Introduction: The Vietnam War and Its Impact on America
The Vietnam War is one of if not the most devastating war that America had to fight. It was also the longest war in American history until Afghanistan and remains one of the wars who had the most impact on American society. During these 20 years (1955 to 1975), many lives were taken away, and most of them being civilians. Its significant role helped shaped the history of America. Many factors, who were triggered during the war, influenced the consequences that would come later to America and the rest of the world.
Although the Vietnam War caused many negative consequences on the American society such as social, economic and political consequences and its trust against the government, it still helped shape what we could call today Modern World History.
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Economic Consequences: The Cost of War
The post-war era was hard for the American economy because of the huge sums of money that were given to the military and the war during the Vietnam War. This war was one of the most expensive war for America with a cost of $168 billion in total and that impacted greatly the growth and expansion of the economy.
Many factors influenced the lack of stability of the economy in the USA at that time. One of them where because at the same time as being involved in the Vietnam War, the United States were also involved in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. Both cost a lot of money, the war had to fund the armament, the transportation, and other equipment in order to win but the Cold War had also monetary funds for new technologies and other departments. For example, in 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first man in space, which made the USA want to surpass them. They decided then to send the first man to the moon and succeeded but in order to triumph, they had to fund the space department which would mean less money went to war.
The war was also very costly to the United States: the government had to make changes in the way of living in the US. When President Lydon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty”, some changes were made to be able to finance both “guns and butter” but at the end, they could not help the community much because of all the money that was wasted in the war. In 1967, the government cut $6 billion from the domestic budget in order to put it in the war budget, which led to slowed country economy. One of the changes that were made was making the preschools free in order to educate more people. The government also decided to take more taxes from society, for example, Johnson created 10% of surcharge on American goods, in order to stabilize the economy.
But the war also led to positive changes around the economy, for example, between 1962 and 1965, the was low inflation due to … which led to almost full employment and a favorable balance of trade.
Social Unrest: Draft Resistance and Loss of Trust in Government
During the Vietnam War, American society started to lose trust in the government because of the army and what they were doing to the Vietnamese and their villages. The government also changed after the Vietnam War to improve future conflicts.
To have enough soldiers for the war, the military was composed of volunteer men, mostly drafted men. But advancing throughout the years in the war, more and more men were starting to protest the drafting of the war, which led to a draft resistance. Many men like college students were deprived of a future the day that they receive the draft in the mail and that was why, in the 1960s, students on campuses started to begin anti-war protests to make the government change their minds about drafting. Many actions were done to show their dissatisfaction but not only the students were participating: some were burning their draft card and others fled the country, but they all wanted the same result, that the military was not composed of drafted men. As many as half a million men would participate in these protests in order to change the law. That is why, after the Vietnam War ended, Congress decided to end the military draft and replace it with an all-volunteer army.
The citizens of the United States also started to lose the trust they had of the government throughout the Vietnam War. Throughout this period, the government lied to society about what was happening or what would happen in Vietnam. An example would be the My Lai massacre in 1968, where half a hundred unarmed Vietnamese civilians were murdered by U.S army. Lieutenant William Calley Jr., who was the leading officer, was the only soldier who served prison time, but he was accompanied by many other soldiers. This event was a turning point in the American public opinion because it demonstrated the collapse that was happening in the behavior of the US troops and it diminished the moral argument about the need to save Vietnam from communism.
The “Vietnam Syndrome”: Political Repercussions and Ideological Shifts
After the end of the war, US politics developed a term named the “Vietnam Syndrome”. The connotation could be different according to the political party that was using it. For the Left, it was positive, where it meant preventing communism and intervene abroad for “democracy and freedom”. This made the United State lose the superiority that it had gained along the years. But George H.W. Bush declared that the United States got rid of the Vietnam Syndrome after finishing the Gulf War, in 1991.
