How did public perceptions of the vietnam war change between 1964 and 1969?
The thing about Vietnam was it was the first heavily media covered war - so for the first time people were seeing up close and personal how bad war was. That's why you have all these iconic photos of terrible things from that war - My Lai; the napalm girl walking and crying; the execution of the VC by the general; even John McCain being dragged from the water after his plane went down. Then on top of that awful stuff in the paper's daily, you had a draft instituted - so young men were being ordered from their families to fight. It changed the perception entirely, from a winnable, decent and hopefully quick conflict, to an entirely ridiculous and wrong war.
Was the Vietnam War necessary? Why or why not?
Was the Vietnam War necessary in the sense that war was the only way for independence for Viet Nam ?No."I saw Halifax last week and told him quite frankly that it was perfectly true that I had, for over a year, expressed the opinion that Indo-China should not go back to France but that it should be administered by an international trusteeship. France has had the country-thirty million inhabitants for nearly one hundred years, and the people are worse off than they were at the beginning.As a matter of interest, I am wholeheartedly supported in this view by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and by Marshal Stalin. I see no reason to play in with the British Foreign Office in this matter. The only reason they seem to oppose it is that they fear the effect it would have on their own possessions and those of the Dutch. They have never liked the idea of trusteeship because it is, in some instances, aimed at future independence. This is true in the case of Indo-China.Each case must, of course, stand on its own feet, but the case of IndoChina is perfectly clear. France has milked it for one hundred years. The people of Indo-China are entitled to something better than that."The above was what Roosevelt responded to Secretary Cordell Hull regarding Indochina, which contained Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia. Truman had no reasons to deviate when he became President after Roosevelt died. The UN Trusteeship plan was no secret to all the Asian powers.For something to be 'necessary', that thing must be elemental, or an inevitable consequence of, or an indispensable factor in order for something else. If you have no air, you will die. If you mix two different colors, you would get a third and different color. If you water a seed, you will get a plant.If Indochina was allowed to enter trusteeship as originally conceived, Viet Nam would have independence without the bloodshed we know today.