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- Continuity and Change: Vietnam War vs. Afghanistan War
- In terms of continuity, we can see similarities in the horrific actions taken by the US in both wars. In the Vietnam war, the My Lai Massacre comes to mind, where US soldiers entered the town of My Lai on a search and destroy mission, but proceeded to kill 300 unarmed citizens instead, for no apparent reason. Similarly, in the Afghanistan war US soldiers would take civilians as prisoners and torture them for information. One of the most notorious prisons was Guantanamo Bay, where many innocent civilians were detained and brutally tortured. The parallels can be seen, although not the same exact situation, in times of war the US army gives in and takes part in horrific war crimes against civilians, whatever the reasons may be.
- As for change, it can be seen in terms of the support for both wars. For the Vietnam war, there was major pushback, especially from veterans who had been there. One veteran, John Kerry, says that it felt like the US army was being sent out to fight against rice farmers who couldn't tell the difference from communism and democracy. As a result of this, many people were strongly against the war because they didn't see the danger. In contrast, basically everyone was in support of the war in Afghanistan. Following the tragedy of 9/11, people were up in arms against the middle east. They wanted someone to be held accountable, and they wanted to strip Bin Laden and other dangerous leaders of their power. The stark difference in support for both wars can be seen, where people were against the Vietnam war, they were in support of the Afghanistan war. It comes down to the fact that people saw no danger from Vietnam, so they didn't see the point in sending men to die over seas. However, 9/11 acted as a catalyst, uniting America against the middle east.
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