The Vietnam War lasted from 1955 to 1975 and continues to linger within the US’ national memory. The US government intervened in the war to prevent the spread of communist influence yet failed to meet this aim as they pulled out of Vietnam. In this essay, I will discuss the factors that contributed to the weakening of the US economy post-Vietnam. Many domestic and external factors during the Vietnam War led them into a stagflation crisis in 1973 and continue to affect their economy today.
The military operations in Vietnam War provoked a time for an economic recession due to its insanely high costs. The nation spent a total of $115.686 billion on military operations in South Vietnam between 1954 and 1975. The 58,220 casualties that
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In 2017, the proposed budget has skyrocketed to an all-time high of $582.7 billion. Such has led many to believe that America will become a permanent war economy which states that it will continue to rely on war efforts to increase its manufacturing/business activity, military, and political power. Many critics see such form of an economy as negative because although it strengthens the military, organized labor, and war-related private industry, it diverts productive resources that could benefit the standard of living. President Eisenhower also critiqued such form of an economy because he believed that the unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex has potential to threaten people’s economic prosperity due to its ability to restrict …show more content…
His doctrine was that America’s conventional methods could suppress any invasion or guerilla conflict by the Viet Cong due to its history of success in previous wars. However, their emphasis on a slow escalation throughout the war allowed a time and force advantage for the Viet Kong. Operation Mekong Delta demonstrated that this tactic is inefficient. The operation cost taxpayers 16 million dollars, but due to America’s weak ground strategy, only 21 Viet Kong were killed. This meant that each enemy’s life was no less than $800,000, which demonstrates that the taxpayer’s money going into the Vietnam War was useless and instead could have been put elsewhere to help strengthen America’s
The events leading up to the Vietnam War included a recently recovered United States from World War II, a booming economy that aided war involvement, nuclear threats and the government’s attempts to contain and abolish communism, while in competition with the world’s other superpower, Russia.
It was a very bloody war, with more than 58,000 American soldiers having perished in combat. Also, during the decade of direct U.S Military participation in Vietnam, during early times of the year, 1964 the U.S treasury spent over 140 billion dollars on this war. “This was enough money to fund urban projects in every major American city” (history.com). As this war affected the American’s, it affected the Vietnamese people too. This war affected both the American’s and the Vietnamese, because in the year 1973 the United States began withdrawing troops.
In conclusion, I think that the United States became increasingly involved in the Vietnamese War because of the policies they had made as a promise to fight communism, and because they had sorely underestimated Vietcong’s ability to fight back using Guerrilla warfare. They refused to pull out of the war in fear of losing face before the world, but this pride factor scored them massive losses in the war. In the end, with both side sustaining heavy losses, the US were still seen as mutilators in the war, with advanced showing what their intervention had costed, and Vietnam was still fully taken over by Communism – they had achieved nothing and lost a lot.
Vietnam War (1954-1975) is considered as one of those big wars of the modern world that has been acknowledged and studied by countries in the world. Especially, in regard to the United States, starting and ending war in Vietnam was an unforgettable experience that has left a priceless lesson in its foreign policy, and of course a lot of loss, physically, mentally, and property. “The Legacy of Vietnam” article of George Herring basically summarizes how the Vietnam War led to an end in failure of America and what consequences it left behind.
These were the economic factors of why America was so involved in the Vietnam War. I think the most important reason of all on why America got so involved in the war was because of the cold war and the battle between communisms. America were so scared of Russia and the communists they wanted to prove a point and they found Vietnam the perfect place to prove the point, that communism will not b allowed to spread Through Vietnam they tried to prevent the "domino Theory" by "containment methods in Vietnam.
By 1960 the American troops were sent in to fight a war that cost; Fifty-eight thousand Americans lost their lives. The losses to the Vietnamese people were appalling. The financial cost to the United States comes to something over $150 billion dollars. Direct American involvement began in 1955 with the arrival of the first advisors. The first combat troops arrived in 1965 and we fought the war until the cease-fire of January 1973.
The Vietnam War was one of the most prolonged wars in US history. Although there were no exact dates, it is believed that US involvement lasted for around 20 years. The US went into this war hoping they could stop the spread of communism and defeat the northern Vietnamese. The battles were like nothing they had seen before and it was very difficult for the soldiers to differentiate between the enemies and civilians. To make it even more difficult for the soldiers, their “information was based on faulty intelligence”. Võ Nguyên Giáp, a northern Vietnamese general, believed that the US and the southern Vietnamese had an unstable relationship. He hoped that through the Tet Offensive the US would believe they were no longer worth defending. Fighting was done using guerrilla warfare which blurred the lines of legitimate and illegitimate killings and this had effect of bringing peoples morales down. Support for the war had always been split but this battle caused even the government to reconsider their involvement. The Tet offensive changed the US's attitude towards the Vietnam war by leading to further anti-war protests, a credibility gap in America, and for President Johnson to negotiate peace and not seek reelection.
