Why America Lost

The reasons that make Vietnam a better place to live in Sontag’s eyes in “Trip to Hanoi” are the reasons Americans could not win the war against Vietnam. The people of North Vietnam loved their government and had complete faith in it, while half of America protested its government and the other half certainly didn’t “love” it. The Vietnamese treated their enemies with respect as if they their lives were worth as much as their own, even giving prisoners more food rations than they gave themselves. Americans would never do this, and as seen in Platoon, Americans didn’t even treat non-military Northern villagers with respect. The Vietnamese also had “unlimited and creative devotion to work” (251), while Americans were wasteful, lazy, and uncreative. Because of these differences Americans saw no purpose of fighting and did not try to find one, while the Vietnamese at least were united in their patriotism for their country and government and willing to put effort into creative ways of defeating America. For Americans, it was very difficult to achieve a goal that they did not have.

The thing that I find most sad about Sontag’s “Trip to Hanoi” is that America today is still the same “western culture”, if not worse, compared to the Vietnam that Sontag describes. As Sontag talks about on page 270, America loosing the war could be a “turning point […] or it could mean virtually nothing”. It is obvious that the war ended up meaning nothing. Yes individuals who lost their loved ones were left with a hole where that person used to be. However, this did not change their ethics, increase their patriotism, or make them more sincere people. The America we live in today still has a “tarnished idea of patriotism” (267), is still “an unethical society”(224), and is still complex, even words are “ironic” and not spoken with “honesty and sincerity”(238). Until Americans realize these faults and radically strive to change them, winning any wars will most likely prove problematic.