Essay On The Price Of Vietnam

The Price of Vietnam The Vietnam war was a very controversial war, and many debate on whether or not the participation of the United States in the war was necessary. The war lasted a grueling twenty years, 1955 to 1975. However, in the year of 1968 there was much going on at home, from civil rights movements lead my Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to the presidential election of Richard Nixon and the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Tension was high in the U.S. With over 2.7 million Americans that served in the Vietnam war, and the economic crisis that was beginning to occur in the United States, protests by the U.S. Citizens was inevitable. The U.S. Had gone to fight in Vietnam in order to prevent communism to spread to South Vietnam. Unfortunately, the price the U.S. Paid was big, and if the U.S. Would not have gotten involved in Vietnam 's war, the U.S. Could have focused their attention on the problems that were occurring …show more content…
The cost of the war affected the U.S economy and many soldiers suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A minority of the returning veterans resorted to drugs and became addicted to drugs as they found it difficult to transition from a soldier on the battlefield to a civilian lifestyle. Many of the returning veterans received less than a friendly welcome on their arrival back to America. The vocal section, of the public often vented using racism, the federal government, and the war on returning veterans. The public treated the soldiers poorly, while some got spat on, and even beaten. Only the prisoners of war received public sympathy for the suffering they endured. The war had only made the public more hostile, which sparked riots, protests, and racial tension among the states. The United States would have been better off focusing on its own economic and social growth, rather than trying to prevent a form of government in another