For politicians on the Left, Vietnam Syndrome was a positive constraint, they questioned the need to prevent Communism and intervene abroad for “democracy and freedom”. The Democrats majority in Congress had enacted the War Powers Resolution of 1973 forbidding the President from sending the army into combat in more than 90 days without Congress’s consent. They also believed that if the U.S. were to intervene again in a similar situation, they would probably get a similar result as they had in Vietnam.
For the Rights, Vietnam Syndrome lowered morale and limited the U.S. from conducting necessary military intervention all around the world, so they would need to overcome it as soon as possible if they wanted to reassert their position in the world.
The Trauma of War: Veterans' Struggles and Mental Health
Coming back from the war, veterans suffered from both physical and mental illnesses due to the horrors that they lived. Around 58,000 Americans died, 303,000 were wounded and 750 became prisoners, and yet the project to contain communism still failed. An experience like the Vietnam War can be traumatic for a young generation who was forced to initially enter this war. For most of them, the experiences that they lived on the battlefield were traumatizing.
'Imagine if you had just graduated out of high school and were sent to guerrilla warfare far away from your home. During the war, you were exposed to a lot of stress, confusion, anxiety, pain, and hatred. Then you were sent back home with no readjustment to the lifestyle in the states, no deprogramming of what you learned from the military, and no 'welcome home' parades. You are portrayed to the public as a crazed psychopathic killer with no morals or control over your aggression. You find that nobody you can talk to or can understand what you've been through, not even your family. As you re-emerge into civilization, you struggle to establish a personal identity or a place in society because you lack the proper education and job skills. In addition, no support groups help you find your way, making you feel even more isolated, unappreciated, and exploited for serving your country.' As Thompson Kenrick writes in “Photographic imagery and the Vietnam War: an unexamined perspective” young men who were drafted to war and had to leave their life behind, without being able to do anything about it. When coming back, they were left out and would not be integrated back in society because of what they were represented as.
Both men and women who came back suffered from many different mental diseases due to stress and anxiety. Between 500,000 and 700,000 (15-20%) Vietnam Veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In those numbers, 11,500 of them were women (with 90% being nurses) were also touched. (Alan Rohn, “How Did the Vietnam War Affect America?” The Vietnam War, 5 May 2016, thevietnamwar.info/how-vietnam-war-affect-america/).
Social Movements, Protests, and the Legacy of the Vietnam War
During the war, anti-war demonstrations, protest, and the media all influenced why, from a social point of view, the war ended. Many social impacts are related or similar to the political impacts due to the relation between the society and its government.
To begin with, most of the war veterans who came back already had a disadvantage on their hands: more than 700,000 of them came from a poor background and had a hard time adjusting to the life in America.
The G.I. Bill Improvement Act of 1977 (Public Law 95-202) was an act to “increase the rates of vocational rehabilitation, educational assistance, and special training allowance paid to eligible veterans and persons, to make improvements in the educational assistance programs, and for other purposes.” Many people where inspired by this act and decided to create studies, for example 'Legacies of Vietnam: Comparative Adjustment of Veterans and Their Peers,' ('Legacies'), where the post-life of war veterans would be followed, and it had the point of showing the difference in the style of life and the significant changes.
Mass protests were also a consequence of the war that had many impacts on society and the beliefs of the people. One famous protest during the Vietnam War occurred in the Kent State University in Ohio, in May 1970. Four students were killed and nine were wounded when the Ohio National Guard members fired into a crowd of protests against the war. The event trigged a dramatic impact who provoked student strike in universities nationwide and forced the facilities to close. This shooting has come to symbolize the deep political and social divisions that have divided the country during the time of the Vietnam war.
Though the negative consequences that the war engendered such as social, economic and political consequences and its trust against the government, the Vietnam war still helped shape what we could call today Modern World History. Although this War happened less than 45 years ago, it will still be remembered as a catastrophic war and will still impact the citizens and the decisions that America will make in the future.
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