Death to the Communists

Death to the Communists

Vietnam to most of us is not simply a country but rather an example of the American overreach and blunder in the Cold War. The conflict raging from 1955 to 1975 is usually taught to students as a struggle that the American people strongly opposed. This is far from truthful. In fact right from the start of U.S involvement, many rallies and parades occurred in support of the war. Ultimately the United States military evacuated the country in April 1975 and the country united under a communist regime as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. However it is incredible significant that the pro-Vietnam movement does not receive more universal coverage despite the public eye’s dramatic change in opinion.

The American populace was caught up in the Cold War, and fear of communism and its threat to Western Democracy was strife. The intellectuals of America, including students and military personal caught onto the ‘Domino Theory’ a term coined by President Eisenhower in 1954 and infers that like a set of dominoes, the countries surrounding a communist state will eventually fall to the same ideology.[1] This term through its simplistic illustration brought the pro-Vietnam movement into the forefront of the conflict. One of the biggest parades in support of American involvement in Vietnam occurred on May 13, 1967 in which 70,000 supporters took part. The event, organised by Fire Captain Raymond Gimmler, involved industrial groups, veterans, students and government employees. Even when public opinion changed towards the war, the pro-Vietnam movement remained popular with their stance of ‘Peace with honour’ attitude.[2]

The introduction of media into a war zone also no doubt influenced the growing numbers of pro-Vietnam followers. Footage of battles and the heroics of war gave the American population a noble cause to gather behind. In spite of the media, boosting the pro-Vietnam movement, its larger implication was to demonise the war. Recordings of the barbarity and gruesome nature of conflict was seen in households for the first time, and the support for the war quickly diminished. In 1965, 65% of the population still largely supported armed intervention in Vietnam. After the demoralising Tet Offensive in which the war seemed to be nowhere near to ending, the U.S people started to protest against the continuing conflict and in 1968 only 33% still supported the war. The Penguin History of the Twentieth Century perfectly describes this change in attitude, ‘The late 1960s saw the sunset not of American power but rather of the illusion that American power was limitless and irresistible.’[3]

The pro-Vietnam movement was incredibly popular in the early years of the war, however this patriotism is often overshadowed by the devastation of the conflict and the shame of the U.S ‘losing’ a war to a small farming country in Asia. It is important to see how fast public opinion changed in the late 1960s and how popular the conflict was compared to the end of the war in 1975.

Jack Martin

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[1]John Roberts, The Penguin History of the Twentieth Century, new edition (penguin books Ltd, 2000), p.672.

[2] Sandra Scanlon, ‘Journal of American History: The Pro-war Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatism’, Volume 101, Issue 1, (University of Massachusetts Press, June 2014), p.341.

[3] John Roberts, The Penguin History of the Twentieth Century, p.674.