeating communist North Vietnam and its Viet Cong guerrilla allies. The enemy forces had absorbed tremendous punishment but remained determined to overthrow the U.S. supported government of South Vietnam and reunite the country under Communist rule. Facing intense pressure from a war-weary public and widespread Vietnam War protests, Nixon, who took office in January 1969, sought a way to disengage American combat forces without appearing to abandon South Vietnam to the communists. In an attempt to limit the volume of American casualties, he announced a program called Vietnamization:  Withdrawing U.S. troops;  Increasing aerial and artillery bombardment;  Giving the South Vietnamese the training and weapons needed to effectively control the ground war. It was a strategy that aimed to reduce American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam and by allowing the United States to leave Vietnam with its honor intact. Nixon’s Vietnamization strategy also featured:  Programs designed to strengthen the South Vietnamese government  Expand its political base in rural areas  U.S. assistance to help South Vietnamese officials organize local elections, implement social reforms and economic development initiatives Invasion of Cambodia As we said before, Vietnam War did not remain within the borders of Vietnam. In fact, the conflict expanded into neighboring countries like Laos and Cambodia, where North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong soldiers moved and operated. We spoke the invasion and bombing in Laos and now let’s look at the invasion of Cambodia. The Cambodian campaign was a brief series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia in 1970 by South Vietnam and the United States as an extension of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Civil War. Thirteen major operations were conducted by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) between 29 April and 22 July and by U.S. forces between 1 May and 30 June 1970. The objective of the campaign was the defeat of the approximately 40,000 troops of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (VC) in the eastern border regions of Cambodia. When the American expansion of the war came to public attention, Nixon said that the incursion into Cambodia was necessary to keep pressure on the enemy until the Vietnamization strategy took root. However, the “Vietnamization of the conflict” failed due to the failure recorded in Cambodia (1970) and Laos (1971), and the massive bombings carried out on the two countries were bitterly contested by American public opinion. The end of the war In addition to this Vietnamization policy, Nixon continued public peace talks in Paris. However:  the North Vietnamese demanded the withdrawal of US troops, the dissolution of the South Vietnamese government and a return to the principles of the Geneva Accords;  the US insisted that Hanoi recognize South Vietnam's sovereignty. These two sets of demands were so irreconcilable that compromise or agreement seemed impossible. In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations. War between North and South Vietnam continued, however, until April 30, 1975, when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City. What are the effects of this long war? More than two decades of violent conflict had inflicted a devastating toll on Vietnam’s population. Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the Vietnam War: as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters with more than 58,000 of U.S. armed forces. Psychologically, the effects ran even deeper. Warfare had demolished the country’s infrastructure and economy, and reconstruction proceeded slowly. Under a broad free market policy put in place in 1986, the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and an influx of foreign capital. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U.S. resumed in the 1990s. In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after The nation spent more than $120 billion on the conflict and this massive spending led to widespread inflation, exacerbated by a worldwide oil crisis in 1973. Moreover, the war had pierced the myth of American invincibility and had bitterly divided the nation. CULTURAL CONTEXT It’s often seen that some form of popular culture, whether it’s music or artwork, is the best measure for people to show their self-expression, which then allows for new ideals to stem from these works. It almost seems that popular culture is an imperative to a population overcoming and learning from a time of economic, political and social turmoil. As for Vietnam War, it’s been very common for people to rely on popular culture for hope and education, most of all on music, movies or artwork. Background: First of all, it’s essential to know that in America there was a kind of backlash against the Vietnam War. The entrance of the USA in the war, already was a slightly contentious decision, moreover it was made worse by the imposition of a draft for servicemen and the introduction of mass media. As for the first point, by November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was approaching 500,000, and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. As the war stretched on, some soldiers came to mistrust the government’s reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washington’s repeated claims that the war was being won. The later years of the war saw increased physical and psychological deterioration among American soldiers—both volunteers and draftees—including drug use, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mutinies and attacks by soldiers against officers and non-commissioned officers. Between July 1966 and December 1973, more than 503,000 U.S. military personnel deserted, and a robust anti- war movement among American forces