Intellectual Rant

Analysis of John Kerry’s Speech - Vietnam Veterans Against the War Statement

The Vietnam War is seen as one of America’s biggest mistakes - at least to anyone who has a brain. Everything that happened after the war ended, all speeches and movements led by the government were only done in an attempt to hide how badly America has just put its own foot in its mouth. John Kerry goes on to further explain how terrible this war really was and how much everyone who was forced to partake in it hated it. He says, “They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.” All of these things were - as he later mentions - actions that this soldiers were forced to commit because of their country. The social norms were so shifted in that time, that people had no humanity anymore. They became animals because there was no morality. America wanted only one thing in this war and that was destruction.  They did not care who they hurt or how they hurt them, they just wanted to justify their actions and feel as though they were winning something, and the only way to do that was to make it seem like they were fighting these tretorous battles with the Viet Cong where they were forced to act like this or had to do this to defend themselves. But the reality of the situation was that America was well aware that they did not have an actual reason to fight, if they won they wouldn’t actually win anything and if they lost they wouldn’t actually lose anything besides their pride. “We watched pride allow the most unimportant battles to be blown into extravaganzas, because we couldn't lose, and we couldn't retreat, and because it didn't matter how many American bodies were lost to prove that point, and so there were Hamburger Hills and Khe Sanhs and Hill 81s and Fire Base 6s, and so many others.” The only reason this war was blown so incredibly out of proportion was because of America’s big ego and its incapacity to admit that it made a mistake. John Kerry’s whole speech is just a very well worded document that just exemplifies how much idiodicy was necessary in the government’s head to continue and fight a war which we had no business fighting. He of course uses better strategies and words everything more coherently than this rant, he uses examples from experiences and plays on rhetoric a lot by bringing something up that would seem logical. He brings in allusions which one would be educated to know to provide evidence that he is knowledgeable and understands what he is talking about at a deeper level. And, lastly, he plays on pathos by bringing up the horror stories of what these soldiers saw and what they had to do while in this senseless war.