Madison Allen

Professor Babcock
Rhetoric and Civic Life I
10 October 2020

The United States is a nation born out of war and embroiled in it. For 222 years out of the

244 years since our Founding Fathers declared our independence from tyrannical rule, this

country has been at war (Global Research). We, as one great American people, took down the

world’s most powerful nation to create our own, we fought in the gas filled trenches of Belgium

and France, and we jumped out of planes to look Hitler in the eye. We also have destroyed holy

lands, we have lost generations of young men, and we have fought in wars we had no place to be

in. The difference? The perception of the American public; how we saw the war—good vs. evil,

right vs. wrong. War is almost certainly never just or called for, but along with our leaders, we

try to justify the bloodshed when we feel it needs justifying. The 20th century brought us two

wars that perfectly capture this dilemma: The Second World War and Vietnam. These two

images were produced just a couple of decades apart but tell very different stories. One leans on

the patriotism and sense of duty that Americans naturally have for their country, and the other

shows the civil dissent that defines us. One image was created for their fathers, another created

because of their sons. Twenty years separate the wars, but it might as well be a lifetime.
Madison Allen
Professor Babcock
Rhetoric and Civic Life I
10 October 2020

The Just War Theory is a philosophy often used to try to reconcile the belief that human

life is innocent and precious, and the belief that nation states have the inherent right and duty to

protect its citizens against injustice (BBC). World War II is widely considered to be a perfect

example of this theory at play. This war had immeasurable tolls on the world, both in those

moments and in the way it shaped globe for decades to come. There is little argument to be made

that war is glorious in its being but is instead the ugliest side of our humanity. However, World

War II was necessary to cease the progress of fascism as it started to make terrifying moves on

both sides of the world. Adolf Hitler was one of the most evil men in history. He committed

countless war crimes and murdered millions in the small amount of time that he held power. The

Holocaust remains the most disgusting and devastating of ethnic genocides that this world has

ever known. Emperor Hirohito and the Empire of Japan wreaked havoc in Asia the way Hitler

did in Europe. The Rape of Nanjing is seldom discussed but is comparable to the Gestapo and

the ghettos in Warsaw. This war was as black and white as they come. There were clear “bad”

guys and clear “good” guys. It was a war of fighting evil. There is little debate around the

necessity of the war. Hitler and Hirohito needed to be stopped before entire peoples were erased

from the map. The United States and the Allied Powers swooped in, saving Europe and the South

Pacific from tyrannical rule and dictatorship. Vietnam, on the other hand, was far from being

black and white.; it is as murky as they come. Vietnam was a proxy war fought during the Cold

War, meaning it was fought between two nations acting on the behalf of others. In this case it

was the South Vietnamese and US forces against the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, and the

USSR. This war was fought over the clashing ideologies of democracy and communism, a clash

that defined the latter half of the century. To many Americans, there was no clear point to why
Madison Allen
Professor Babcock
Rhetoric and Civic Life I
10 October 2020

we were fighting this war other than the fact that communism and the Russians were our

enemies. There weren’t mass ethnic genocides, instead Americans were the ones committing a

vast majority of the war crimes. Young men from across the nation were being drafted to die in

foreign lands, thousands of miles from home, because the US government believed this was the

best way to preserve the ideal of democracy and stop the spread of communism. There was little

justification for a war we were not winning against an enemy we could not see.

One of the biggest assets to a nation at war is propaganda. This is a multi-faceted tool

that nations use to not only demoralize their enemy, but also use to motivate their people (AHA).

It has found incredible importance in modern warfare, often becoming symbols of the time

period. This propaganda poster above comes from World War II, where massive wartime efforts

were needed on the home front almost as much as they were needed on the front lines. This

specific poster was intended to appeal the American sense of duty for their country, whether they

were in foxholes in the Ardennes or if they were on couches in Alabama. The words on the

poster read “Defend American Freedom. It’s everybody’s job.” These words use pathos to appeal

to the general public whose nation and very ideals were on the line. Despite the immense

popularity and support of the war, wartime is wartime, and it takes its toll on everyone. This

poster, along with others including “Rosie the Riveter”, was a way that the US government was

able to reach out to average Americans and make them feel important; make them feel needed.

Uncle Sam is depicted on the poster in a fashion echoing that of the famous “I want you for the

U.S. Army” poster that was created during the First World War thirty years prior. This time,

Uncle Sam is pictured in the dress more common to that of everyday Americans, with a baseball

cap and rolled up sleeves. This imagery is used to subtly convey the importance of blue-collar
Madison Allen
Professor Babcock
Rhetoric and Civic Life I
10 October 2020

jobs like factory work in a wartime economy. There is a small outline at the bottom of the page

that shows rising smokestacks next to barns and homes, further blending the idea that this was

not just a job for soldiers, but it was a job for everyone.

Civil dissent is an integral part of our democracy. Our greatest strides in the achievement

of equal rights have been the direct result of such. Women gained the right to vote after many

years of taking their demands to the streets. Black men and women gained their civil rights after

marching through Selma and much of the preceding decade. Today, many still take to the streets

to demand justice for those who have been squashed by a broken system not meant to uphold

equality. The Vietnam War and all its horrors are no exception. The outrage surrounding

Vietnam ebbed and flowed as the blunders of the US government changed with each news cycle.

