General Discussions

Older men declare war, but it is the youth that must fight and die.

the drafted part could be a big part, you have people that don't want to be there that have never seen these kind of things, they break down, and when they write back to family they exaggerate and that persons family tells another person about the horror..the domino effect it what I feel it was. I had an uncle who died on Hamburger Hill-*It's also the reason I'll never except Racism*

Statistically, only 1/4 of soldiers who served IN Vietnam were drafted, and the vast majority of those were in support and service specialties.

Combat troops in Vietnam were almost exclusively volunteers. We're talking upwards of 90% of them being volunteers.

lol i love the vast majority of answers by non-americans, not that they wouldn't know still just funny.

The vietnam conflict, cause the US actually hasn't been in a declared war since WWII, wasn't about "conquering a third world nation" as someone said, hell we failed even getting across the boarder. It was all about finding and killing the one dude who's name is eluding me and I don't feel like looking it up. But this was all during the time of a huge "humanism" movement and like somebody said the era of hippies who were pro tree and anti war. And to stupid and hoped up on psychedelics to realize the war wasn't the soldiers faults.

Nothing in that paragraph makes much sense.

"US actually hasn't been in a declared war since WWII"

This is hardly relevant. You don't need to officially declare war to be involved in one. That's a nitpick made up by the anti-military lobby.

"hell we failed even getting across the boarder"

Except for the invasions of North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

"huge "humanism" movement and like somebody said the era of hippies who were pro tree and anti war."

Mankind has been in a "humanism movement" since ancient Greece. "Humanism" as a philosophical movement has no connection to anything "hippy" or "pro-tree" or "anti-war"; A humanistic philosophy is merely one which attributes human actions to human decisions. Mainstream Christianity is a branch of Humanism.

The various video footage is also said to have turned people against the war. From what I've heard, it made the war seem much worse than it actually was. U.S. soldiers weren't in too much trouble, but to U.S. citizens overseas, it was a lost cause.

They invaded with the intent to prevent the country from becoming a communist state. All they achieved was a twenty-year drain on the nation's coffers and the deaths of thousands.

We didn't "invade" South Vietnam. Our presence was piteously begged for since 1920.