Wednesday, March 17, 2010

American way of making history

America is one of the most powerful leaders in the world. they have economical power and international one at the same time. They have numerous population and huge lands. And these surrounding conditions helped America get the power. However, they also are evaluated as a high level and their culture is very influential. so American cultural power is easily shown to our Korean country. For example, their music, Hollywood films are very popular to Korea and eastern countries. American style foods are also well know to us as MacDonald, KFC, TGI Friday, and etc. above all, America has cultural comparative power in the history. Many Korean people curious about this opinion. When we comparing their history with ours, American history is absolutely shorter than Korean history. American history is only few hundreds. but Korean history is more than two thousand years. what's happening here? why korean history can't be regarded as good level as American history? From the Vietnam war, Koreans can find the reason why Amercan has historical power.
From the beginning of the Vietnam war, American didn't have any right to participate. It was a simple war between France and Vietnam. But, America participated in the war for the purpose of protecting Vietnamese from communist. At that time, there was cold-war between USSR and the U.S. so that the U.S. used "Domino theory" for making necessity of participating. America insisted that the slump of Vietnam would spark a global wave of communist triumphs. Moreover, Americans always had won other wars for example, Korean war:) before the Vietnam war. They were sure to win aganist Vietcong. Their enemy, Vietcong, already was supported by almost Vietnamese people and government people. More than worse, American troops were hard to distinguish enemy from villagers. They had to kill the civilians even though they were children. After America was defeated, they were still insited that they did right thing and instead of their guilt, Americans blamed Vietnam. For example, Ho-Chi Minh was knowan as a [person without a father] at that time. In short, dominant culture of the USA justified their reason of the war though America was defeated.
After some decades, new thoughts and voices about Vietnam war came out in the USA robert McNamura. He admitted that American imperialism made the Vietnam War more serious and it sacrificed many American young ppl and Vietnamese. Furthermore, Bob Kerry revelaed his true experiences and opinions about Vietnam War in newspapers and television screens. He said that he was very shameful about his war experiences. He described that his Navy seal killed innocent women and children while on a mission in the Mekong Delta. He aslo mentioned a story about free-fire zone where Americans were too aggressive. McNamura and Kerry's attitudes were absolutely in contradicition to dominate ideas. Nevertheless, these men bravely began to admit American unrighteous and insisted that American apologize Vietnamese for their sin. From these Kind of brave men, different idea about Vietnam war steadily was produced in American society. American thinks about the war again. This is aganist theory.
History is like a pyramid. If u see a pyramid on the side, you would think the pyramid as a triangle. But if you see it on the top, you would think the pyramid as a square. so throughout these all sort of view, you can guess the real shape of pyramid. Just as pyramid, history also needs various and different point of view to understand of get the right direction. Compare with Korea, Amerca has some ppl like Bob Kerry, and ppl who suggest different point of view aganist main ideas. Their attitude develops their own history. That's why American have high level of history even though they have short period of history.

21 comments:

  1. I like this post good job David. I also interested in history.

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  2. It is true that America made mistakes in the war, but what we did was nothing compared to the vietcong. nowhere close. they literally used civilian children as shields. with the nature of our enemy, it was almost impossible to win without bending a few rules. that doesnt make it right, just more understandable.

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  3. At the time, we thought it was our best option, but looking back now they look like mistakes. I'm not much of a history buff, but good post.

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  4. Our country likes to get involved with wars that we have no business being in. Some wars are just but others are for no point or that have nothing to do with us. Good Post.

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  5. I liked this post, and I think that we all made mistakes in the Vietnam War.

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  6. The Vietnam War is usually a touchy subject to some Americans, as it was one of the only (If not the single only) war we have majorly lost. It goes to show you though that even a small country can defeat one of the worlds biggest superpowers.

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  7. Good post. The Vietnam War was a tragic time and we lost a lot of good people.

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  8. Any "team" can win on any given day. America is one of the world's powerhouse countries, but we are not untouchable, so it is important to stay strong for the people of our nation.

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  9. Good Post!! :) It was interesting!

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  10. I agree with you. Americans have a right to say their opinion. This makes them to say the truth or makes them to critisize for something.

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  11. I thought this post was very interesting. I think that we went into the Vietnam War with good intentions, but it didn't really turn out the way we planned.

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  12. Very informative, this author knows their stuff!

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  13. America has a short history, but it has alot of conflict and turmoil. This has to do with all the different ethnicities and our democratic government.

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  14. hmmm "domino effect", seems to be thrown around a lot. Good post

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  15. Although America's history is limited, its accomplishments and advancements are not. It is interesting to learn of how great an impact our coutry has on other cultures.

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  16. This post was very informative. Good post!

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  17. Interesting post..The Vietnam War proves that a small country can take on America.

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. Very good post. Good things to know.

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  20. This can also go to show how some "cancer" situations can shape an entire historical event as some stories got out about the tragedies in Vietnam and most of America started to protest it.

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  21. This post, while it has major flaws, shows some serious effort on Baker's part, for which we must applaud her/him.

    The issue discussed is how history is written, and how that influences culture and the reach of a culture across the globe. Anyone interested in studying history or culture should take note of what Baker says, because it is borne out as true in most of the studies done on the subject.

    Authors of history can alter the way nations and wars are perceived at a later time, which can in turn influence their popularity.

    Truly, it seems that every genre of writing has its effect on society and the culture it creates/is created from.

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