U.S.A Involvement in Vietnam War Direct U.S. military involvement in The Vietnam War, the nation's longest, cost fifty-eight thousand American lives. Only the Civil War and the two world wars were deadlier for Americans. During the decade of Vietnam start in 1964, the U.S Treasury spent over $140 billion on the war, enough money to fund urban regeneration projects in every major American city. In spite of these enormous costs and their accompanying public and private disturbance for the American people, the United States failed, for the first time in its history, to attain its stated war aims. The goal was to preserve a separate, independent, non-communist government in South Vietnam, but after April 1975, the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) ruled the whole nation. (Wittman, Sandra M. "Chronology of the Vietnam War." Vietnam: Yesterday and Today Oakton Community College. Skokie, Illinois. 16 May 1996: n.p.) The initial reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam seemed rational and compelling to American leaders. Following its success in World War II, the United States faced the future with a sense of ethical rectitude and material confidence. From Washington's perspective, the principal threat to U.S. security and world peace was monolithic, tyrannical communism emanating from the Soviet Union. Any communist anywhere, at home or abroad, was, by description, and enemy of the United States. Drawing equivalence with the unsuccessful appeasement of fascist dictators before World War II, the Truman administration believed that any sign of communist aggression must be met quickly and vehemently by the United States and its allies. This reactive policy was known as containment. The Vietnam War proved devastating...
During the 70?s the world entered a recession because ?the cost of economic growth of other industrialized nations began to rise rapidly?, the United States felt the effect. (AMSA, 2004, ¶ 14). With the development of other nations, came lose of industrial production for the United States of America. American Medical Student Association (2004) stated ?In 1950 we had 60% and by 1980 we only claimed 30% of the world production?, this brought higher prices as well as loses of jobs.
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam. Sadly, this is not what happened. The Viet Cong (VC) had far better tactics than the US. The VC was told to 'nibble at the enemy' so that he could 'neither eat or sleep'. This worked very well. Another demoralizing tactic the VC used was their landmines; they were designed to blow the limbs off the soldiers without killing them. This tied up hospital beds and meant the soldiers had to carry the wounded back to the base.
In May 1961, John F. Kennedy sent investigators to Vietnam, thus turning the tide in favor of the United States and South Vietnam. Unfortunately, with the flow of infiltrators and weapons from North Vietnam, the United States and South Vietnam lost their upper hand (Tucker). Conclusively, 2.5 million Americans served and about 58,000 lost their lives in Vietnam (Vietnam Veterans Memorial). On April 30, 1975 Vietnam was finally reunited under a communist government. Once the war ended, Vietnam was devastated. Both the South and North Vietnamese economies were in shambles and they suffered from the chemical pesticides. The Vietnamese also lost about 3 million soldiers and civilians during the war. The United States also suffered due to the fact that the military was completely shattered and had to be rebuilt. The inflation was at an ultimate high from the failure to fact the actual costs of war. These situations forced Washington D.C. to reevaluate the power of the United States
The Vietnam War was one of the longest and most expensive wars in American history. It started from 1955 till April 30, 1975. This war lasted for almost 20 years. According to the article "How the U.S Got Involved In Vietnam" by Jeff Drake the U.S attacked Vietman and this wasn't supposed to happen. This war could have been avoidable. The 58,000 Americans didn’t have to die, nor did the 2,000,000 Vietnamese. The U.S government was responsible for their deaths. What the government told the public from the very beginning was that they were going to war because they had to stop the communist menace in Vietnam or other countries would follow suit; that they had to defend the democratic South Vietnamese government against the gathering Red hordes. While other people say it was an attempt by the U.S to suppress a heroic Vietnamese national liberation movement that had driven French colonialism out of its country (Drake, 1993).
defeat of the Vietnam War was due to the economy, being there were financial issues at the time due to war. At the time the war cost was very high, and the nation was spending more than what was needed on the war. In one political cartoon from the time (Document 1) it depicts president Johnson with a sword slicing a man's head off. In the image the sword represents war cost, and the man represents Great Society hopes. Great society was a set of domestic programs with a goal to eliminate poverty in the U.S., however due to the high war cost the hopes began to break for such a goal to be reached as it made it more difficult. The war cost that broke this dream was hated by many, as many thought putting so much money into the war was useless. In 1972 George McGovern, a U.S. senator, addressed this, stating he proposed “we conserve our limited resources” and “no longer underwriting the appalling waste of money and manpower that has become such a bad habit”. McGovern along with many others saw the amount of money and troops being dedicated to the war was not only useless, but an issue causing the nation to have problems as it diverted money from the nation's domestic programs and necessities. The financial issues caused by the war was a big trouble to the U.S. during the time and had a huge impact leading to the nation's
While Nixon was in office, he used the war to his benefit, helping him win another term in office. Nixon’s plan was to use “Vietnamization,” a process in which American soldiers would train South Vietnamese to fight for themselves and eventually drawing American troops out of the war (Vietnamization). At first, General WestPoint was in charge, raiding Vietcong bases and trying to eliminate them. The original plan was to use the body count to discourage any more NVA troops from fighting, but this strategy backfired because both Vietnamese and American troops had high body counts. General Abraham was appointed as commander and began the “Vietnamization” strategy, which only seemed to work in the public’s eyes. Nixon made a treaty with South Vietnamese President, to have a ceasefire to withdraw American troops and release American POWs while South Vietnam took over the war (The). Nixon planned to use this strategy to withdraw all American troops, however it was “worse, Nixon would leave North Vietnamese troops occupying and controlling much of the South, while withdrawing all remaining American ground forces (Hughes).” Nixon’s use of Vietnamization helped to further his political resolve. He “sacrificed the lives of American soldiers to further his electoral ends (Hughes).” The ...
Vietnam was a struggle which, in all honesty, the United States should never have been involved in. North Vietnam was battling for ownership of South Vietnam, so that they would be a unified communist nation. To prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism, the U.S. held on to the Truman Doctrine and stood behind the South Vietnamese leader, Diem.