American History

Greg Landon viewed the war in Vietnam as morbid. In his letter to his parents, he said that eventhough the morale of the men is fairly good considering the situation they were in, there is still an underlying gloom about the war that they were engaged in. This means that the people and even the soldiers do not have the clear idea why they were having war. There had been no effort form the military to explain the war which resulted to total ignorance to the people and soldiers about the rationale of the said war. As what Landon describes about the war in his letter, people merely viewed Vietnam to be a real hell-hole. Because of the war, the people only suffered from different human miseries such as mysterious disease, poisonous plants and snakes, contaminated water and the like.
In the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, students staged an obstructive protest at the Commerce Building against recruiters for Dow Chemical Company, makers of napalm and Agent Orange, because they believed that what was happening in Vietnam was unfair and unjust. There merely became protesters because of the abuse done by the government.
There was indeed a great dilemma in Johnson administrations policy-making. There was no unity and clarity in the commands which were received by the soldier. In fact, the soldiers do not even have the clear idea about the rationale of the war. In this light, Johnson can be considered as a failure in his decisions that resulted to great problem on the part of the soldiers.
The war in Vietnam and the protest demonstration of the students were the result of the oppressed freedom of speech, rights and privileges, liberty, leadership and responsibility. Most of the people, as described in the story, were confused and bombarded with huge dilemma because of the clash on national interest and conflict on political advocacies.
What the students had done during the war can be considered just as such they were the ones who were really affected by the war. During the war, the lay person remained affected and abused by the government while the soldiers remained ignorant about the rationale of the war. In this light, the lay persons and the soldiers were both oppressed and humiliated.