Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The End of the Vietnam Conflict?

From an American perspective, the Vietnam war ended in 1973 with the Paris Peace accords.  Once American soldiers returned home, the vehement opposition to war could end, and the United States could shift their focus to domestic policies.

What do you make of Nixon's "peace with honor" speech?  How was it received by those outside of the United States?  Ultimately, what was the purpose of this 10 year conflict...indeed, America's longest war
?

19 comments:

  1. Nixon's speech seems very similar to that of many other president's speeches. He is glossing over the harsh reality of the situation. He claims that ending the war will not only bring short term peace but will more importantly bring long term peace to the whole world!! Just as the Canadian piece said, of course this is not true, it is merely impossible to for the entire world to be at peace. Nixon probably wants to comfort the American people and put out an impression that he is the best president because, by ending the war, he will initiate world peace. As for the "goal" of this war, I honestly think there was none other than to make America look good. I cannot agree more with the Canadian article' statement that: "the United States waged war with incredible stupidity and callousness."

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  2. I think Nixon was trying to make a sense that even the war was over, the Americans still keep "peace with honor" as the feeling of how they felt about the Vietnam War. Somehow I felt the speech was made to calm people down and made themselves felt better. Even the war was over, I believed that the US lost a lot and was deeply damaged by the war, and that should be notified because that was a huge impact in history. The purpose of this war seem not clear to me now because it seems a death match to me. Just like "the United States waged war with incredible stupidity and callousness." It might be a smart thing about the "peace with honor" speech, but to some foreign countries, it might just be a excuse.

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  3. Just like Dean said, Nixon "glosses" over the war and all the negatives that came with it, he seems to skip the worst parts, and basically he just wanted everyone to come to the conclusion that the war was over. The speech was meant to calm people down and for them to not look so down upon themselves for fighting in the war. Nixon seemed to look past everything bad that the US did in that war, however, people outside the US would not look over it as Nizon did. Like Andrew said the us was stupid, this wasnt a peaceful speech, it was something that united states wanted to use to cover up the fact that they "waged war with incredible stupidity and callousness"

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  4. Nixon’s “peace with honor” speech was an attempt to bring together the American people under the pretense that they had won the war and now it was time to be honorable about it. Nixon went on to say that we should, “ be proud of those who sacrificed, who gave their lives so that the people of South Vietnam might live in freedom and so that the world might live in peace.” On the other hand, the Canadians did not see it the way Nixon did. They believed that there was so much, “shame and failure,” that it would be impossible for Nixon to come clean about what actually happened in Vietnam. Rather, it would benefit both Nixon and the American people if Nixon spoke to them about how the Americans were honorable in the war. Ultimately, the purpose of the ten year conflict goes back to the fear of the spread of communism.

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  5. Nixon, by using his "Peace with Honor" speech, claimed that he had brought peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia by bringing up an agreement to end the war. He stated that ending the war was not the most significant thing, but it was "getting peace the right way" that mattered the most. However, In Canada, they viewed Nixon's end of the Vietnam War as a failure. Canada thought that Nixon's speech was romanticized and as it says on the context, "It is evidently impossible for a president of the United States(Nixon) to come clean about Viet Nam".

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  6. Nixon's speech is the exact irony of the U.S.'s intervention in Vietnam. He acclaimed victory for the U.S. and summarized the U.S. retraction of the Vietnam War as "Peace with honor". The peace that Nixon assumed is obviously not permanent; the honor is a pure illusion for the American public. The whole speech is a lie to justify U.S.'s lost in Vietnam War. Outside of U.S., critics deem Nixon's "peace with honor" as "exit with face saved". U.S.'s reluctancy to admit its fiasco in Vietnam is one of the major causes for the procrastination of the Vietnam War. Overall, U.S.'s failure in Vietnam is not unprecedented. U.S. had been defeated by Communism every time, despite U.S.'s determination on eliminating Communism. The Vietnam War is not just another failure, but also the biggest failure.

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  7. Nixon's speech was somewhat to make it sound as if we had won the Vietnam War and that it had positive results for us, when in fact it didn't. He says he wants to honor those who sacrificed so that the people of South Vietnam could live in freedom. The whole ten year conflict was just an attempt to stop the spread of communism and weaken the influence of communism. We failed.

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  8. Nixon played off the speech to make it seem like we had somewhat won the war and said it was "peace with honor" to make it seem like we did this because of our honor. Outside powers saw this as Nixon trying to cover up what mistakes the American government has made by going into a war they never should have gotten involved in and loosing to a minuscule power such as Vietnam, The 10 year conflict was a way to show that we were a super power but unfortunately we failed and showed our weaknesses.

