The early stages of the anti-war movement in the United States to protest ending the Vietnam War started around 1964 and 1965 just a few years after it started. During this time there was a lot going on in America with the civil rights movement and the anti-cold War movement. This was one of the most troubling times for Americans. All Americans were split into some sort of movement and the anti-war movement in America kind of put people’s perspectives together. The anti-war movement involved people coming from various other political activists/organization groups such as; the activist movement to stop the Cold War between the United States and the communists, middle-class students from university and their parents, and also the black community with inspiring political and celebrity figures which included Martin Luther King junior, Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali. In addition, there were World War I and two veterans who were also fighting in the Vietnam War. There were dozens of communities, backgrounds, and different cultured people with different perspectives but ultimately the aspirations to fight together as one whole community.
I believe the black community played quite a big part in the anti-war movement in America when young black Americans were heading to fight the war in Vietnam. The United States politicians believed prompting mixed-race unit groups to fight in the Vietnam War would help persuade them to take part in the war. A big part of the ethnic minorities was black and there were a lot of problems with the black communities in America with not having equal rights and young black men wanting to prove themselves to the white American society they were just as capable of doing anything like them. As soon as the Americans persuaded more and more ethnic minorities into the war and gave them education and medical care etc. they saw they were not winning, and more and more black Americans were being killed. They started questioning why we were traveling to Vietnam to fight when our enemies were the white people back in the States. Soon there were more riots and property damages in protest and with political figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammed Ali the political activist finally speaking out about the war. To begin with, Dr. King Jr. was hesitant to speak out about the war as he did not want to go against President Johnson who just signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 declaring all minorities are equal and no color, culture, or background is superior to the other. It was not until a few years later that Dr. King Jr. went to the UN and did his famous Vietnam war speech to encourage politicians to come to some sort of agreement and stop the war and bring back all of the US troops. Another celebrity who set an example for the American people was the great boxer, Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali was a black American who converted is Islam and represented the black community. Ali was the greatest heavyweight of our time but in 1967 Ali stood against the United States and refused to go to us as he believed there was a war going on with white people in our own country and he didn’t want to go fight any Vietnamese people. He was then trilled and sent to prison for five years and stripped of his world heavyweight boxing titles. The news circulated in the media to numerous black communities, and people were furious and agreed with Ali this did not help the United States with their persuasion to the black American communities.
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The biggest offense in Vietnam that shook the citizens of the United States was the Tet offense in 1986. The Tet offense was planned by the Vietnamese soldiers on the lunar new year which is an equivalent celebration of Christmas in the United States. The Tet offense was a notorious plan by the Vietnamese Cong guerrillas to construct numerous attack plans with full force and to bomb and raid the southern cities of Vietnam and they also raided the United States embassy in Vietnam. This was a big hit to the United States as there were American reporters in Vietnam publicly reporting on the events in Vietnam. The news of the Vietnam War from their president and politicians was that they were winning the war or that the Viet Cong were struggling in fighting their troops. But the reality changed dramatically when the Tet offense occurred, and the news broke out and American civilians lost faith in the leader and country. The United States politicians and President Johnson persuaded the public that they were winning the war. The Americans believed they would win this war with their vast amounts of wealth, manpower, and technology. The false words of the politicians would not hide the truth they were seeing on the news. The public were in debasement and with anti-war protest persuading more civilians, this war was not justified. Dr King Jr was killed a few months later this invoked huge protests and riots across America and this did not help President Johnson to persuade his country. President Johnson was under numerous amounts of stress and pressure as the country was losing faith in him.
President Johnson wasn’t just fighting a battle in Vietnam but was also in a war with the Vietnamese politicians politicians as they tried and come to some sort of an agreement but would often come to a stalemate conclusion which didn’t help anyone in trying to resolve these matters.
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Essay on Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King.
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