Giving 20 points for somebody to edit this by tomorrow.
Public support of a governmental power on the homefront is essential to the functioning of any society worldwide. This especially applies during large scale wars, including World War II and the Vietnam war. Without public support on the homefront, we would have a crumbling defense system and this would possibly result in the loss of American lives.
During World War II, with our enemy being Japan, the American public completely supported the war effort. Some might even say that World War II “gave birth to American spirit”. In retrospect, the Vietnam war, our enemy being North Vietnam, was not supported by the American public for many reasons. War was significantly different between World War II and Vietnam. Measuring that change and assessing the role of technology is best achieved by surveying warfare in two categories, conventional and nuclear war. Conventional war is declared, armed conflict between two or more states that employ recently developed, non-nuclear weaponry for direct combat between organized military forces. Nuclear weapons may be deployed, and their use may be threatened, but they are not actually fired. Nuclear war is limited to the combat or threatened combat in which nuclear weapons are the principal instruments of engagement. The weapons themselves may range from strategic nuclear weapons, which are generally aimed at the enemy's infrastructure or nuclear forces, to tactical nuclear weapons, which are aimed at the enemy's military forces on the battlefield. The transformation of conventional war in the second half of the twentieth century was shaped by the experience of World War II. The technological developments in the comparatively short time period of World War II gave the American public hope, enabling them to better support the American government’s choices. Despite this, in Vietnam, there were better ways of sharing media including music and television that enabled the spreading of opinions. As the television began to go into development, videos of battles in Vietnam were broadcast, showing Americans really what happened in war.
Not only did technological development affect the opinions of the American public, specific events did as well. Two important events included the My Lai Massacre and the Kent State Shootings. During the My Lai Massacre, a company of American soldiers slaughtered the majority of the population of the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai in March 1968. In May of 1970, college students at Kent State University in Ohio began protesting the war. The president, Richard Nixon ordered the Ohio National Guard to supervise and control the protests. As a result of this order, 4 unarmed college students were shot. Although we do not know whom provoked whom, it is widely assumed that the National Guard was in fault, not the college students. These two events greatly affected the opinions of the American public and assisted in the depletion of American support in Vietnam.
Many things contribute to public opinions and support, and in the cases of World War II and the Vietnam war, technological advancements and events pertaining to these wars greatly affected American support.
