Vietnam War Failure

Speaking of the biggest US failures in US History, one must talk about the Vietnam War. With the mindset that Vietnam will fall under the evil shadows of communism like China, Lyndon B. Johnson escalated the Vietnam War by aiding South Vietnam militarily as well as financially against the communist North. The US fully intervened in Vietnam after the US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which allowed Johnson to take whatever action he thought was appropriate after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. The incident was that the USS Maddox claimed North Vietnamese torpedo boats had once again attacked US patrol ships. Even though Captain Herrick sent a later message claiming that he was mistaken about the attack, the final part of the message was ignored by Johnson and his advisors who continued with the retaliation …show more content…
By the end of the war, seven million tons of bombs had been dropped on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. To put in perspective, that is more than twice the amount of bombs dropped on Europe and Asia in World War II. The Vietnam War was a fail due to the fact that The Department of Defense (DOD) reports that the US spent about $168 billion in the entire war. During the Vietnam War, US factories that produced consumer goods were converted to produce military equipment to keep up with war efforts overseas. This change hurt the US economy due to the fact that it caused a plunge in shopping rates. Military fund spent overseas also led to budget deficits which caused a weaker dollar, galloping inflation and increasing interest rates. Because of the Vietnam War, the US economy was brought down from its growth in the early 1960s to an economic crisis in the 1970s. The Vietnam War was a failure due to the fact that both sides suffered heavy casualties that included many innocent