Dear Mrs. Nolan,
The title of the book I read is Vietnam War. Its author is Stuart Murray, the genre is juvenile history [non-fiction]. I found this book very educational, well written, and I recommend it to history buffs.
This book takes place in Vietnam. I learned that jungle covers vast areas of Vietnam and it is in the jungle regions that most of the war conflicts took place. The author instructs us that during the Vietnam War Vietnamese communists (the North Vietnamese) were allied with China and the Soviet Union against America, South Vietnam, Korea and France. Vietnam had been a colony of Germany during World War II, and after the war became a colony of France. The North Vietnamese wanted Vietnam to become an independent nation unified under communist rule. The problem was that France wanted to keep Vietnam as its colony. Furthermore, France and other western countries were interested in preventing the spread of communism from the north to all parts of Vietnam.
Many Americans were angered about the Vietnam War because American people were being sent to fight in a war that did not concern them. A large percentage of the men being sent there did not even want to fight. It wasted American resources and took the lives of young American men, but the Vietnam War did not bring anything useful or helpful back into American society. It only brought death and despair. Just like most Americans, this war angers me too.
It also bothers me that now our country is involved in another pointless war in which many young soldiers’ lives are being lost. Almost 3,000 of our soldiers have been killed in Iraq and many times that number have come home wounded and homeless. Wars that rob America of our people and our countries’ resources are too expensive in every important way and should not be fought.
Sincerely,
Ariel Wei