The Sociological Impact of Slaughter-House Five on Post-World War II America
When Kurt Vonnegut had Slaughter-House Five published in 1969, the nation was in a frenzy over the Vietnam War. Citizens were criticizing the government for participating in a war for their own selfish reasons. The emergence of this anti-war book revealed the some of the horrors of war and opened people’s eyes to the insignificance of a human life in a war. It finally brought out in the open the subject of the firebombing of Dresden in WW II. The bombing, which killed more innocent victims than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, fueled the people’s passion against the Vietnam War. It revealed what the government tried to glorify as a terrible and horrifying reality.
By recounting the dreadful and appalling experience of war, he overturned the belief in the government by the people. Vonnegut’s description of the gruesome and bloody deaths of innocent civilians that had nothing to do with the war, coupled with the mixed feelings about the feasibility of the war, devastated the nation’s trust in the government and military. The people began to stop blindly believing what they were told and began to form their own opinions about events and ideas. Part of its popularity was due to the fact that it’s release coincided with a time period in which the nation was involved in a war that was not supported by the citizens of the States.
By writing in a style that appealed to the common people, he could get his message across to whole population instead of just the select elite. It could be read at many levels and could be read simply as a novel or as a theological work. Packaged in this entertaining book on the lowest level was a recounted tale of one man’s experience as a POW in WWII with deeper running theme that human nature as a whole could not be changed and that therefore war was inevitable. But he also gives the message that we should do everything possible to prevent war. Just because wars are unavoidable, that does not mean that we should not try to limit the number that occur. This was exactly what the American people thought about the Vietnam War: and this one was one of the unnecessary ones. This book became especially relevant to the Vietnam War in that it dealt with the killing of innocent civilians, which was widespread in Vietnam at this time. Protests were widespread throughout the States in disapproval of the War.
The Essay on Why Did the Us Lose the War in Vietnam?
Answer with reference to the concept of insurgency/guerrilla warfare. The longest war in the history of the United States of America has taken place in Vietnam during the Cold War. “The US fear of a communist Europe led them to intervene in a war that was not seen in a vital importance or that would not be in the country`s interest to gain any advantage” (Bernstein 1987/8, p. 86). One of the main ...
Another underlying message was that even in war, morals could still exist. That the outcome does not always justify the means. In the firebombing of Dresden, more than 135,000 people were killed. Some were soldiers but most were innocent civilians. Dresden did not have a large station of soldiers, was not a large industrial city, and the US had no reason to bomb it other than the fact that it was in enemy territory. It also happened to house a large art museum, which was almost totally destroyed in the bombing. Such blatant destruction of blameless human lives would no longer be tolerated by the people of the US and especially not in a war that the outcome was of no consequence to the US.
