¶ … Vietnam War on the issue of class and race on the Black Americans who participated in the war too.
Vietnam War
America has in many wars, starting from the Revolutionary era to the war in Vietnam. These wars have inflicted the American society with frequent problems related to paranoia, racial prejudice and discrimination. In any war, the racial groups, ethnic minority or beliefs are discriminated against the enemy from that period, whether the enemy has been the Southerners as in the Civil War, or the Japanese in WWII, Germans or communists. However, the reality is that the Black Americans have suffered from never-ending and unprecedented discrimination irrespective of the enemy in the war. This essay highlights the issues of class and race and its affects during and after the end of the cold war in Vietnam. This paper reviews the history of how their involvement and what their treatment was like when they were equally participating in the American war with Vietnam. The harsh discrimination against the Black Americans' changed their perceptions of themselves, their country and their place in it. To give the reader a better understanding of their place in society dominated by the whites it is important to begin with the Civil War.
The Black American experience in the Civil War was horrid and ugly. It was fought to win their way out of slavery. The Black men who chose to fight in the war, had the intention of winning emancipation however, the Northerners felt that the resources which they had control of would be lost if they freed the slaves or accepted the wishes of the Black recruits. At the same time, the famous Black leader, Frederick Douglas believed that Black participation in the Civil War was a powerful argument in their future demands for full rights of citizenship ... (for)"Once let the Black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S.; let him get an eagle upon his button ... bullets in his pocket, and there...
which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States.'"
Although, the Black soldiers gave in to their demands of fighting alongside whites in the American wars, they continued to suffer discrimination as slaves No More, 'Dealings between Black soldiers and their officers generally ... carried all the historic burdens of white-Black relationships in the United States'
. Even in the wars, they were always given the mediocre positions because the whites believed that they had no skills or intellect in the sphere of war fighting. However, those who were armed proved to be assets to the American
army and it was their
success that led to gaining their
freedom through Union success. Their
devotion and hard work earned them their emancipation from
slavery and opened doors to making changes such as the formation of the Bureau of Colored Troops in 1863.
Before the World War I took place the white Americans had already developed prejudice and
racism against the black American community. This is why the blacks had to fight to be enlisted in the army. The President,
Woodrow Wilson, even stated that it was a "White man's wai." 4 Any progress which had resulted from the Civil War was undermined by the inherent racism within American society. Once again Black soldiers were generally placed in menial positions; JR. Johnson identifies that 'Of the 200,000 Negroes who went to France some 160,000 were used as servants and in labor battalions'.
World War I according to the American society was actually a war fought to win
democracy and
equal rights for all. This is why the Black Americans believed that if they fought for democracy in the Vietnam War they would win it at home too. The Black leader W.E.B. Du Bois suggested,
"Let us, while the war lasts, forget our special grievances and close ranks shoulder to shoulder with our white fellow citizens ... fighting for democracy. We make no ordinary…
