Is War All That Bad?

Hey guys. So the theme of this class is how to tell a true war story. And that is what I want to do right now, but it might not be how you think it will be. One of my favorite movies is called Hoodwinked and it has a quote that says, "If a tree falls in the forest, you'll get three stories, yours, mine and the tree's." That is what I want to look at with this post. Maybe not your story or my story, but the tree's story. I want to turn everything upside down and look at is from a different angle.

I want to look at the Vietnam War, but from the Vietnamese civilian's prospective.

Many people and soldiers thought that the South Vietnamese were unappreciative of the Americans that were fighting for they're freedom from Communist aggression. That, however, is not the case. In his article, “Villager Attitudes During the Final Decade of the Vietnam War,” Mark Moyar explains what the villagers were really feeling. There was a point in time when the South Vietnamese supported the Viet Cong, but it was short-lived. Moyar writes, “In 1965, the attitudes began to change. The villagers began to think less highly of the VC and more highly of the GVN. Yet most Americans did not perceive this change, then or since, and thought that the attitudes of the villagers remained more or less the same.” The South Vietnamese stopped supporting the Viet Cong, and began backing the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN). Further, the South Vietnamese did not resent the Americans or the GVN when the violence began intensifying. Moyar addresses this by saying, “When powerful Allied attacks commenced in the VC-dominated villages, the populace's willingness to cooperate with the VC usually dropped off rapidly.” These were a grateful people that were being freed from Communist aggression. They came to view Americans as liberators and when they had the chance, they chose to free themselves from the Viet Cong. 

As you can see, the general opinion is not always what is correct. While many people assumed the South Vietnamese were ungrateful for the help of the Americans, the reality was quite the opposite.