American history paper: Vietnamese War and the American Revolution, a comparative analysis

Essay by Z3r0College, UndergraduateA, April 2005

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Freedom is something Americans strive to provide and maintain. It has become a necessary part of our culture and even now when people think of America, they automatically think of freedom and equality. The American Revolution and the Vietnam War were two products of this ideal. Both wars had similar beginnings as far as revolutions are concerned. The original thirteen colonies had been occupied by England, and Vietnam was occupied by France. At first it seemed as though the stronger nation in each of these wars would win the war, however these opinions changed after years and years of fierce combat. Although these two wars have their similarities, they also have various differences.

J.R. Pole states in his book, The Pursuit of Equality in American History, that the American Revolution plays an extremely important role in the history of equality in American society. "The American Revolution in all its aspects constituted an upheaval which was also a point of departure and reference for all subsequent definitions of equality; it was a major event in the ideology and rhetoric of world history."

The mismanagement of the colonies, the taxation policies that violated the colonist rights, the distractions of foreign wars and politics in England had also played a role in the outbreak of the revolution. England passed many Acts that were despised by the colonies. The most hated of these Acts were the Stamp Acts. Lord Grenville enacted the Stamp Act which forced the colonists to pay for stamps on printed documents . Besides, taxation without representation other major events also created ill feeling towards Britain. The Boston Massacre was an event that occurred on 1770. Tensions caused by the military occupation of Boston increased as soldiers fired into a crowd of civilians. Five Americans died and six more were injured...