In the beginning, many Americans believed that it was our national duty to protect the South

Vietnamese from the ugly claws of communism that was brewing up north. However, as the war

dragged on, it became increasingly more difficult to justify the sheer cost of the war monetarily,

environmentally, and physically. The mounting casualties both military and civilian was widely

unpopular in the American public. When the Pentagon Papers were published in 1971, there was

widespread outrage. The papers included evidence that multiple presidents and their

administrations had been systematically lying to the American public about US involvement in

Vietnam (History.com). These papers only made the support for the war erode even quicker than

it had before. As seen in the image above, the anti-war movement became a strong force on the

streets and a defining factor of the late 1960s and early 70s. This image was taken at a protest

where a sign that reads “My son was killed in Vietnam. What for America?” can be seen. This

reflects the exact sentiment of many across the nation. For American parents, many of whom
Madison Allen
Professor Babcock
Rhetoric and Civic Life I
10 October 2020

who had fought in Europe, this was a common question. Why were their sons dying? What was

this all for? There were too many questions and certainly not enough answers. Protests were

held at state and federal buildings, on college campuses, and on stage. The music of the era was

dominated by Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and many of the greats singing about the horrible

realities that were taking place in a nation so far from home. In every city in every state across

the union, young men were being selected by a draft number and losing a lottery based almost

solely on what day their mother had decided to give birth. College students around the country

staged “die-ins” amongst other protests to demand an end to the draft and an end to the war. The

popularity of the war was further threatened by the class and racial divide that the draft had

created amongst Americans. Despite many protests occurring at college campuses, there was one

thing that separated academia from the GIs—academia got a free pass out of the war. This meant

that wealthier and largely white American men got to burn their draft cards and replace them

with report cards. For poorer Americans, especially minorities, they had no choice but to go fight

for a country who so often never fought for them. Black men were dying in rice paddies for a

nation who wouldn’t let them sit in the front of a bus while their white counterparts sat in their

palaces of privilege, demanding an end to the war they had never seen. For those who had to sit

idly by while the leaders they had elected gambled with their lives and the lives of their sons,

there was little more they could do but voice their dissent.

The wars differed in many ways, but one of the most glaring separations is that of the will

to fight. In World War II, many young men felt it was not only their duty, but an honor to serve

their country. Although the Selective Training and Service Act was passed and instituted in 1940

(National World War II Museum), the opposition and impact pales in comparison to that of
Madison Allen
Professor Babcock
Rhetoric and Civic Life I
10 October 2020

Vietnam. A large portion of that can be connected to the Just War Theory and the widely held

belief that the United States was fighting the good fight. When John F. Kennedy said “Ask not

what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” at his inauguration,

many of those from the generation that fought WWII held the same ideals. Many believed that

serving your country, no matter at what personal cost, was the inherent duty of able-bodied

American men and women. The generation that followed them would not have the same call of

duty or feel the same honor that their mothers and fathers had in those early years of the 1940s.

The unclear motives and intentions of the war in Vietnam made it hard to feel these things about

a nation, especially when the lives of American GIs felt disposable. The young men returning

home from their tour of duty were not met with the same welcome their fathers had been given.

They were met with jeers and spit in their face. They were met with cries of “baby killer” and

“murderer” just moments after doing what this very same country had asked of them. There was

no VE day where soldiers drank Hitler’s champagne in Berchtesgaden or VJ day with sailors

kissing nurses in San Diego. The only thing the soldiers received from the nation so indebted to

them were taunts and a broken support system. Yes, the men of Vietnam had fathers who held

the line at the Battle of the Bulge, but these men left their childhood on every acre of rice paddy

and every inch of thick jungle without being given an ounce of respect in return. The will to fight

was so much lower in Vietnam because these men weren’t given anything to fight for. They were

given an invisible enemy and an ungrateful country.

Despite these two events being historically close to one another, an entire lifetime

separated them. The men who came home from Europe and the South Pacific were not the same

as those who came back from Vietnam. World War II was about as just of a war as they come;
Madison Allen
Professor Babcock
Rhetoric and Civic Life I
10 October 2020

Vietnam was a far cry from that. The United States government used the sense of patriotism felt

by the American public to increase wartime moral as we battled back Nazis. That same

American public could not find that same feeling for Vietnam that they had just twenty years

prior. Fathers and sons fought in these wars but could not understand things the other did. A

single generation marked the end and beginnings of war, but neither would ever be the same.

Sources:

Blog, Washington's. “America Has Been at War 93% of the Time – 222 out of 239 Years – Since 1776.” Global

Research, 20 Jan. 2019, www.globalresearch.ca/america-has-been-at-war-93-of-the-time-222-out-of-239-

years-since-1776/5565946.

“Ethics - War: Just War - Introduction.” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/war/just/introduction.shtml.

“War Propaganda: AHA.” War Propaganda | AHA, www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-

and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-2-what-is-propaganda-(1944)/war-propaganda.

History.com Editors. “Pentagon Papers.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Aug. 2011,

www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/pentagon-papers.

“The Antiwar Movement.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us//55d.asp.

“Research Starters: The Draft and World War II: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans.” The National WWII

Museum | New Orleans, www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-

starters/draft-and-wwii.