Vietnam War Facts
{mosimage}Vietnam War was one of the longest war fought by America. It started in the year 1954. There were huge numbers of casualties in this war and did cost a fortune to both the countries. There were too many myths surrounding the Vietnam War which ended up the war being misunderstood by the world.
The American soldiers used inhuman and torture tactics, however the truth was the incidents of American atrocities were so rare that any isolated incident would be taken up by the media and blown out of proportion.
Though there were reports that the soldiers fighting in Vietnam were doing so against their wishes, studies carried out showed that more than 70% of the soldiers were volunteers looking forward for fighting for the country. These soldiers have done better for themselves as compared to the people who did not participate in the War. Also soldiers who participated in the War are held in high esteem by the people of America.
There also have been allegations that there were a large number of blacks who were sent off to Vietnam War. This too is untrue the number of people killed in Vietnam war only 12% approximately were blacks and 72% were Caucasians.
Vietnam War did not see uneducated and poor people dying; instead people who died at the War were highly skilled and highly educated people. The least level of education was at least high school. Some of the soldiers killed were officers and highly skilled pilots, who were assigned to the task of taking fighter planes in the area.
There were allegations that fighting in Vietnam War was not so intense as the World War II, which again happens to be a myth, there were far more casualties. People who were posted to Vietnam saw almost 240 days of action and combat, which was far higher than the World War II. Since there was heavy usage of helicopters in this war, the injured were taken to the hospitals within one hour of casualty whenever possible; this helped reduce the number of casualties. The people who died were only the ones injured beyond survival, very less number of personnel died because of lack of medical treatment.
There were also allegations that the soldiers used in this war were very young. Some of them alleged that the soldiers were as young as 19 years of age. This again has been proven untrue. Study of records show that the minimum age of those enrolled was 22. And the people who were serving in the war were nothing less that 26 years of age, thus making them adults enough.
The Vietnam War was misrepresented because it was being fought far from home. There were several facts that were twisted out of proportion to give a very unhealthy image of this War. Newer studies carried out have shown that most of the myths about this war were proven wrong and that there was no bias in selection process, in fact there were more volunteers involved in this war than there were in any other War, this was due to patriotism and people were aware that they might end up wounded for life or also die fighting for their country.