spawned violent protests, killings and mass incarcerations of personnel stationed in Vietnam as well as within the United States. For what concerns the introduction of mass media, the ability to have 24/7 coverage of the war reaching every citizen back in the United States showed how horrific Vietnam really was. Images of Vietnamese civilians dead in the street and videos of soldiers in the midst of combat were being broadcasted nightly to every home in America. First protests another song titled, “Stop the War” which peaked at number fourteen in America during January of 1971. Stop the War Now - https://youtu.be/rFv0gqIPAE4 In this second hit, Edwin Starr proclaims: Think about all the soldiers That are dead and gone today If you'd ask them to fight again What do you think they'd say? I'm not trying to be funny Just trying to get my point across War is world's enemy number one It's that time that we called it off Being a heavy advocate against the war himself, Starr used his popularity to relay his message to as many Americans as possible. And by using a much more straightforward approach in this song, Starr creates a feeling of empathy in the listener. This allows him to speak directly to the listeners which surely stirred emotion and caused people to think more seriously about the war. One interesting aspect of this song, is that at a certain point Starr seems to take a break from singing to plainly say what he’s thinking: I’m not trying to be funny; I’m just trying to get my point across He doesn’t care about the song itself; he cares about the message he’s sending. This approach was totally unique at the time and was likely much more persuasive to the listener. Fortunate Son - https://youtu.be/40JmEj0_aVM Another popular anti-war song was “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, which sang: Some folks are born silver spoon in hand Lord, don't they help themselves […] It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no military son Creedence put the focus on what would’ve been like to be a fortunate son versus an unfortunate son during the Vietnam war. By mentioning the silver spoon, he means that the sons of the wealthier families would never be drafted to Vietnam, but any minorities or less fortunate would be sent over there without hesitation. This song captures the support of any minority or lower-class civilian in America during the conflict. It served not only as a protest song for those back in the States, but became a staple of the soldiers in Vietnam. Numerous personal accounts state that Fortunate Son was often played at base camps in Vietnam and is the song soldiers associate most with the war. For What It’s Worth - https://youtu.be/80_39eAx3z8 There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong Young people speaking their minds. Getting so much resistance from behind It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound. Everybody looks what’s going down. Released in 1967, Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” immediately climbed its way towards the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and within weeks it was being played on every radio station throughout every city in America. Unknowingly to Stephen Stills (the lead singer of Buffalo Springfield at that time), this song became one of the protest anthems for the entire Vietnam War. This song became a sort of fuel that reignited the flame of people who manifested against the war. The lyrics bring attention to civilian suppression and the chorus calls for people to acknowledge the problem. This song can be considered as the perfect embodiment of the population’s viewpoint towards the Vietnam war. Finally, regardless of which Vietnam protest song we examine, it is undeniable that music released during the conflict had a huge impact in the growth of the anti-war movement. MOVIES Vietnam War and American culture We can say that no American conflict in the 20th century so altered the public view of institutions, government, and the media like the Vietnam War. For this reason, more than 750 movies, 250 films and 1.400 personal narratives have been published about the topic. The influence of the conflict can be seen in the rise of a new pop culture sensibility that embraced a provocative anti-authoritarianism which offered a clear break from the sunny optimism of most American artistic production in the 1950s and early 1960s. The war spread an era of distrust, paranoia and cynicism among musicians, filmmakers, novelists, and comedians. The response of the movie industry to the Vietnam war When it comes to the movie industry, we notice that it kept its distance from the Vietnam ferment until the war was safely over. However, many of the most acclaimed films of the late ‘60s and early ’70s were heavily influenced by that feeling of distrust that grew out of the war. In this respect, the American film critic Pauline Kael wrote in an essay entitled “After Innocence”: “The Vietnam War has barely been mentioned on the screen, but you could feel it in the conviction-less atmosphere, the absence of shared values, the brutalities taken for granted. . . the heroes didn’t believe in anything and didn’t pretend they did”. So, we can claim that Hollywood painted a way darker vision of Vietnam than it did of WW2, and many argued that it was an accurate reflection of the prevalent view in society. Apocalypse Now – Francis Coppola – 1979 - https://youtu.be/9l-ViOOFH-s One of the most important films to emerge from the Vietnam era is “Apocalypse Now” by director Francis Ford Coppola. It is partly based on Joseph Conrad’s famous novel “ Heart of Darkness'' , the story of a ship captain's journey up to the Congo River during European imperialism in Africa. The film follows a river journey from the South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Army