Vietnam veterans in the US, Australia and other countries have suffered from increased rates of cancers and birth defects in their offspring. The end result in both countries was a resurgence in threat capabilities that forced the U.S. to redeploygreatly increasing the marginal cost of the war. During the war, several different nationalist factions fought against the Japanese for Korean independence. $70.7 billion in FY2018 total budget authority and $44.1 billion in adjusted budget authority. All American men had to register for the draft at age 18. Both the Executive Branch and the Congress have failed to reform any key aspect of the defense and foreign policy budgets to look beyond input budgeting by line item and by military service, and doing so on an annual basis. He believed that if one Southeast Asian nation fell to communism, more would follow. OMB tables for FY2017 show total cost of homeland defense for all Departments and agencies was $71.8 billion in FY2015, $72.9 billion with supplemental, $71.7 billion in FY2016, and $70.5 billion in FY2017. According to a survey by the Veterans Administration, some 500,000 of the 3 million troops who served in Vietnam suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and rates of divorce, suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction were markedly higher among veterans. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. Though the issue remains contentious, these increased rates have been linked to their exposure to Agent Orange. Consequences of the war for the USA - The Vietnam War - CCEA - GCSE Before World War Two Vietnam . . The effort to create meaningful Future Year Defense Programs seem to have been given a final death blow by the Budget Control Act (BCA)legislation originally designed to be so stupid that the Congress could not possibly accept it. The budget data created a functionally meaningless pool of theater support personnel with little or no explanation, no allocation by war, and that make up 65% of all military personnel assigned to both Afghanistan and Syria/Iraq. However, from a constitutional perspective, this conflict did not technically count as a war. By Winnie Smith Morrow, 352 pages, $22 Until recently, the critical role played by women in the Vietnam War as Army nurses, dedicated to treating the wounded and dying despite being endangered. Neither this bombing or the ground war was confined by the borders of Vietnam. Johnsons new tack, laid out in a March 1968 speech, met with a positive response from Hanoi, and peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam opened in Paris that May. The Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis Continued? The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Some of the papers from the archive of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history. Conservative estimates suggest the war claimed around 1.9 million Vietnamese lives, as well as the lives of 200,000 Cambodians and 100,000 Laotians. The annual cost of all U.S. aid in FY2016 is $5.79 billion, which is 13 percent of the OCO cost of $46.2 billion for that year. 58,000 American servicemen and an estimated 250,000 Vietnamese dead. The program budgeting and integrated force planning efforts pioneered towards the end of the Eisenhower Administrationand put into practice in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrationshave decayed into hollow shells. At another protest 10 days later, two students at Jackson State University in Mississippi were killed by police. How come there was a "Vietnam Syndrome", but it would appear as if there hasn't been any sort of "Middle East" Syndrome" (large scale mass resistance to government foreign interventions) related to all of the United States' involvement in conflicts in Iraq/Afghanistan etc.? The French loss at the battle ended almost a century of French colonial rule in Indochina. 1616 Rhode Island Avenue, NW A mass exodus in 1975 of people loyal to the South Vietnamese cause was followed by another wave in 1978 of boat people, refugees fleeing the economic restructuring imposed by the communist regime. Global confidence in America as the arsenal of democracy also suffered. More than 2 million civilians (people not fighting the war) also died. The Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China supported the north, while the United States was determined to maintain an independent, non-communist South Vietnam. It granted him broad latitude in handling the struggle against communism in Southeast Asia. Ironically, members of Congress are fond of criticizing the Administration for lacking a strategy. My brother eventually died from the effects of his own agent orange exposure. People were killed during the war. The Vietnam War had a huge cost in human lives. The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. All Rights Reserved. This started with their homecoming and reception. Roughly half of the OCO budget ($30 billion) is now being used for programs and activities that were previously funded in the base budget. The Memorial is dedicated to honor the courage . This section supplements the OCO cost data with some brief metrics on the overall size of the U.S. effort in Syria. Political turbulence there and two alleged North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. naval vessels spurred Johnson to demand the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. I can only speak for myself. When the war was over France received their "colony" back. Neighbouring countries Laos and Cambodia both suffered enormous human loss and material devastation, as well as the rise of terroristic and genocidal regimes. Neta C. Crawford (2023) SUMMARY AND PAPER > U.K. and U.S. Defense Worker Views on the Environmental Costs . If one uses CBO estimates, the burden on the economy moved from 5% of GDP in the 1980s to a low of 2.8% in FY1998. I've read that the Vietnam War is referred to as the 'American War' (in full, War Against the Americans to Save the Nation) in Vietnam. The total costs for all OCO spending between FY2001 and FY2018 will be in excess of $1,909 billion. NARA Resources Core Collections on the Vietnam War From the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, "This guide summarizes core holdings on: the war in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos especially during the Nixon and Ford administrations; the flight of refugees from Indochina after April 1975 and the admittance of many to the United States; the accounting of U.S. armed forces MIAs and Information and translations of human cost in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. 