Student Practice Response

Practice SAC: War has a damaging effect on all those involved. Do you agree?

The Vietnam War has had damaging effects to all of the people involved with it; would they be American or Vietnamese soldiers or simply innocent civilians who know someone in the war fighting somewhere. These damaging effects are not only short term, but also long term effects that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

The people who were the most affected by the war were offcourse, the soldiers. Both American and Vietnamese troops have suffered physical, mental, and emotional scars. In ‘Dear America’, we have read the letters of the people who have been fighting at the front. Deaths and injuries were a constant topic in it. Friends who have died, people who gets themselves blown apart, or just a short paragraph describing how it feels like to be under heavy bombardment. These are all evidences of how damaging the war could be.

It has been described in the letter of how infantrymen have a great bonding with each other. An American soldier had said in his letter that the men over there were like brothers, because they all share the same experiences. Comradeship has been well established among the soldiers. To lose a friend during a mission is heartbreaking for any-one who knows that person. The anguish and despair can create a different attitude like hate, for example, and could change a man’s life.
Many of the soldiers who fought in Vietnam and came home alive have a physical scar obtained through fighting. A few of the possible physical damages are amputated hands or legs, scarred faces, shrapnel wound, etc. Continuing to live will be quite a challenge for many of these soldiers as jobs will be hard to find with their disabilities. These people will never be able to live like what they used to be.

Relationships were also broken because of the distance created by the war. 2Lt. Fred Downs for example has always written to his wife but it still wasn’t enough and the marriage gave up. Any man will be hurt emotionally by this outcome, and this was a usual situation for many American soldiers who came home after the war.

People back in America have also suffered damages from the war, though not as bad as the soldiers. The Americans were split into two opinions, on wether they should be fighting or not. A situation concerning a shootout at one of the colleges resulting to a number of deaths and more wounded. The cause was the war. This only shows us that the war also did influence the people back in their homeland.

War has damaging effects to all of the people involved in it. Soldiers at the front or civilians at the back, all of them have had experienced scars due to the war would it be physically, mentally or emotionally.