American participation in the Vietnam War is, in my opinion, a watershed moment in American history. The war was deeply unpopular with the American public and it was the first “living room” war where average citizens saw war updates delivered by Walter Cronkite on the nightly news. Richard Nixon was elected on a platform of ending the war, yet he expanded it into Cambodia and Laos. America’s generally peaceful domestic sphere was shattered by protests at the DNC and on college campuses. American citizens were shot by American soldiers seeking to suppress riots. The end of the conflict was the first time that modern Americans had ever tasted defeat in war and the period of stagflation after the war’s end was one of the most turbulent economic times in American history. Communism was not contained as it spread north and south under a united Vietnamese government. The traumatic experience defined modern American and remains deeply embedded in the American psyche.nnQuestion for Discussion: Was the United States justified in entering the Vietnam Conflict? Sources: Intro Video: Why did America Fight the Vietnam War? from a conservative standpoint–PragerU (4:40):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EunyfX-Zjo4 “Why the U.S. Should Have Stayed Out,” https://freedomforvietnam.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/why-the-u-s-should-have-stayed-out/ “Why we Went to War in Vietnam,” from the American Legion: https://www.legion.org/magazine/213233/why-we-went-war-vietnam