What did the United States lose in Vietnam?
On November 1, 1955 the Vietnam War began. This was to become about a 30 year long war. After the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, America got involved to stop his communist uprising. Immediately the U.S. begins to pour in more and more military into Vietnam each year from 1961 to 1972, and the number of military force increased incredibly from Nixon's presidency to Johnson’s presidency. Since these troops had to be shipped from America to Vietnam it costed our country greatly. Although the U.S. entered the war their intentions at first were to politically guide Vietnam but then this turned into an all out war ending in loses in every aspect of America. …show more content…
suffered major costs. Among all the wars the United States had fought the Vietnam War is ranked 4th in casualties. But there were four major costs: human costs, economic costs, political and social costs. Human cost were the lives of those who served. There were 2,594,000 individuals that served in Vietnam and 58,220 Americans dead, 153,303 wounded and 1,643 missing. But there were more deaths after the war, it's estimated that 70,000 to 300,000 Vietnam veterans committed suicide and around 700,000 veterans suffered psychological trauma. The next cost was Economic cost. The Department of Defense reports that the United States spent about $168 billion in the entire war including $111 billion on military operations and $28.5 billion on economic and military aid to Saigon regime. But to meet the required war efforts factories in the U.S. which were used to produce consumer goods and converted to produce military equipment. The changed caused a plunge in shopping rates, thus hurting the economy. Lastly was political and social costs. The U.S. paid a high political cost for the Vietnam War, many large scale anti-war movements around the country causing a great rift within American society. Then the leaking of Pentagon Papers and the Watergate scandal damaged the government credibility. The American people began have suspicion and distrust of the …show more content…
We want nothing for ourselves—only that the people of South Vietnam be allowed to guide their own country in their own way.” President Lyndon Johnson, 1965. This statement, at first, was what we fought for. In the beginning there was some sort of purpose or will to fight in Vietnam. But towards the middle and definitely at the end there was nothing else to win. America couldn’t even complete the first goal set out as the main objective. This is why the U.S. lost its will to fight. The Vietnam War was also the longest and most expensive war in American History. The toll we paid wasn't just financial, it cost the people involved greatly, physically and mentally. This war caused great distress and sadness, as well as national confusion. So if people were already confused and wondered why we were even in the war to begin with then what will would America have in fighting the war? The Vietnam War was seen as an outlet for Cold War efforts. North Vietnam was backed by Russia and China, who supplied weapons, while the South Vietnam force was backed by France and the United States. The war is now known for the heavy civilian and military losses that occurred and for the success of the North defending against the South. The South had a larger force that was aided by Americans, but the Northern guerrilla tactics were effective. So all around the U.S. basically gave up at the last minute due to lack of
On November 1, 1955 the Vietnam War began. This was to become about a 30 year long war. After the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, America got involved to stop his communist uprising. Immediately the U.S. begins to pour in more and more military into Vietnam each year from 1961 to 1972, and the number of military force increased incredibly from Nixon's presidency to Johnson’s presidency. Since these troops had to be shipped from America to Vietnam it costed our country greatly. Although the U.S. entered the war their intentions at first were to politically guide Vietnam but then this turned into an all out war ending in loses in every aspect of America. …show more content…
suffered major costs. Among all the wars the United States had fought the Vietnam War is ranked 4th in casualties. But there were four major costs: human costs, economic costs, political and social costs. Human cost were the lives of those who served. There were 2,594,000 individuals that served in Vietnam and 58,220 Americans dead, 153,303 wounded and 1,643 missing. But there were more deaths after the war, it's estimated that 70,000 to 300,000 Vietnam veterans committed suicide and around 700,000 veterans suffered psychological trauma. The next cost was Economic cost. The Department of Defense reports that the United States spent about $168 billion in the entire war including $111 billion on military operations and $28.5 billion on economic and military aid to Saigon regime. But to meet the required war efforts factories in the U.S. which were used to produce consumer goods and converted to produce military equipment. The changed caused a plunge in shopping rates, thus hurting the economy. Lastly was political and social costs. The U.S. paid a high political cost for the Vietnam War, many large scale anti-war movements around the country causing a great rift within American society. Then the leaking of Pentagon Papers and the Watergate scandal damaged the government credibility. The American people began have suspicion and distrust of the …show more content…
We want nothing for ourselves—only that the people of South Vietnam be allowed to guide their own country in their own way.” President Lyndon Johnson, 1965. This statement, at first, was what we fought for. In the beginning there was some sort of purpose or will to fight in Vietnam. But towards the middle and definitely at the end there was nothing else to win. America couldn’t even complete the first goal set out as the main objective. This is why the U.S. lost its will to fight. The Vietnam War was also the longest and most expensive war in American History. The toll we paid wasn't just financial, it cost the people involved greatly, physically and mentally. This war caused great distress and sadness, as well as national confusion. So if people were already confused and wondered why we were even in the war to begin with then what will would America have in fighting the war? The Vietnam War was seen as an outlet for Cold War efforts. North Vietnam was backed by Russia and China, who supplied weapons, while the South Vietnam force was backed by France and the United States. The war is now known for the heavy civilian and military losses that occurred and for the success of the North defending against the South. The South had a larger force that was aided by Americans, but the Northern guerrilla tactics were effective. So all around the U.S. basically gave up at the last minute due to lack of