Would you have protested the Vietnam war if you were alive at that time?

Question

Has it been your experience that people generalize about conservatives- that people assume that we are hawkish?

Hmm.

I am taking a Cultural Diversity class right now. The teacher explained that she and many others protested the Vietnam war when she was in college. At first, my reaction was as you might predict. But then she mentioned something else...

My instructor (she is actually a Ph.D.)...let me give her the respect she deserves. The doctor/professor of the course mentioned Kent State to me. You see, there was a draft for young people. People were forced to go to Vietnam. Friends of the Doctor and others died in Vietnam. During a war protest demonstration at Kent State University, the Dean got angry with kids who were protesting peacefully. The National Guard was called in, and four college students were killed by the National Guard.

Was it okay for the government to FORCE people to serve in Vietnam- or should that have been a choice?

This may sound like a strange question coming from a conservative. But if I had been drafted, I would have been very very angry. I do not want to be killed in a pointless war. But hey, that's just me.

How would you have felt if you had been drafted for Vietnam?

Answer 1

I was alive during that time, but thankfully, I was a young kid, plus my country did not have the draft. The draft is a very shameful thing, forcing people to go against their will and against their conscience. I don't blame the ones who dodged the draft peacefully, and as a matter of human rights as declared in the UN declaration of human rights in international law, it was a serious violation of that, it was also a serious violation of the US constitutional intentions of freedom and the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness... Americans know the exact wording of that better than me, but you know what I mean. The ones who asserted those rights were the true patriots, and the politicians and administrators and other people who enforced the draft were the ones guilty of treason.

Answer 2

Of course I would have protested the war then, and I still protest the lies for the U. S. involvement in that war now. It has been my experience to witness such overgeneralizations such as anyone who did protest the war was either: a hippie, a hippie with long hair, a hippie with long hair on drugs, a hippie with long hair on drugs screaming "baby killer" at and spitting on the returning vets. That is the type of overgeneralization I see still on Yahoo! Answers, as can be seen by Rob's answer above.



If your instructor brought up her involvement in anti-war protests because she was either asked or she was relating some first-hand experience on the matter, I think she was acting correctly. Even before there was a draft, people opposed the war. The draft was not the only issue, although it certainly exacerbated it. I read the Dean of Kent State called the National Guard because someone had set fire to a building (and not "blow it up"). I could be wrong, it could false information. In any case, four students were shot and killed. Although I do know now that non-lethal weapons should have and could have been used when confronting the unarmed student demonstrators.



There should always be a choice when it comes to serving your country. Those who do not serve in the military can certainly assist those who did serve. A good example would be the Veteran's Hospitals. If I had been drafted, I would have been as angry as you. I might have chosen to serve jail time, or visit our lovely Canadian neighbors, or put on a convincing performance for my recruiter that would make sure the military did not want me. The worst case scenario would have been to have served in Vietnam - but while I was there document the abuse, the crimes, the drugs, Agent Orange, Operation Phoenix, the prostitution of Vietnamese women, etc., etc.

Answer 3

Was and did.



Regarding people being "forced" to go, remember that it was the law. Many people were drafted (forced) to fight in the Korean conflict, WWI and WWII, the Civil War and others. The United States was far from the only "civilized" nation to demand service time of it's citizens.



My objections, at the time, were less about the draft laws and all about fighting an unjust, foreign war. The draft laws were just a handy target for directing protests. Ultra conservatives, the Military Industrial complex, American Big Business interests, Draft Laws, ROTC and recruiters on campus and tight drug laws: We protested them all, but the main point was ending the war and bringing troops home and finding better things to spend our tax dollars on.



Well, except for the laws against smoking grass. I did that for my own selfish reasons.

Answer 4

I would most likely have died, if I were forced or as they say "drafted", but i think at the time women were not allowed to serve in the line of fire, so I would be alive. If I were a guy, who knows, but there were a lot of senseless deaths in that war. However look only to Afghanistan or Iraq and you will see what a pointless war really is.

Answer 5

My country was on the other side of that war- we were supporting the North Vietnamese invasion. Anyone protesting that involvement, or refusing to "be volunteered" by our communist rulers would have been shot. And his family probably as well.

We sent hundreds of "draftee-volunteers" to Vietnam. they were the guys flying the planes, operating anti aircraft radars and missles. You might of course choose not to believe this. After all everyone knows that you can take an illiterate farmer, put him in a supersonic plane and he will be an expert pilot within a week

Kent state was a tragedy, but was completely insignificant as compared to the over 4 milion Vietnamese murdered by the communists (both in the North and South). Or as compared to the extermination of the Hmong tribes- which continues to this day



If drafted- I would have gone. if drafted by the communists I would have gone out of fear. If drafted by the "west" I would have gone because of a sense of duty.

In both cases I would have been unhappy- simply because I'm lazy and I'd rather watch TV and sleep late.



the draft is part of medieval history. Part of what differs a free man from a slave (in western societies only- muslims and russians used slaves as soldiers). the price of being a free man was military service (which is why only "noblemen" were allowed to carry swords- they were the only "free men")



BTW- it was not a pointless war. It bought time, delayed the communist invasion and - ultimately - stopped the fall of the Dominoes. Because the expense to the soviets was so huge it finally bankrupted their empire



with all my respect to the good doctor- in WW2 should the Allies have surrendered to Hitler because many good men died in the Normandy landings? I'm sorry to say but it is the good doctor who helped make (by helping the communists win the war with her protests) the deaths of her friends pointless



Of corse I am biased. I am from Poland. and- thanks to Reagan, Walesa and John Paul 2 (men who refused to back down) I am free now. And 300 milion others too.



