Vietnam Veteran Anti-War Propaganda

Vietnam Veteran Anti-War Propaganda

The events of the Vietnam War created a new form of propaganda. In this war people's actions were the most effective form of propaganda. Of these actions, the most influential was the use of veteran and soldier protests. From entering the Vietnam War, the United States was already fighting a losing battle. Spending 66 million dollars a day, 1 the American budget was growing a large Federal deficit. President Johnson increased income taxes and cut back on the poverty program from better funding towards the war 1. Martin Luther King Jr. states “that America would never invest the necessary funds in rehabilitation of its poor as long as Vietnam continues to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction to it. 1” Approximately 211,669 Americans were either killed or wounded 2.

Turning Point
This was one of the turning points of the American view on the war. Around the mid 1960’s we began to see anti-war protests. One of the most influential of the early protests occurred in February of 1966. A group of about 100 veterans attempted to return their decorations of the White House in protest of the war 3. This event was most effective to the public because it is the first recorded example of decorated veterans taking a stand against an American war.

Creation of VVAW
In 1967 VVAW or better known as Vietnam Veterans Against the War was formed. They demonstrated all over America. Many of them were in wheelchairs or on crutches. People watched on television as Vietnam heroes threw away the medals they had won fighting in the war. One shouted: “Here’s my merit badges for murder.” Another apologized to the Vietnamese people and claimed that: “I hope that someday I can return to Vietnam and help to rebuild that country we tore apart.” 1

Examples
These are only a few examples demonstrating the questions that soldiers began to raise as they were in Vietnam. The most dramatic opposition of the war actually came from the soldiers themselves. Between 1960 and 1973, 503,926 members of the U.S. armed forces deserted. Many soldiers began to question the morality of the war once they began fighting in Vietnam. One soldier, Keith Franklin, wrote a letter that was only to be opened on his death. He was killed on May 12, 1970: “If you are reading this letter, you will never see me again, the reason being that if you are reading this I have died. The question is whether or not my death has been in vain. The answer is yes. The war that has taken my life and many thousands before me is immoral, unlawful, and an atrocity…I had no choice as to my fate. It was predetermined by the war-mongering hypocrites in Washington. As I lay dead, please grant my last request. Help me inform the American people, the silent majority who have not yet voiced their opinions.” 1

Trends
This trend of anti-war movement by soldiers and veterans has continued since this war. One example comes from Charles Liteky, a former army Chaplain, who was awarded the Medal of Honorhttp://en. .org/wiki/Medal_of_honor by President Johnson in 1968. Liteky received this award for carrying 20 men, dead and alive, out of a combat zone in Vietnam. To protest against the aid of the rebel resistance in Nicaragua and the U.S. activity in Central America Liteky would place the award in an envelope addressed to President Reagan and leave it at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This was seen as a “Campaign of Conscience” to oppose further United States involvement. 4

These demonstrations remian significant in America today. One example comes from Josh Gaines, a former reservist from Wisconsin who was deployed to Iraq, decided to “return his military medals” in protest of the war effort there according to an Associated Press report. He mailed his Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and National Defense Service Medal to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whom Gaines said was “the man responsible for my tour.”5

Soldier and Veteran demonstrations and opinions are a new and powerful form of propaganda. The effectiveness of this has been evident since the Vietnam War. Anti-war Veteran demonstrations are a persuasive public form of communication, which have affected the public opinions of the American people in decades before us and continues to affect us now.

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