Life in the army
The movements had serious reasons. Most of the students demonstrated for peace, for the end of the unpopular war that serve a wrong goal. The fights dragging on in South Vietnam mostly shocked them. While the average age was 26 in the World War II, there was hardly a soldier out of the 570000 servicemen who was younger than 25 and the average age was 19. Those, who didn't - most of them couldn't - go to the university after the high school because of money, family or any problems, was called up immediately and had to go. No doubt that these students were grown-ups, were over 18, but had a very little experience and only enjoyed life, the student life. They only knew the concept of war from history books not mentionting that it wasn't only conventional warfare. Having arrived, they didn't even know what would be happening. Never did they participate a training and they didn't have to live in discipline. Although the 12 weeks long training was completed with enthousiasm, they didn't endure the war.
Many of them wanted to go home when they saw how easily could they die and when they knew how many of them had died. They didn't want to decease at the age of 20 either. They were young even to know why are they fighting for. South Vietnam greeted them in a different way as they had expected: guerilla warfare in the jungle, tracking the enemy down and kill them. They didn't know that, travelled to the site without knowing their enemy. First, it seemed to be a great adventure, but later the reality began to dawn on them. Discipline, warfare, guerillas, manslaughter and death. They were unknown concepts till then.
Although most of the soldiers came from poor families as they couldn't pay the entrance fee for the university or the college, they were astonished to see the South Vietnamese living in misery. They only saw people struggling desperately for their life and existence and they sympathised with the National Liberation Front, the Vietcong (VC) and refuse their cruel means. The VC was the guerilla organisation against which the American soldiers fought by endangering their life. They tried to suppress that widening group supported by the Soviet that claimed the union of the country. The soldiers only saw that they were fighting against someone that was supported by the people they are defending and didn't really know the VC. They often agreed with the Vietnamese. They understood each other, made friends with each other, at the other occassion they had to follow the command and blow up and ruin their villages, kill them or at best, just move them 100 kms further. They didn't understand this. "Why?!" - sounded the question, but that wasn't the only problem in the camp. There were conflicts in the army. the problems and the vicious features of the American society came up. The racism appeared again since major part of the soldiers were the child of the poor Americans, who were the offspring of the late slaves. The officers were mainly white people and a very few Black could get a high position. Only 2% of the officers were colored people. One shouldn't think that there weren't white people in the army, however. The difference divided the soldiers as same as the mother land and even evoked people's bent for racism. Of course there were exceptions. If one asked someone who had served in Vietnam, he might tell one a totally different story. These things did exist, though, and was in the air. Those, who claim other way, have to admit that the atmosphere wasn't free from hatred. Soldiers might be not so hating, but they were dependent on their superiors. "The command must be completed!" - sounded the order. No matter if anyone thought anything, The order was the order. This was well presented by a soldier's statement: "Anyone who had Chineselike eyes, anyone who had yellow skin, they were the yellow, not a human being."
The other problem was the lack of knowledge about the enemy. Many people only knew why they were fighting there from the news in their memories, but that was the minor matter. They were sent to Vietnam in belief that they were going to defend for the South Vietnamese sake, but they had to realise that many South Vietnamese were against them. The enemy, the Vietcong was more unknown to them. Guerilla warfare wasn't fair and required base methods. Nobody knew who the go-between was. He might be even a water-carrier, 12-year-old boy. If someone was proved to assist communist ideas, one was sentenced to death. However, these cases were rare. Soldiers usually didn't know who to shoot at. A general said: "I saw my men dying by camouflaged traps but I have never seen a Vietcong, I've never seen my enemy." The South Vietnamese rebels were pretty good at hiding, they had an extensive underground network in the jungle that was unusual for the Americans. So they had advantage to the American soldiers who were in danger whenever and wherever they went since the whole area was undermined. They often feared so much that they shot even at monkeys. Let's say, if they stayed at the limits of a village and a mother came for help, she were thought to be a spy and, without seeing her, just her outlines, were shot without further ado. These acts made the South Vietnamese prefer the VC. Although it's said that one joins war without fear, is guided by patriotism and duty, one still have a thought that one might die. Some overcame this feeling, but if the motivation is not strong enough, dread might win. Many soldiers were prevailed over when they realised that they were fighting for a wrong goal, the will of the people is different from the will of the USA. In the struggle for life, many a soldier lost his humanity and became an animal. Some became indifferent to death and pain. Some couldn't endure that they had to kill hundreds of people instead of shooting some VC down. Some couldn't resist mentally and turned to drugs. That was a great problem in the army. In the depths of the war, 55% of the patients were drug addict, not get injured during the fights. Amfetamines, berries, even cocain, heroin and opium were widely used. The US soldiers exploited the chance that excellent drugs were sold cheaply in Saigon and was much better than the one man could get in New York. Some tried to smuggle the 95-98% heroin. The propaganda of the VC increased their fear and their despair, like the following ones: "Don't be the last who die in Vietnam!" or "You can die here! Go home when it's not late! Go away till you're alive!"