The Vietnamese however, are still slaves today

Answer 6

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Answer 7

I was a student at the time of Vietnam. Let me give you a slightly different perspective. People now seem to think that it was a very unpopular war and that only a handful of politicians and military commanders supported it. I think you will find, if you research it, that somewhere around 65% to 70% of Americans supported the action being taken to try and stop the takeover of South Vietnam by the Communists. President Nixon called them "The Silent Majority" as it was only a minority of people that were actively protesting the war.



The question as to who won or lost is almost irrelevant. What became evident (and should have been evident much earlier on) is that there is only one way to win a defensive war. Our goal was to prevent the North from taking over the South. The only way that was going to happen was if the North Vietnamese laid down their arms and gave up. The fact that a peace accord was even signed speaks highly of the resolve of President Nixon and Sec of State Kissinger. The fact that it was the bombing of Hanoi in December 1972 that forced the North Vietnamese back to the negotiating table is often overlooked or vilified.



The draft was nothing new to Vietnam. And in reality only about 25% of those drafted actually went to Vietnam. The draft was unpopular when President Lincoln did it to support the Union Army in the Civil War. Riots broke out in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia and troops were used to put down the riots. president McKinley drafted troops for the Spanish-American War in the 1890s. president Wilson Drafted troops for WWI, President Roosevelt drafted troops for WWII, and President Truman drafted troops for Korea. There were those people that objected to those wars.



The way you describe Kent State is not entirely accurate. Yes, the National Guard was called in to break up the demonstrations which were turning ugly. The students were throwing things at the Guardsmen. One of them panicked and shots were fired. Yes, it was a tragic event but to imply that the National Guard was called in to gun down students is simply unfair and inaccurate.



And final question you ask is the hypothetical "what would you have done?" It is easy to to look back and say "I would not have done such and such" or "I would have done this or that". President Johnson's escalation of the war came in 1966 and 67. This was slightly over 20 years since the end of WWII. Our fathers had served, most of them draftees, in WWII or Korea. There was still a sense of patriotic duty to serve one's country. No one wants to die in any war, just or unjust, pointless or with an obvious goal.



The alternatives were to seek conscientious objector status (which was available for several reasons), simply refuse to serve and go to jail, flee the country (which many did) or join another branch of the military before being drafted. I, myself, had decided to seek conscientious objector status which might have kept me out of the Army but more likely would have resulted in me being drafted to serve in the medical corp. But in January 1973, the cease fire and peace accord was signed and the draft ended. I was never put into the situation of having to decided.



In 1979 I entered the United States Air Force (voluntarily) and served as an officer, reaching the rank of Captain. I left the USAF in 1987 and never once regretted having served my country.

Answer 8

During a war protest at the U. of Ky. protesters blew up an ROTC building. Do your Profs. agree with that. GIs returning home were spit on and called baby killers, was that OK with them too. The main problem with the war was that the politicians and not the military made decisions. I'm sure they are blaming Nixon for the whole thing when JFK and Johnson escalated the war to its high point. Also when we left what happened? Is that OK too?

Answer 9

My family is a military family. It includes some generals either in our current army or retired generals alive today. One movie was even made about a relative of mine who was a general (I don't want our family name known on here). My father and a cousin of his were both in Vietnam. My father was in the Air Force and supposedly (according to his war buddies, since my father doesn't talk about Vietnam) he was in charge of somehow coordinating the dropping of Napalm. His cousin was a general. Based on what I know about war strategies, I'd protest HOW the war was being fought. It's bad enough that we were in the war because of France's incapability to handle their own.



Here's what I would have changed in our strategies in the war.

1. Attack North Vietnam directly. Screw guerilla warfare. If you decide to walk into guerilla warfare, you have to accept that most of the time you will be fighting on the enemy's terms. It stinks, but if people see their homes, neighbors, and family members dying... the war becomes quite unpopular. When a war becomes unpopular, the war loses funding and soldiers. Eventually it's lost.

2. Seeing as we ended up in the South instead, then I'd change my strategy if I were them. I would drop bombs in a random manner before dropping off soldiers. In Vietnam we dropped bombs around the area we were going to drop soldiers. All we really ended up doing was telegraphing to the Viet cong where we were going to arrive. So instead of being on the offensive, we had to be on the defensive right away because the vietnames soldiers knew where we were. We didn't know where they were, which was a major disadvantage.

3. Intentionally leak out false information. I'd tell my men to intentionally leak out unified, but incorrect information about our next moves. This could be to merchants, taxi drivers, and even hookers. Chances are a spy is amongst them and will in return give the false information to the enemy. This worked in WWII for us, but we failed to repeat this plan in Vietnam.

4. We knew their were tunnels dug by the enemy. What did we do? We sent soldiers into those tunnels. Not only did we end up being on their terms again in battle, but it slowed us down. Trap the tunnels with mines and other explosives instead. Put fear into them instead every time they are in tunnels. You want to demoralize the enemy. This is one way to do it.

5. Don't EVER trust your enemy. Especially when they fight dirty. The Tet offensive was in planning for months. Yet we hardly had a clue it was coming. You would've thought we would have learned from Pearl Harbor.



There are more things we would have changed, but I think you get the idea.

NONE of my family members likes war nor do we support it. In the known history of my family, none of us has died in combat or because of combat. But we still don't like it.

Answer 10

I was alive at the time.

I DID protest.

I WAS a victim of the draft.

Answer 11

i would have not gone, i dont give a damn. look how it turned out, the US lost, lost men, lost it all. the government just isnt fair. there is no business with being over there. its just some political BS.

Answer 12

thx for the answers, much appreciated!