Title: Vietnam: An unpopular war, but an important legacy > Keesler Air Force Base > Display
Headings: Vietnam: An unpopular war, but an important legacy
Vietnam: An unpopular war, but an important legacy
Content: Reportedly, the Vietnam War cost $120 billion and that spending led to widespread inflation in America after the war.[2]
The Vietnam War was also very unpopular at home. Nightly television broadcasts of the war’s brutality turned many Americans against the war they had supported earlier. Five-thousand demonstrators marched against the war in October 1967 outside the White House. Anti-war protests continued as U.S. casualties continued to mount amid a growing U.S. military troop presence in Vietnam (543,482 personnel peak strength in 1968) and carnage like the My Lai Massacre, where U.S soldiers killed more than 400 unarmed civilians in March 1968, became household news. The war was also unpopular with America’s youth. Anti-war protests occurred on many college campuses. At Kent State University, National Guardsmen killed four students while attempting to end a campus protest.[3]
The Vietnam War was also a conscription war. Most of the men who participated in the war were drafted to serve. As there were exemptions to conscription, conscription became a mantra for protesters. Military.com states that about 500,000 American men – “draft dodgers” – evaded war service by fleeing the country, most crossing the border into Canada.