The Vietnam War heightened social, political and economic tensions in the United States with events such as the Gulf of Tontine incident, the Kent State massacre, and the war powers act. Then the drafting started.
James Fallows describes how he witnessed fresh graduates from high schools were being drafted (Document F). Mr.. King Jar. Was very upset as he learned about the racial statistics about the draft (Document C).The people started to rotes against the war through marches, occupations and songs. One song (Document B) was written saying “you’re dead if you go to Vietnam.
” The intensity of the peoples’ dismay was intensified after the people realized that civilians were being killed over on the battle ground, many by the Green Berets which were first introduced. The soldiers did not like the fighting either. Many of them were draftees and did not want to be there in the first place. To make things worse for them, the enemy was not easily detectable because of the guerilla tactics the Vetting were using.The heat, humidity and the rain caused a lot of foot problems and disease spread quickly. The fire ants and snakes did not make things any easier. “If the people are against this war at home,” many thought, “why am I still here? ” The dirty look went directly to the politicians.
The heightened political tensions first began in 1 964 right after the Gulf of Tontine Incident. The president was given a blank check, called the Gulf of Tontine Resolution (Document A). This allowed the president decide how to deal with this attack which ended up being a war.With the enemy being communist, North Vietnamese guerilla soldiers, the Lignite States forces burned down villages and even killed civilians for cautionary purposes. This part was hidden from the civilians at home. But when the people found out about how the army is killing the people they are supposed to be protecting, they were very upset. We had no control of what was happening on the front when the media said we had total control (Document E).
The Pentagon Papers were also leaked during this time which sealed the deal.The trust in the United States Government took a major hit. To re-attract the populations’ trust, President Nixon spoke to the nation in his “Address to the Nation” in 1969 (Document G) which was a failure. Towards the end of the war, Congress maintains order by limiting the power of the president’s commander-in-chief abilities. The War Powers Act was passed in 1 973 (Document l). The people and Congress did not want to go through something like that again. Not only did the war cost lives but the United States took a financial blow as well.
Contruct a Confidence Interval Estimate
Go to a local library; collect a sample of books consisting of the ages of book (based on copyright dates). Plan and describe the sampling procedure, then use the results to construct a confidence interval estimate of the mean age of all books in the library. Please, post and share your results with the class.