Capitan Benjamin Willard, who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, a former officer accused of murder and who is presumed to be insane. What is fascinating about this movie is that it doesn’t attempt to primarily capture all the battles of the Vietnam War, but rather it follows the journey of a few men and records the mental damage that war had on them. As a matter of fact, the opening scene of the film shows the main character, Captain Willard, in his apartment having a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder dream and struggling to keep his mind organized. As he wakes up, his flashbacks continue, and he is not able to get the horrific images of his first Vietnam excursion out of his mind. From there, the movie continues to exemplify how the war mentally affected the soldiers by showing many mental breakdowns of the characters and their constant struggle with PTSD. The heavy emphasis placed by Francis Coppola on the mental effects of the war allowed him to accurately describe what thousands of veterans were struggling, so that citizens could develop a This had not been a so-called great war, worth glorifying in literature and arts, and the veterans were not praised and celebrated as heroes upon their return. America had seen and heard enough of Vietnam and as soon as it was over wanted nothing more than to forget. Therefore, at a time when Vietnam was everywhere in the media, the general interest in fictional and non-fictional accounts of the war in book-form was limited. Publishers considered it too much of an economic risk to invest time and money in authors and books that dealt with the military action in South Asia. Change arrived during the late 1970s thanks to Hollywood. War movies like Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now" attracted millions of viewers and paved the way for the return and refabrication of combat related topics. This period of rediscovered interest was inspiring and encouraging to veterans who had felt rejected and ignored by society after they had arrived back in North America at the end of their service. Not only did their fellow citizens express the desire to hear and listen to their stories, but the overall role of the former combatant changed for the better with “the Veterans Administration’s 1980 recognition of post traumatic stress disorder, later federal laws ensuring Vietnam veterans’ rights, the election of increasing numbers of veterans to political office throughout the eighties” and the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in 1982. While the slow change of social climate offers one explanation why veterans did not start writing about their experiences until years after the war had come to an end, authors like Tim O’Brien have also explained that they had felt the need to push a mental pause button with regards to their own engagement with Vietnam related topics. Timothy O’Brien Many critics consider O’Brien as the most prominent author within the field of Vietnam War writers. Born in 1946 in Minnesota, he was sent to Vietnam at the age of 22, where he served for two years. After his return to North America, O'Brien attended graduate school at Harvard University but left without completing the Ph.D. program. He served as an intern at the “Washington Post” and later worked there as a national affairs reporter. Once his publishing career was established, he concentrated solely on writing. He made his debut as a published author with the war memoir “If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home". But this non-fictional account of the The Vietnam War was only the first in a long line. By now Tim O’Brien has completed a total of eight books dealing with this particular military conflict and its consequences. While “Going After Cacciato” (1978) and “The Things They Carried” (1990) take place on the site of the combat action, “Northern Lights” (1975), “The Nuclear Age” (1985), “In the Lake of the Woods” (1994), “Tomcat in Love” (1998) and “July, July” (2002) introduce the reader to major characters that are often haunted by the war once back in the United States. Despite O’Brian prolific literary production, his most famous work remains “ The Things They Carried ” , in which he is the narrator as well as the protagonist. “The Things They Carried” is a collection of twenty-two short stories about a platoon of American soldiers called Alpha Company. A reader could read a single story in the collection since each one has its own sense of beginning and end but, at the same time, the stories are meant to be read together, as they inform and enrich each other, offering different interpretations of the same events. The title of the collection is representative of the fact that each soldier of the collection carries during his service a literal and symbolic object that links their past to the present and serves to distract them from the realities of the war. For example, the character Henry Dobbins carries his girlfriend’s pantyhose and, with them, the desire for love and comfort. Similarly, soldier Jimmy Cross carries compasses and maps which symbolize the responsibility for the men in his charge as well as the weight of their reputations. Conclusion Once again, we can say that Vietnam War has been one of the greatest conflict US has ever been involved in: in terms of causalities, but above all in terms of the strong impact (negative impact of course), it had on society, population and pop culture. SITOGRAPHY Vietnam War: Causes, Facts & Impact - HISTORY Vietnam War | Facts, Summary, Years, Timeline, Casualties, Combatants, & Facts | Britannica Social Impacts of Popular Culture During the Vietnam War The Southeast Asia War: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia > National Museum of the United States Air Force™ > Display Laos during the Vietnam War