Week 5- Thuong Nguyen, A1

This week I read, “Empire of Death and Plague of Civic Violence" by Darrell Y Hamamoto, and I became quite shocked as I learned about the issue of a militarized society for the first time. There is a common reoccurring theme among serial killers mentioned in the article, military experience and their "highly racialized violent behaviors." The author further points out how Asians have become the victims of these crimes, and attributes this hatred towards the "yellow people" to the Vietnam war. In a way this makes sense. After years of gunning down and bombing civilians in South-East Asia, these people will always be viewed as a threat and an enemy to militarized families. After returning home and integrating back into society, this hatred remains. This shows that war does not end once these soldiers return home. The war continues on within these individuals minds and is passed on for future generations to come. This makes me wonder if this is the reason for the discrimination of Asian Americans that exists. What shocked me the most was when the author mentions a core sponsor of George W Bush's campaign was the owner of a large firearms company. This suggests that there are lots of politics at play and the lobbying that is done to keep the second amendment upheld. 

Question: I am curious to know how much of the population was against the war in Vietnam. How was the war pushed by politicians for their own personal agenda?

References: 

Hamamoto, Y. Darrell. “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence.” Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire, by Carl Boggs, Routledge, 2003, pp. 277-292.

MacKinnon, J. (February 04). Why didn't the US invade North Vietnam during the Vietnam War? [My son was killed in Vietnam. For what? America]. Retrieved October 21, 2017.