***Winner: Dan Poynter Legacy Award***
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Why was and is the Vietnam War still so controversial? America recognized that the region was vulnerable. Communist expansion was a threat that violated the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) which included France and its protectorate-Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh was an ardent Communist who led brutality against fellow Vietnamese people. He was a "hero" only to the Communists, their supporters, and the anti-war crowd.
The "anti-war movement" occurred at a time of the convergence of several emerging "movements"---Civil Rights and Black Power, Women's Liberation, Gay Rights, Chicano Power, Jews and Catholics against the war. The media and academia relished in the controversy as television quickly spread the carnage of war and the debates about it to a curious public. They all took a "principled stand" against this war-and defamed anyone involved or supporting it. So-called scholars perverted and misrepresented the war's history.
While anti-war protesters acted out, U.S. Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, and Coastguardsmen served, fought, and died in Vietnam. Women also served as nurses and administrative personnel in Vietnam; some gave their lives, too. Vietnam veterans were treated as war criminals; were mocked; called baby killers; denied jobs; generally defamed and ostracized. Two-thirds of their age group had volunteered to serve as opposed to one-third who volunteered during WWII.
What follows is an expos of the microcosms of the war at home and the war in Vietnam.