Things_they_carried_modernism

Lacy Rogers Mrs. Ackerman! Summary Response Things Carried

Summary: This article is the speech that President Richard Nixon gave televised on November 3, 1969 addressing all aspects of the Vietnam War. The address is also called the Silent Majority Speech. He assures the people that he knows that the American people are losing and most of them have lost their trust in the US government because of the war. He tells the truth about the war, but insists that if they pull out, they will be doing the opposite of peace and turning their back on their fellow allies and friends. Response: In this speech, Nixon main focus is telling America that pulling out of Vietnam would cause way more trouble than the war itself. To begin with, Nixon bluntly states that “our precipitate withdrawal would inevitably allow the Communists to repeat the massacres which followed their takeover in the North 15 years before; they then murdered more than 50,000 people and hundreds of thousands more died in slave labor camps”. Upon reading this article, I immediately thought of the War on Terror that is happening in our lives today. Though it is nothing compared to Vietnam, many people have lost trust in their government and more importantly our current President Bush. Just like Nixon, Bush insists that pulling out will reverse all the progress that they have made and end up causing more trouble than the war itself. Bush is in the same situation as Nixon except in a different time and a different fight. Bush is just like Nixon in thinking: “I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal of all Americans from Vietnam [or Iraq] without regard to the effects of that action, or we can persist in our search for a just peace through a negotiated settlement if possible, or through continued implementation of our plan for Vietnamization [Iraqi Freedom] if necessary, a plan in which we will withdraw all of our forces from Vietnam [Iraq] on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese [Iraqi people] become strong enough to defend their own freedom” (Richard).

Questions: In what ways besides the President’s attitudes towards the conflicts, is the Vietnam War and the Iraq War similar? How are they different? Should we end today’s war like Vietnam? Is Lt. Cross’s thinking about the war, the opinion of soldiers fighting today? Or of the American people today? (pg. 41-43)

Opening Activity:

Compare the two leaders: Saddam Hussein and Viet Minh

http://www.youtube.com/v/U6JJBivnHOY&hl=en http://www.youtube.com/v/QmLI8gW8Yo8&hl=en

Works Cited: Blyn, Robin. "O'Brien's //The Things They Carried//." __Explicator__. 61.3 (Spring 2003) 189. Rpt. in __Contemporary Literary Criticism__. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 211. Detroit: Gale, 2006. p189. __Literature Resource Center__. Gale. ARAPAHOE HIGH SCHOOL. 30 Apr. 2008 <[|http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=litt24484>. "Richard Nixon: Vietnam War speech (1969)." __World History: The Modern Era__. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 30 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com>.]