What was the Vietnam War about?

Analogy

It can be hard to look back from the perspective of 2019 and understand what Vietnam was about. Let me make an analogy with something like employment.

For the Employee

You have ever started a job where you're optimistic about working there. You spend all of your time and effort, 5 days a week working, but you have your doubts about what's going on there. The conditions are not comfortable for you, every day feels like the same, and you're not getting much appreciation from your employer. These are all difficult situations for you to overcome, but you keep working there because you need the income and are looking for a job you believe in. It takes time for you to adjust to the job while dealing with the stress that comes with it. You continue working there for months and you feel that you're getting more used to the job, but it doesn't change a thing even with your boss not showing appreciation for your efforts. Eventually, against the background of all the bad moments you have had on some days with all of these problems, it takes a Legendary Bad day with someone like your boss being particularly outrageous so that finally you decide to leave and look for a way into another job, even if it takes decades.


Imagine a bad job that you're uncomfortable with is like a form of 'Vietnam' where you are the Volunteer, the job is the War, the environment is the Jungle, and the employer is the government who brought you into this.

Basically

The Vietnam War was supposed to be an American decisive fight against Communism, but it turned out to be a fight with Peacelovers against Warmongers, People against Politicians, Veterans against Leaders, and Humans against Savages. A dilemma from when America's leaders lied to the public about the Communists being weak and the war being an easy fight which brought a conflict toward a chaotic mess.