The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was the longest war in United States history. It lasted from 1957 to 1975. The U.S. got involved in this war to stop communism from spreading; first in individual countries and then hopefully in the world. Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel. It was divided to construct a communist section in the northern part of Vietnam and a democratic section in the southern part of Vietnam. The North allied with the United States and the South allied with Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. During Kennedy's administration, the United States sent many troops and advisers to the North. On April 30th, 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to communism. The Vietnam War was an enormously destructive war and stood as a huge failure in the eyes of the American people. This evidently displayed throughout the opinions and reflective thoughts of those honorable individuals that were injured in the war or left to dress the wounded.
English: U.S. Huey helicopter spraying Agent Orang...
English: U.S. Army armored personnel carrier (APC)...
Defoliant spray run, part of Operation Ranch Hand,...Steve Boyer, a medic during the Vietnam War was faced with several humorous wounded accounts. While Boyer was going down the line he heard someone call "I'm hit" so he runs to him and sees that he is holding his leg and that blood was everywhere. Boyer cleaned the wounds as soon as possible, and realized that he was not shot, but he landed on the biggest leech ever when he jumped and hit the dirt. [1]
About a month after the leech incident, gun fires were shot rapidly on both sides. Boyer was carrying medical and food supplies for the wounded. When all of a sudden, Boyer fell to his knees and "... put [his] hand up to [his] head. It was all wet, hot, and sticky, like blood. It hurt pretty badly ..." and he...