Their goal to prevent Communism from spreading to South Vietnam had not been achieved. Meanwhile, North Vietnam successfully united the country and gained its independence. Both the United States and North Vietnam desired victory but the definition of victory was different for each. For North Vietnam, victory meant unifying Vietnam and gaining its independence whereas for the United States, victory meant to prevent these events from happening. Although North Vietnam successfully achieved their objective, as of today, there is still a debate as to which nation truly won the war. For example, Lt. George Coker declared that the United States won the war in Vietnam, arguing that “winners never quit and quitters never win”. Despite these claims, the United States lost the Vietnam War, not only because it failed to prevent the spread of Communism, but because the nation and its people were highly impacted by the war and suffered greater losses than …show more content…
Resisting the drafts, however, was controversial as the men who decided to move to Canada or be imprisoned were seen as less courageous and less patriotic by others. Christian Appy illustrates this concept when writing about John Douglas Marshall. Marshall described that after he applied to leave the army as a conscientious objector, his grandfather wrote him a letter in which he told Marshall that he had “simply chickened out [and] didn’t have the guts it takes” (Appy