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  9. Overall i thought that Nixon's speech was very straight to the point yet very broad at the same time. Almost every other word (not really) but the word communism was used at least once per sentence. You can tell that he carefully thought out his speech by the way in which he addressed events so that the public who was listen would hear a mistake by the government, hear how the US made it better, hear how Nixon made it better and here how America was better, so that by the time he got to the end of the speech, you cant remember how it started. Overall, by using the term "10 year conflict" just makes the US seem like they went to battle for 10 years over a small little conflict and won when in reality it was a big war and we lost.

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  10. Nixon made his speech "Peace With Honor" sound as if we had won the war and that we should leave Veitnam with peace and honor. I think his idea to ceasefire a couple days later was trying to make the end of the war seem "honorable." He also wanted to try and honor those who served for our country, but if we hadn't tried to be the hero and jumping into the war to stop communism right away many would not have died. Nixon's speech includes the word "peace" just to make the Americans feel better that our two countries are at peace now, when actually many people from both countries died so there will never be peace. Nixon's speech also failed to mention the worst details of the war, which the American's might not have recognized but certianly outsiders did.

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  11. Nixon's speech was mostly done to sugar-coat the end of the war, to make it look as if America was not running away with its tail between its legs. In reality, there was little honor in our occupation of Vietnam, and we certainly did not leave it in peace. In fact, more than fifty-thousand Vietnamese were killed in the first year of "peace." But there was some truth to the speech. Nixon stated that the key to a settlement in Vietnam lay in Beijing and Moscow rather than in Hanoi. This is because the North Vietnamese depended completely on the immense military support coming from China and the USSR. More importantly, Vietnam itself was inconsequential. We were only there to contain the spread of communism. The real problem lied in China and the USSR from where communism was spreading.

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  12. Nixon was trying really hard to look like the good president and guy after a 10 year war with his speech and trying to persuade people that this war was leading the world to peace. However, there was no way that South and North Vietnam were going to be in peace as he states after all the damage caused to one another in the past 10 years. The Canadian reaction was similar to this, stating that there was no way that the world would be in peace after this long, hurtful war. In the article it is also states how Canada thought that the US acted really stupid in this situation. Nixon defends himself by saying that this war was leading to peace and that was the main goal of it but in reality the US had been really really selfish once more and just wanted to show their power and the power of a democracy and capitalism.

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  13. Nixon's speech "Peace with Honor" brought america together ending the war. This speeches title says it all Peace is what they have achieved. Between the US and SouthAsia after a long war. He was trying to say how he was a good president and has made this country peace with another. He wanted to show how much power he has gotten over the past 10 years winning this war.

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  14. Nixon's speech was an effort to try and tie up loose ends after the war. He wanted everyone to know that the war was over, and there would be peace. But when in reality, there wouldn't be peace in Vietnam, at least for a little while, because there was so much damage done in their country. This speech had the intention of covering up the fact that we lost the war, which is a big deal because it was one of the only times that has happened. Canada also knew that it would be hard for there to be peace because the war was so long and damaging. The speech also didn't reveal the true intentions of the US in its war effort.

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  15. Nixon was trying to ensure that the world knew that there was a reason for all of this death and destruction. he wanted people to know that all the american lives and Vietnamese lives were lost for the common cause of perpetual peace in the world. he also wanted people to know that better days were coming for the entire world not just americans. this speech was taking responsibility , showing a plan and intimidation for any nation trying to threaten another sovernty

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  16. President Nixon totally censures his speech by ignoring the atrocities committed during this time of war. His Peace With Honor speech was intended to give assurance and hope to the American people that we had won the war and that South Vietnam will experience freedoms and liberties thanks to the efforts of American soldiers. The reception outside the United States was much more realistic with the Canadians saying that the war brings shame and dishonor to America because of what occurred over in South East Asia. In all, the purpose of the war was to stop the spread of Communism in Asia and get a foothold in Asia in terms of US influence

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  17. Although US is a democratic country, the speech Nixon gave, I disagree and I think it is totally brain washing to the American People. This War America just fought in apparently the US didn't get anything out of it but a load of shame. Therefore I think what ever he said, he was just trying to justice fighting in this proxy war. Ultimately, he was just trying to get the nationalism out of American people and hope for the least criticism on the ultimately failure of this war.

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  19. I think this speech was a wrap up to the Vietnam War and a final attempt to appease the people for going into this war in the first place. Since the beginning, many people were resisting against the idea of intervening into the Vietnam War. It was after all a foreign affair, very complex and really had nothing that could directly affect the US. However, the president told people that it was the duty of the US to intervene. Many people were opposed to this, both the people fighting and the ones staying at home. This was a proxy war and most people knew it. I believe this speech was made in order to help give the people a sense of closure about the Vietnam War and a final attempt to justify it to the people of the United States.

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