What began with individuals opposing the war from 1965 to 1967, developed into a collective dissent of GI’s opposing the war from 1968 to the end of the war in 1973 (Handout, GI Revolts Against the War in Vietnam, 1965-1973). Several demonstrations, including pray-ins, rallies, seizing of stockades, and rebellions occurred on American soil as well as overseas to express the GI’s defiance against the war as being unjust, when compared to the standards of the Nuremberg Principals of 1956, which explicitly defines crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (O’Connell, lecture). Soldiers began to question what they were fighting for, and what they were dying for. One example of the GI’s expressing their unrest was by undermining
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It is after the Tet Offensive that largely caused the U.S. public opinion of the war to shift. Furthermore, the My Lai Massacre, on March 16, 1968, which was a massacre of women and children, shock not only the American people but the GI’s as well (O’ Connell, lecture). This incident solidified the unwarranted violence against the Vietnamese, “The army which they had been taught was the noble defender of goodness and freedom turned out to be ugly, brutal, and evil” (Moser, 79). Consequently, the alienated American people contributed to the GI antiwar movement, which was happening back at home in American and overseas as well. Author Richard Moser stated, “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it,” distinctively depicts the antiwar movement established by American troops and American people during the Vietnam War (Moser 162). With the military approaching collapse in Vietnam, President Nixon implemented a new strategy called Vietnamization in 1969 (O’ Connell, lecture). This led to the strategic and gradual withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam while training the Vietnamese to join ARVN, under General Abrams, to fight against the Communist forces. In the end, Vietnam fell to the Communist on April 30, 1975 (O’ Connell, lecture). To this day, there are still remnants of the effects that the Vietnam War had on the GI’s and the American people who became alienated by the American government. For instance, the American government currently does not evoke a draft among the American
It is after the Tet Offensive that largely caused the U.S. public opinion of the war to shift. Furthermore, the My Lai Massacre, on March 16, 1968, which was a massacre of women and children, shock not only the American people but the GI’s as well (O’ Connell, lecture). This incident solidified the unwarranted violence against the Vietnamese, “The army which they had been taught was the noble defender of goodness and freedom turned out to be ugly, brutal, and evil” (Moser, 79). Consequently, the alienated American people contributed to the GI antiwar movement, which was happening back at home in American and overseas as well. Author Richard Moser stated, “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it,” distinctively depicts the antiwar movement established by American troops and American people during the Vietnam War (Moser 162). With the military approaching collapse in Vietnam, President Nixon implemented a new strategy called Vietnamization in 1969 (O’ Connell, lecture). This led to the strategic and gradual withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam while training the Vietnamese to join ARVN, under General Abrams, to fight against the Communist forces. In the end, Vietnam fell to the Communist on April 30, 1975 (O’ Connell, lecture). To this day, there are still remnants of the effects that the Vietnam War had on the GI’s and the American people who became alienated by the American government. For instance, the American government currently does not evoke a draft among the American