Traumatic: Vietnam War and American Dream

For many Americans, the Vietnam war was a traumatic experience in which they have seen blurring the lines between good and evil. The war stood in contradiction to their understanding of Americas role in the world as a global mediator and prophet of freedom and democracy as it is defined in the American Dream.

The Vietnam war began in 1965 and was a kind of ideologic war in the cold war. The so called “substitude war” should contain the spread of communism in South Asia (==> containment policy).

After the second world war, North and South Vietnam were devided into a communist state in the north and a democratic state in the south established by the western world. As the communist-influenced “Vietcong” was founded, the south was more and more destabilised. A civil war in the south began and so the United States interpretate this as a danger for their interests, so they start their intervention on 8th March 1965. The Vietcong had much more experience in the jungle, so America had more and more military problems. The american soilderes got psychological problems, they didn’t know anymore who is evil or good and doesn’t know what they are fighting for.
That could be the reason for the massacre to civilists of a GI-unit in My Lai. Protests in America and the world followed, America was going to lose the war and did in 1975.

This experience burned into the minds of American society and stood in contradiction to their understanding of America’s role in the world. According to the traditional cerebration America should bring peace and freedom but now they had to treat with the victory of communism in the north and the following re-unification of the country under communist control.