Neutral or Aggressor?

In response to: Has there ever been a case in which our country was the aggressor in war? Is it always true that “we” are innocent and “they” are guilty? And Faces of the Enemy

History is written by the winners. History is written by those who are paint themselves as innocents, who fought for the freedom from the enemy or aggressor. For example, in the Revolutionary War, the American Colonies could have been considered the aggressor from the perspective of the British, but when studied in class, I have always learned that the American Colonies were Patriots and Freedom Fighters, determined to win freedom for their country. This is the same for any war, discovery or story taught in any History class. Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, but brought with him diseases and illnesses for the previously residing Native Americans to catch and die from. Hernan Cortes did the same for the Aztecs in Mexico, and in every war that has been taught in an American History class, the United States has been written as the hero of the story and the innocent bystander or victim that got involved to protect themselves or someone else that could not protect themselves without help.

The US will never paint itself as the enemy; all of our intervention in different wars greatly depends on “why” we are putting the ourselves in the middle of it. However, I do believe that the US has meddled in wars and events that they could have stayed out of or handled without immediately putting up propaganda against another country. For example, the United States entered the Vietnam War to fight Communism, which is a social and economic ideology.  Vietnam was fighting against itself; North Vietnam was fighting for Communism, because they wanted to get away from France’s rule, while South Vietnam wanted to stay under France as a Republic. The United States had such a big fear of Communism, that they were willing to go overseas to Vietnam to fight the Vietcong (North Vietnam) and ally themselves with South Vietnam, but what exactly were they fighting? This was not their war to partake in. The US presented themselves as heroes, voluntarily giving up the young men of their country to help fight against the evil aggressor that would soon take all other Asian countries if it were not stopped. The propaganda of the time showed Vietnamese soldiers as skeletons, men fighting in the name of American Patriotism and Capitalism, and elaborate art of the American flag burning because of Communism. North Vietnam posed no direct threat to America, yet the need to intervene felt by the United States caused a 20 year war.