Title: The costs of the Vietnam War
Headings: The costs of the Vietnam War
The costs of the Vietnam War
Contents
A 20th-century tragedy
America’s war grief
Criticisms of US policy
Shattered confidence
Suffering of veterans
‘Agent Orange’
Vietnamese losses
Post-war refugee crisis
Famine and destruction

Content: Many Americans simply chose not to speak of the Vietnam conflict, described by diplomat George Kennan as “the most disastrous undertaking” in 200 years of US history. Nevertheless, there was an inevitable wave of justifications, criticisms and retributions. Some declared that Vietnam was a nationalist conflict that Washington had no business intervening in. Its attempts at state-building failed utterly, beginning with its support for the post-war French colonial regime and its flawed choice of Ngo Dinh Diem as leader of South Vietnam, through to its propping up of Nguyen Van Thieu and the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN). Criticisms of US policy
Some argued that America’s violence against civilians in Vietnam – from incidental killings to atrocities like My Lai and indiscriminate carpet bombing – made the United States no better than the communist regimes it was seeking to contain. In contrast, critics on the political right argued the Vietnam War had been winnable but was lost by politicians who restricted terms of engagement, refused to authorise more firepower (including the use of tactical nuclear weapons) and left the army short of men and supplies. The defeat in Vietnam, they argued, was a betrayal of the US military by civilian politicians. These debates led to a revisiting of America’s Cold War leadership. Vietnam was the first significant military defeat in US history and would shape American foreign policy for several years. Shattered confidence
Confidence in the Domino Theory was undermined, if not destroyed.