Vietnamkrigens Helte | SRP i Engelsk og Historie

Abstract

This paper is about the heroes of the Vietnam War and investigates what the soldiers expected of the war prior to their tours in Vietnam and also how the American Vietnam veterans were looked upon in USA when they returned from the war. It also shows which role the media and the coverage of the war played. To clarify this, an analysis is made of Ron Kovics autobiographical influenced novel, followed by the estimation regarding the media’s role through the historical source – an article from the Sunday Times. The main focus in the analysis of the novel is on the soldiers’ expectations to the war and what they experience when they return home. The result of the survey is that Ron Kovics novel shows that the war did not live up to the soldiers’ expectations and neither did their hopes of becoming war heroes when they returned. Furthermore the veterans feel let down by the government to which they sacrificed so much for. It also emerged by the survey that the atmosphere which can be found amongst the American people to some extend is due to the media coverage of the Vietnam War. In conclusion, this paper shows how the Vietnam War was unlike any other war America ever had seen, communism was the intangible enemy, and progress was hard to be made and with the television the war came straight into the Americans’ living rooms and contributed to the increasing anti-war opposition. The ones to suffer by all this were the broken-souled Vietnam Veterans, who after the war were left on their own a target to much anger and frustration that came from the growing anti-war society.

Indledningen

Vietnamkrigen opstod på grund af USA’s store frygt for kommunismen, en fjende der viste sig svær at identificere. Unge soldater kæmpede langt væk hjemmefra, og derfor er det stadig relevant at tale om krigen i Vietnam, i en tid hvor USA også i dag fører krig udenfor landets egne grænser. I opgaven vil der via en analyse og fortolkning af Ron Kovics selvbiografiske roman ”Born on the Fourth of July”, forsøges at nå frem til en bestemmelse af soldaternes egne forventninger til krigen, hvorfor de drog i krig, samt hvordan de oplevede deres hjemkomst.