2. Direct link to Carla Cristina Almeida's post I have a question about t, Posted 6 years ago. Meaning of human cost. Three alternative cost estimates are also summarized in this section. This is especially true when the U.S. deploys large ground combat units, where civilians and contractors have become critical parts of the "tooth to tail" ratio. With the Cold War intensifying worldwide, the United States hardened its policies against any allies of the Soviet Union, and by 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged his firm support to Diem and South Vietnam. The charts and tables in this section summarize the actual and projected cost of U.S. wars as reported for the OCO accountdrawing heavily largely on earlier work by the Congressional Research Service. These debates led to a revisiting of Americas Cold War leadership. Washington, DC 20036. Active duty strength has gotten far more expensive relative to DoD civilian full time employees and U.S. and foreign contractors. For more information, please visit our FAQ or Terms of Use. The communists, headed by Ho Chi Minh, would govern the northern half, with its capital at Hanoi, while South Vietnam, with its capital at Saigon, would remain non-communist. They are nearly 2.5 times more expensive than the Vietnam War. Direct link to David Alexander's post Oh, I think that if you c, Posted 4 years ago. Anne's diary helped the world understand what it was like living in hiding during It gives the Greeks a For other Americans, opposing the government was considered unpatriotic and treasonous. Communist forces ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year. America was deeply affected by these heavy losses and struggled to understand the meaning, significance and lessons of the Vietnam War. Vinh (population 72,000), Vietnam's Dresden, was subjected to 4,131 attacks over a four year period (and 4,700 overall in the war), resulting in the destruction of nearly of all of its homes, 31 schools, the university, four hospitals, the main bookstore and cinema and two churches along with an historic 18th century Buddhist pagoda that served as cultural center of the city, a museum of the . These issues are discussed in more detail later in this study. One of the striking aspects of American military power is how little serious attention is spent on examining the key elements of its total cost by war and mission, and the linkage between the use of resources and the presence of an effective strategy. It doesn't take a war for nuclear weapons to hurt people. Vietnam emerged from the war as a potent military power within Southeast Asia, but its agriculture, business, and industry were disrupted, large parts of its countryside were scarred by bombs and defoliation and laced with land mines, and its cities and towns were heavily damaged. Costs Of America's Longest War: Thousands Of Lives, Trillions Of - WBUR It would take another 30 years and several million lives, including more than 58,000 Americans, before this dream became a reality. Nixon and Johnson's thoughts on protesters thought they were communists, dangerous, too radical - encouraged the FBI to investigate the movement Washington withdrew significantly from foreign disputes and crises, becoming less interventionist and assertive. In that respect, it failed: the two Vietnams were united under a communist banner in July 1976. Civilian casualties are not assessed in spite of the fact that this has become a critical political and operational issue, and subject of both debate and threat propaganda. The treaty also called for nationwide elections for reunification to be held in 1956. The Afghan and Iraq/Syria wars are more than five times more expensive than World War I. Some war fighting and support costs are not included in the OCO request. In view of the surprisingly good performance of the South Vietnamese army at Tet, and responding to growing pressure in the United States to begin a withdrawal of U.S. troops, the Nixon administration decided to accelerate a program to provide South Vietnam . The Korean War (article) | 1950s America | Khan Academy All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. Any full costing of America's wars needs to include these costs. Many were unfairly harassed and abused by anti-war protestors. It also led to political reluctance to deploy the needed numbers of personnel except on a "creeping incremental" basis and after serious problems emerged in host country capabilitiesextending the length as well as the cost of the war. by Anthony H. Cordesman. More than two decades of violent conflict had inflicted a devastating toll on Vietnams population: After years of warfare, an estimated 2 million Vietnamese were killed, while 3 million were wounded and another 12 million became refugees. Furthermore, domestic unrest and the financial cost of war made peaceand troop withdrawalsa necessity, not a choice. All Rights Reserved. Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified Vietnam. State/USAID did not have this option. The true figures, however, are probably much higher. The total military deaths for all countries have been estimated at 1.3 million, of whom 58,000 were Americans. The invasion of these countries, in violation of international law, sparked a new wave of protests on college campuses across America. In August 1964, the US government received word that two North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. The vast exodus of refugees from Indochina led to humanitarian camps being set up in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and other Asian countries. The Vietnam War and active U.S. involvement in the war began in 1954, though ongoing conflict in the region had stretched back several decades. those where some times helped by the VC but the VC attacked ares around the mekondelta and around the borders of laos and cambodia. World War II. Given the costs omitted from the OCO budget, the real total cost will almost certainly be well over $2 trillion, even using OCO data as the only costs of the wars. Direct link to Zob Rombie's post The main reason the war e, Posted 4 years ago. They also assert that the U.S. overall suffered fewer casualties than its opponents. These latter estimates update a series of earlier CRS analyses, one of which noted that, "Other observers and analysts define war costs more broadly than congressional appropriations and include estimates of the life-time costs of caring for OEF/OIF/OND veterans, imputed interest costs on the deficit, or increases in DODs base budget deemed to be a consequence of support for the warSuch costs are difficult to compute, subject to extensive caveats, and often based on methodologies that may not be appropriate". The victory of communist regimes in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos triggered one of the largest refugee crises in history. create tension? The two countries finally resumed formal diplomatic relations in 1995. A decade of warfare left Vietnam, particularly its northern provinces, utterly devastated. The Department of Defense also provides a range of other metrics on U.S. activities, and a costing of air support activity, although these are not linked to the budget. All recent estimates show that the burden the Afghan and Iraq/Syria wars placed on the economy did not equal the burden that the peacetime Reagan build up created, and that the percentage has dropped sharply since most U.S. combat troops left Afghanistan and Iraq. A top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967 was published in the New York Times in 1971shedding light on how the Nixon administration ramped up conflict in Vietnam. Total estimates of the cost through FY2018 have been made earlier. At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. The bombing campaign was meant to disrupt the flow of supplies across the Ho Chi Minh trail into Vietnam and to prevent the rise of the Pathet Lao, or Lao communist forces. When a draft took place, it randomly selected men between the ages of 18 to 25. The United States committed some 550,000 troops to the Vietnam front at the height of the conflict, suffered more than 58,000 casualties, and engaged in battle after battle with communist forces in the region until its withdrawal in 1973. reason to finally surrender Between two million and three million people are believed to have fled these countries in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Were LBJ and Nixon bad decision makers or was it just too much to handle? In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations. Here, simply seeing OCO spending data is essentially useless. A historians view: See answer Advertisement gavrielle Answer: People could not get shelter, resources they needed to survive. Inscribed on the black granite walls are the names of more than 58,000 men and women who gave their lives or remain missing. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Date accessed: May 01, 2023 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also called The Wall, national monument in Washington, D.C., honouring members of the U.S. armed forces who served and died in the Vietnam War (1955-75). In 2016, Vietnam's GDP growth was 6.2%, driven by export-oriented manufacturing and robust domestic demand. In 1955, however, the strongly anti-communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem pushed Emperor Bao aside to become president of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN), often referred to during that era as South Vietnam. The Vietnam War was fought for civilians, by civilians and among civilians and the majority of casualties were civilians. Westmoreland pursued a policy of attrition, aiming to kill as many enemy troops as possible rather than trying to secure territory. Meaning of human cost. A great deal of agricultural land was poisoned with defoliant or drenched with napalm or diesel and set alight. , arn from other They illustrate two reporting problems: The charts and tables in this section focus on total DoD spending by year, and OCO expenditure by war. He was in Vietnam when he was 20 years old. Vietnam War Facts, Definition, Costs and Timeline - The Balance 834 E. Washington Ave., Suite 333 Madison, WI 53703, . Title: The costs of the Vietnam War One key element of any effective effort to cost a war should be to assess its casualties. Only limited break outs of these key data are provided by war. The Special Inspector Generals also have not been tasked with addressing the overall cost of each conflict, the overall effectiveness of U.S. civil and military efforts, or the nature and success of U.S. plans and strategies. By Ward Wilson. The war in Vietnam had lasting consequences for US foreign policy. The two countries were divided along the 17th Parallel, also known as the Line of Demarcation. There was little that had not been bombed, blasted or shot up from roads to railways, buildings to bridges, ports to power stations. What is even more striking, is the failure of both recent presidents and the Congress to properly analyze and justify the cost of America's wars. Or would he have gone in a quote better direction based upon how he handled other things as president? The number of civilians killed ranges from 627,000 to two million. Those who argue that the United States opponents won the war cite the United States overall objectives and outcomes. Vietnam Facts, History, and Profile - ThoughtCo As the second of the Indochina Wars, the Vietnam War was originally fought between North and South Vietnam. A team sent by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to report on conditions in South Vietnam advised a build-up of American military, economic and technical aid in order to help Diem confront the Viet Cong threat. The arguments about the war were heated and visceral and led Americans to question one anothers morality and good faith. