In a carefully defended 7-8 page essay, address one of topics below. Stick to the topic but do not just list answers to the prompt or cover overly broad ideas: defend your thesis by interpreting the...

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Vietnam War’s disastrous effects on a young generation
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Vietnam War’s Disastrous Effects On A Young Generation
Introduction
The Vietnam war took place because of the conflict between Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam in the year 1955. It was the second Indochina war between North and South Vietnam. Both the countries were by other superpowers on the world map. China, Soviet Union helped North Vietnam while the USA, Australia, Thailand, S. Korea helped the South. This also sometimes called a proxy war between Cold War-era. It lasted almost 19 years and had a huge impact on the world’s political map. Due to such a long-going conflict, thousands of soldiers died. Even the soldiers of the helping country’s also paid a huge toll. But these were nothing compared to the hit taken by the Vietnamese land itself. Approximately 4 million soldiers were killed or severely wounded on both sides. Life of almost 1.3 million civilians including women and children were affected badly due to the same. A large portion of death and destruction was caused by the bombing and other chemical weapons. Some studies say that the USA used much more bombs in this war compared to what was used in World War II. Various chemical weapons destroyed crops and forests of the land. Such disastrous effects of the war have been documented in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Ca
ied” and Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible”.In this essay, the same will be discussed.
Discussion
There were many aspects by which the life of Vietnamese people was affected. The effects of those ho
ible years still persist in Vietnamese history.
Bombing effects
Both North and South Vietnam used to be full of greenery before the Vietnam War. The fertile lands near the rivers were fertile and full of crops. There were many hills covered with lush vegetation. But during the was those areas were potentially hiding places for the opponents. That’s why by the use of chemical weapons the greeneries were completely destroyed to expose guerilla fighters. Also, the crops were good sources of food for the fighters. To eliminate those many areas were bombed across the country but at the same time, the civilians were extremely harmed by such occu
ences[footnoteRef:1]. [1: Stellman, Jeanne Mager, and Steven D. Stellman. "Agent orange during the Vietnam war]
The USA alone used almost over 140 pounds of explosives per acre of land in the Indochina region. The bombing did a lot of i
eplaceable damage to the community living there. The youth were not able to provide food to their family, many common lives were destroyed. The land once fertile was completely damaged. Hunger and starvation became the regular issue in the rural areas[footnoteRef:2]. The bombing and chemical application destroyed almost half of the crop production of Vietnam. The condition obliged the country to import a huge amount of crops every year which burdened the economy with more loans and credits[footnoteRef:3]. [2: Korinek, Kim, Peter Loebach, and Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan. "Physical and mental health consequences of war-related stressors among older adults: an analysis of posttraumatic stress disorder and arthritis in northern Vietnamese war survivors] [3: Young, Yvette, et al. "Assessing exposure to war-related traumatic events in older Vietnamese war survivors.]
Refugee problems
The destruction of the rural area in the war totally messed up the normal livelihood there. For common people, the war was a dreadful cause of endless suffering. Everybody lived with uncertainty. At any moment at any point of that time, they could suffer a te
ible occu
ence in their lives. That’s why many people abandoned their places where they have lived for many many generations. Millions of Vietnamese fled to the outskirts of the cities to avoid being victims of the war. But at the new places, it was very hard to a
ange a stable livelihood during such a war going on[footnoteRef:4]. [4: DiCicco, Jonathan M., and Benjamin O. Fordham. "The things they ca
ied: generational effects of the Vietnam War on elite opinion]
Military leaders believed that this was a good strategy for the war. If the rural rea of the country is cleared out the Viet Cong Guerillas won’t be able to get support and supplies from local villagers. But such decisions destroyed the normal life of many people living in those areas. Troops were sent to investigate if the rural community is helping the communist fighters. Often such individual checking was very difficult to determine any evidence of the guerilla squad connections. But in the process, many civilians were harmed unnecessarily which wasn’t fair at all.
The truth is most of the common peoples in rural sides were afraid to help either side. They were wo
ied about the...