Long Term Effects Of The Vietnam War

How many Americans know what happened during the Vietnam War? Probably not many. This is probably because as a society, we do not talk about it much. I’m sure that most Americans have family members who were in the Vietnam War. But they don't understand why America was involved or what even happened during this war. Many Americans don't even know the basics, such as US involvement, the effects of the war, or the controversy.
The Vietnam War began when North and South Vietnam wanted to unite to become one country. North Vietnam wanted the country to be a communist-run government, while the south did not. The US got involved in 1954. In 1955, President Eisenhower pledged to support South Vietnam. In 1961, President John F Kennedy sent a special

For example, people began to lose trust in the government. This was due to them saying that we were winning the war and it wouldn't last for much longer. This turned out to be far from the truth because America was losing the war and many of its soldiers. Before the war in 1958, public trust in the government was about 75%. Close to the end of the war in 1973, public trust went down to 35%. We are still affected by decreasing trust in the government to this day. In 2015, public trust in the government went all the way down to 23%. Suicide, alcoholism, and drug abuse rates were higher among most Vietnam Veterans. There was also an increase in the number of soldiers that were returning home with some type of physical and or mental deterioration. Around 500,000 Vietnam Vets suffered from some form of PTSD. For most vets, it is hard to talk about their experiences in the war because they had to witness all kinds of traumatizing things, such as their friends being killed. Over 58,000 troops were killed. Another effect is that America spent lots of money during this war. About $120 billion was spent. As a result, there was high inflation and the World Wide Oil Crisis of

As I said earlier, Americans started to realize that the government was lying to them, and trust in the government declined by about 40%. Americans started to get angry that their sons and daughters were dying in a war for a foreign country they probably had never heard of before. People began to argue “that civilians, not enemy combats, were the primary victims…” In 1967, 35,000 people began to protest outside of the pentagon. People had enough of all of the lying and death. There were hundreds of protests around the country as a result. Whenever the troops were finally able to return home, the same people who were protesting and fighting for them to come home turned their backs on them. The people who did not support the war felt that American troops were murderers because they were killing innocent Vietnamese citizens. Supporters of the war were turned on Veterans as well because they believed that they had lost the war.. Most vets did not get the military benefits guaranteed to all soldiers. People spat on soldiers who returned home. Many vets became homeless and addicted to alcohol and