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Some declared that Vietnam was a nationalist conflict that Washington had no business intervening in. When the United States technically "lost" the war, did it seem like an utter waste of time and resources? The next few years would bring even more carnage, including the horrifying revelation that U.S. soldiers had mercilessly slaughtered more than 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai in March 1968. Further, without such an estimate, there is no credible basis for either Executive Branch or Congressional review of the budgets and plans for such wars, much less of the ability to effectively execute given strategies, and provide credible indicators of the cost effectiveness and progress of key elements of military and civil activity. These defoliants denuded large areas of Vietnam, leaving farmland barren and untouchable for several years. See Media Page for more interview, contact, and citation details. It examines the limits in these data, the risks they impose, and possible ways of correcting current problems. More than 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam, and more than 150,000 were wounded. The United States entered Vietnam with the principal purpose of preventing a communist takeover of the region. Between July 1966 and December 1973, more than 503,000 U.S. military personnel deserted, and a robust anti-war movement among American forces spawned violent protests, killings and mass incarcerations of personnel stationed in Vietnam as well as within the United States. Direct link to nick nelson's post The Allies promised Vietn, Posted 6 years ago. The charts and tables in this section raise several key points about the need for better reporting on manpower: The State Department and USAID provide virtually no meaningful explanation of their strategy for either war, do not explain the challenges they face in meaningful terms, and do not link their budget justification to any clear explanation of a civil-military program. It was 150% of the IISS estimate of $604.5 billion for 2016. Why does scarcity mean that people must choose. This inevitably has reduced the number of military in the force mix and made reporting military, civilian, and contract personnel a critical aspect of reporting on force costs and trends. The costs of U.S. empire's 'forever wars' - People's World : Assessing Chinas April 2023 Military Exercises Against Taiwan, ROK President State Visit to Washington: The Capital Cable #69, The Future of U.S. Natural Gas: A Conversation with Charif Souki, Download PDF file of "U.S. Military Spending: The Cost of Wars", Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, Diversity and Leadership in International Affairs Project, Energy Security and Climate Change Program, As is discussed in several parts of this report, work by Amy Belasco of the CRS has provided two reports that attempted to cost America's wars. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Vietnam Veterans Memorial | Facts, Designer, & Controversy Nevertheless, there was an inevitable wave of justifications, criticisms and retributions. If one counts the Cold War, the United States has been at war for virtually every year since 1941. Direct link to Angela Hilario's post Clarification: Sal said i, Posted 4 years ago. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the north was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist countries, while the United States and its anticommunist allies backed the Republic of Vietnam (ROV) in the south. Date updated: December 20, 2022 Even today, there are an estimated five million pieces of unexploded ordnance still scattered around Vietnam. This section updates part of another CRS studyone by Stephen Daggetthat attempted to cost past American wars from the American Revolution through the Persian Gulf War, and the early phases of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. What were some human costs of the Vietnam War? - Brainly.com A related estimate by the Watson Institute puts the cost at $4.8 trillion through FY2016. February 18, 2018. The escalating US involvement in Southeast Asia was driven by the logic of the. The War Powers Resolution The chart shows that the number of draftees _____ before the War Powers Resolution. Thousands of Vietnamese simply vanished, lost in thick jungle or tunnels, obliterated by bombs or incinerated by napalm. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The war had cost 58,000 American and 2 million Vietnamese lives. Known as the Christmas Bombings, the raids drew international condemnation. Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam on a smaller scale, South Korea suffered more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen. an estimated 25,000 American servicemen and 757,143 Vietnamese dead about 200,000 American servicemen and an estimated 4 million Vietnamese dead 58,000 American servicemen and an estimated 1.5 million Vietnamese dead 58,000 American servicemen and an estimated 250,000 Vietnamese dead Even as the enemy body count (at times exaggerated by U.S. and South Vietnamese authorities) mounted steadily, DRV and Viet Cong troops refused to stop fighting, encouraged by the fact that they could easily reoccupy lost territory with manpower and supplies delivered via the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Cambodia and Laos. Fall of Vietnam Flashcards | Quizlet
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