Vietnam: Arrogance of Power

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the ways the U.S tried to justify the war in Vietnam. The author discusses how politicians manipulated facts to sell the war to the American public and how the use of euphemisms were often employed to soften the impact of the devastation and bloodshed. The author concludes that the Vietnam War was of total failure from a militarily, strategically, politically and a public relations perspective.

Outline:
Introduction
Thesis
Main Body of the Paper
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"It turns out that millions of antiwar demonstrators in cities large and small were right. The people beaten bloody in the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention were right. U.S. Senators Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening - the only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - were right. But beyond who was right and who was wrong, this paper will focus on the flimsy and corrupt justifications and flat out lies that cost over 58,000 American lives and millions of other lives among Vietnamese, north and south."

Sample of Sources Used:

• FitzGerald, Frances. (1972). Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
• Karnow, Stanley. (1983). Vietnam: A History. New York: The Viking Press.
• Levy, David W. (1995). The Debate Over Vietnam. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Shane, Scott. (2005). Vietnam War Intelligence: 'Deliberately Skewed,' Secret Study Says.The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com.
• Sheehan, Neil. (1988). A Bright Shining Lie. New York: Random House.

More papers on Vietnam: Arrogance of Power:

• Book Review # 220 : "The Arrogance of Power: A Criticism of America's Foreign Policy"
• Research Paper # 28121 : "Change in the Concept of Power in a Modern Organization"
• Analytical Essay # 59673 : "Frontiers of Power"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: