what summarizes the human cost of the vietnam war?

Heavy bombing by B-52 aircraft or shelling made these zones uninhabitable, as refugees poured into camps in designated safe areas near Saigon and other cities. Public trust in the United States government was shattered by the Vietnam War and Watergate. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Given the estimates that the real costs are already well over $4 trillion, these multipliers would be more than doubled if any of the alternative war costs cited earlier are correct. Lip service references to a "whole of government approach" thinly disguise a real-world separation of what should be a fully integrated civil-military approach, and what is really a "hole in government" approach where the State Department and USAID often seem at least partially decoupled from the realities of warfighting and the Department of Defense focuses on tactical success rather than the political, economic, or broader strategic goals in warfare. Five years after the country's partition, the communist leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, decided to attempt to reunify Korea under his control. Omissions? The terms of this expansion included yet more funding and arms, but a key alteration was the commitment of U.S. soldiers to the region. Information and translations of human cost in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. The total defense burden is projected to decline from 2.8% in FY2017 to 2.5% in FY2021 and FY2.3% in 2030. Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Johnson broad war-making powers, and U.S. planes began regular bombing raids, codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder, the following year. For some young people, the war symbolized a form of unchecked authority they had come to resent. 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. The human, environmental and economic costs of the Vietnam War were devastating. A historians view: It also presents some key metrics developed by SIGAR on the annual and cumulative costs of U.S. aid efforts in Afghanistan. In 1965, Johnson dramatically escalated US involvement in the war. Direct link to Logan's post Everyone had made mistake, Posted 4 years ago. Despite the later inclusion of the South Vietnamese and the NLF, the dialogue soon reached an impasse, and after a bitter 1968 election season marred by violence, Republican Richard M. Nixon won the presidency. experiences and message transcend the headlines and pierce through the political noise and debates to remind us of the human cost of war and displacement. They illustrate two reporting problems: The charts and tables in this section focus on total DoD spending by year, and OCO expenditure by war. A. This not only claimed lives but also devastated cities, buildings, infrastructure, farmland and vegetation. The treaty also called for nationwide elections for reunification to be held in 1956. 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 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. Furthermore, domestic unrest and the financial cost of war made peaceand troop withdrawalsa necessity, not a choice. These pressuresplus political sensitivity over U.S casualtieshelped create plans and/or the willingness to withdraw quickly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Seeing an opportunity to seize control, Hos Viet Minh forces immediately rose up, taking over the northern city of Hanoi and declaring a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) with Ho as president. If one counts the Cold War, the United States has been at war for virtually every year since 1941. The war claimed between 2.5-4 million lives, the vast majority Vietnamese civilians plus more than 58,000 Americans. After the United States withdrew from the conflict, North Vietnam invaded the South and united the country under a communist government. In peace negotiations at Geneva, the decision was reached to divide Vietnam into northern and southern halves. One by Lina J. Blimes puts the total cost at $4 to $6 trillion by end FY2016. The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. 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. What can you le He expected that France would become a stronger ally if assisted by the United States. The $1.5 billion cost of the entire Iraq-Syria train and assist mission is 13 percent of the total OCO budget of $11.9 billion for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). It is particularly unrealistic because this assumption is critical to estimating steady reduction in military spending, sizing the impact of rising entitlement and mandatory budget costs, and the size of the deficit. The most important key figures provide you with a compact summary of the topic of "U . For more information, please visit our FAQ or Terms of Use. Johnson was motivated by both domestic political and international balance of power considerations. 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. People were killed during the war. The Memorial is dedicated to honor the courage . The Human Cost. from Johns Hopkins and his MA and Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. In that respect, it failed: the two Vietnams were united under a communist banner in July 1976. This was 161% of the $560.7 billion Baseline that include base, defense-related nuclear and other related budget costs. These estimates do not include post-war deaths from famine and disease; or the millions killed by regimes like the Khmer Rouge, who came to power largely because of the disruption created by the Vietnam War. The functional break out of the cost by theaterIraq and Syriahelps provide a clear picture of mission focus and allocation of resources. Direct link to Jeff Kelman's post "John F. Kennedy expan, Posted 2 years ago. Neighbouring countries Laos and Cambodia both suffered enormous human loss and material devastation, as well as the rise of terroristic and genocidal regimes. Discussions of the cost of the Vietnam War have tended to underemphasize human capital considerations. In 1910, Japanese armies conquered Korea and occupied it until their defeat in 1945 at the end of World War II. Nevertheless, there was an inevitable wave of justifications, criticisms and retributions. The latter report, Another report by Lynn M. Williams and Susan B. Epstein, The GAO has examined the way in which the Department of Defense includes and does not include the cost of war in the OCO account. Were they correct? It gives the Greeks a The data for FY2018 show that the civil effort is being slashed without any explanation or justification of the cutsparticularly in key areas like economic growthwhere poverty is now steadily increasing and both sets of populations face major humanitarian crisesand in governance, where all of the host country governments are ranked as some of the most corrupt and incapable governments in the world and a lack of popular support is a key issue. Inscribed on the black granite walls are the names of more than 58,000 men and women who gave their lives or remain missing. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Those who argue that the United States opponents won the war cite the United States overall objectives and outcomes. He fully subscribed to the domino theory and to the containment strategy, and also feared appearing weak in the eyes of his domestic political opponents. The termination of SIGIR after U.S. combat forces initially left Iraq in 2011 has meant that there is now no official regular public reporting on this war. They make a striking contrast to the total OCO costs. Estimated interest costs by 2050: Up to $6.5 trillion. Many returning veterans faced negative reactions from both opponents of the war (who viewed them as having killed innocent civilians) and its supporters (who saw them as having lost the war), along with physical damage including the effects of exposure to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange, millions of gallons of which had been dumped by U.S. planes on the dense forests of Vietnam. Two decades of military intervention and bankrolling friendly regimes cost the United States almost $US170 billion (close to $1 trillion in todays terms). As the first U.S. troops were withdrawn, those who remained became increasingly angry and frustrated, exacerbating problems with morale and leadership. Direct link to Jacob, Samour's post 1) It became involved in , Posted 7 years ago. Per capita GDP as of 2013 was $2,073, with an unemployment rate of just 2.1% and a poverty rate of 13.5%. Estimates of the number of people killed in Indochina range from two and a half million to more than four million. For other Americans, opposing the government was considered unpatriotic and treasonous. America was deeply affected by these heavy losses and struggled to understand the meaning, significance and lessons of the Vietnam War. These reports never address the costs of war, or planning, programming, and budgeting. More than 1.3 million Vietnamese soldiers and about 58,000 U.S. troops were killed. 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. Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. The Vietnam War was fought for civilians, by civilians and among civilians and the majority of casualties were civilians. Official data only exist on federal homeland defense efforts, not state and local ones. Updates? He received his B.A. B. The victory of communist regimes in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos triggered one of the largest refugee crises in history. An estimated 18 million gallons of defoliants, bearing codenames like Agent Blue and Agent Orange, were dropped by US planes over the course of the Vietnam War. Were LBJ and Nixon bad decision makers or was it just too much to handle? Though the majority of Vietnam veterans returned home without serious problems, a large number found the readjustment to civilian life difficult. Only limited break outs of these key data are provided by war. 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 struggle for Vietnam was one of the 20th centurys great human tragedies. 2023 Center for Strategic & International Studies. In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in 1973. Reports of the Tet Offensive stunned the U.S. public, however, especially after news broke that Westmoreland had requested an additional 200,000 troops, despite repeated assurances that victory in the Vietnam War was imminent. A total of 44.3% of the labor force works in agriculture, 22.9% works in industry, and 32.8% works in the service sector. 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. When the war was over France received their "colony" back. the Trojans have advanced With his approval ratings dropping in an election year, Johnson called a halt to bombing in much of North Vietnam (though bombings continued in the south) and promised to dedicate the rest of his term to seeking peace rather than reelection. Citation information The Congress has done no better. 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. This section supplements the OCO cost data with some brief metrics on the overall size of the U.S. effort in Syria. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. Current official U.S. data only include U.S. military and DoD civilians, and the DoD website does not provide a trend analysis. 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. Report As the war stretched on, some soldiers came to mistrust the governments reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washingtons repeated claims that the war was being won. When the United States technically "lost" the war, did it seem like an utter waste of time and resources? Vietnam veterans in the US, Australia and other countries have suffered from increased rates of cancers and birth defects in their offspring. All Rights Reserved. : 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. Before World War Two Vietnam . Or would he have gone in a quote better direction based upon how he handled other things as president? The U.S. bombings made Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world. peoples' experiences? In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war. Reporting by the Executive Branch seems almost designed to obscure the real costs of conflict, and avoid linking them to an examination of strategy, its effectiveness, and the prospects for conflict termination. Yet, the theory of human capi-tal has been applied widely, as for example in estimating the costs of illness or injury.1 In 1931, J. Clark estimated the cost of death and disability resulting from the First World War [2]. Global confidence in America as the arsenal of democracy also suffered. The Allies promised Vietnam freedom from French enslavement if they would help fight the Japanese. 1. He authorized a series of bombing campaigns, most notably Operation Rolling Thunder, and also committed hundreds of thousands of US ground troops to the fight. Failing to address casualties does not defuse the issues they raise or the reality that they too are a cost of war. Date published: July 3, 2019 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. Thousands struggled to find and hold down jobs, form new relationships and keep their marriages intact. 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. 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. Direct link to PiggyCosette's post The government most likel, Posted 3 years ago. Or were both parties perhaps working together? The Vietnam War had a huge cost in human lives. 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. Warfare had demolished the countrys infrastructure and economy, and reconstruction proceeded slowly. Those who argue that the United States won the war point to the fact that the U.S. defeated communist forces during most of Vietnams major battles. By Ward Wilson. The origins of American involvement in Vietnam date back to the end of the Second World War, when the Vietnamese were struggling against the continued French colonial presence in their country. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. The cost of all-volunteer forces limits the total force pool. The vast exodus of refugees from Indochina led to humanitarian camps being set up in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and other Asian countries. Why did the United States become involved in Vietnam? Everyone had made mistakes, in any situation I don't think it could've gone "better". Learn about the war that enmeshed the United States in a battle against communism in Southeast Asia for more than twenty years. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content.
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