what summarizes the human cost of the vietnam war?

Vietnam Facts, History, and Profile - ThoughtCo The United States entered Vietnam with the principal purpose of preventing a communist takeover of the region. ^1 1. Date updated: December 20, 2022 The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The Congress has done no better. Believing that the Soviet Union had backed the invasion, United States President Harry Truman and his advisers followed . This report addresses a number of the issues that result from the failure to deal with the cost of America's wars by providing an overview of the historical trends involved, the broader climate of U.S. defense spending, and the data that have been reported on each war as part of the Overseas budget for the Contingency Operations (OCO) account. 4.3 times the IISS estimate of $145 billion for China, and 2.9 times the SIPIRI estimate of $215 billion. After the My Lai Massacre, anti-war protests continued to build as the conflict wore on. United States Budgetary Costs and Human Costs of 20 Years of War in Iraq and Syria, 2003-2023. The United States defeat in Vietnam led to a period of despondency in America. 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. By nearly every metric, the Vietnam War was, in the common sense of the word, a war. Direct link to christopher.fortomaris's post they worked together but . The United States has been actively in combat since late 2001, and there is little prospect that it can end the need to use force to check terrorism and violent extremism within the next decade. Congress passed the. America was deeply affected by these heavy losses and struggled to understand the meaning, significance and lessons of the Vietnam War. 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. Was the war in Vietnam a civil war or a global Cold War confrontation? There are, however, several problems with current projections of FY2018 and beyond. Summary This CRS report provides estimates of the costs of major U.S. wars from the American Revolution through current conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Discussions of the cost of the Vietnam War have tended to underemphasize human capital considerations. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representatives drafted a peace agreement by early fall, but leaders in Saigon rejected it, and in December Nixon authorized a number of bombing raids against targets in Hanoi and Haiphong. Consequences of the war for Vietnam - The Vietnam War - CCEA - GCSE The Costs Don't. Amount Bilmes estimates the United States will pay in health care, disability, burial and other costs for . There have been several legal attempts to seek compensation from the US government and chemical manufacturers. The bombing. These costs do not address the combat and aid contributions of U.S. allies, and 11 of the other top 15 military spenders are allies of, or have close security ties to, the United States. By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents of Diems repressive regime began fighting back with attacks on government officials and other targets, and by 1959 they had begun engaging the South Vietnamese army in firefights. Vietnam Veterans Memorial | Facts, Designer, & Controversy Vietnam veterans in the US, Australia and other countries have suffered from increased rates of cancers and birth defects in their offspring. It was fought from early November 1955 to the end of April 1975. In that respect, it failed: the two Vietnams were united under a communist banner in July 1976. Nevertheless, there was an inevitable wave of justifications, criticisms and retributions. War protesters: it costs too much money, social problems at home, it's not our war, it can't be won, begins WWII against China and Russia, we should not be the 'police power' around the world. To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. The physical devastation of the war, coupled with the socialist policies imposed by new regimes, caused years of famine and suffering in south-east Asia. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. The human, environmental and economic costs of the Vietnam War were devastating. Posted 7 years ago. The costs of the Vietnam War Center for Strategic and International Studies In peace negotiations at Geneva, the decision was reached to divide Vietnam into northern and southern halves. You can specify conditions of storing and accessing cookies in your browser. 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. Thousands struggled to find and hold down jobs, form new relationships and keep their marriages intact. an estimated 25,000 American servicemen and 757,143 Vietnamese dead. Washington, DC 20036. Metrics showing allied funding and aid activity help put the U.S. spending effort in the proper perspective. . The economic and human costs of the Vietnam War were devastating. Yet, the Administration and the Congress have tended to treat warfighting as a temporary aberrationas something to be delt with by supplementals or creating short-term budget categories like the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account that seem to reflect the cost of wars, but have become something of a slush fund and a mechanism for selectively avoiding the caps on defense spending set by the BCA. Any full costing of America's wars needs to include these costs. All Rights Reserved. What does human cost mean? the Trojans have advanced The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. The human cost of war is perhaps the most critical single metric of warfighting. Direct link to Logan's post Everyone had made mistake, Posted 4 years ago. The French loss at the battle ended almost a century of French colonial rule in Indochina. If these alternative estimatesand many othersare taken into account, it is all too clear that the United States now has no official estimate of the cost of its wars. 3. A decade of warfare left Vietnam, particularly its northern provinces, utterly devastated. It doesn't take a war for nuclear weapons to hurt people. Reporting on the civil dimensions of war is often lacking, and the civil and military budgets of war are developed and implemented separately by the departments and then reviewed (if at all) by separate Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees in each house and by separate elements in the appropriations committees. 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 figures of U.S.. 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. These boats were manned by fishermen unfamiliar with navigating the open sea and some even left without a specific destination in mind. Germany, and the U.K. The United States pays $22 billion per year in war compensations to Vietnam veterans and their families. Throughout both conflicts, reporting has focused on total personnel rather than on the function and capability of the personnel engaged. Direct link to Angela Hilario's post I've read that the Vietna, Posted 4 years ago. 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. 834 E. Washington Ave., Suite 333 Madison, WI 53703, . This started with their homecoming and reception. It was 146% of the $619.7 billion total ($560.7 Baseline plus the $58.8 billion in OCO costs). The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. They are nearly 2.5 times more expensive than the Vietnam War. People were killed during the war. 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 The true figures, however, are probably much higher. This version has been revised to correct some of the terminology used and to make it clear that there is no way to fully reflect the proposed FY2018 costs of OCO activity because the President has not yet determined the FY2018 level of effort in Afghanistan, and the current OCO budget data for FY2018 are the cost of extending the FY2017 program. Tens of thousands of soldiers received dishonorable discharges for desertion, and about 500,000 American men from 1965-73 became draft dodgers, with many fleeing to Canada to evade conscription. The nation grew to distrust its leaders as a result of governmental deceit, and Americans with differing views of the war were distrustful of and hostile to one another. Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200. Report 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.? Direct link to Kim Kutz Elliott's post All American men had to r, Posted 2 years ago. Share Facebook Share Twitter Share. The Human Cost. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. This section compares current total U.S. baseline and war spending with the spending of other states. It also entered into a period of dtente (agreement) with Cold War rivals the Soviet Union and communist China. Meaning of human cost. Were LBJ and Nixon bad decision makers or was it just too much to handle? 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. See answer Advertisement gavrielle Answer: People could not get shelter, resources they needed to survive. Although North Vietnamese and Viet Cong casualty counts vary wildly, it is generally understood that they suffered several times the number of American casualties. The total defense burden is projected to decline from 2.8% in FY2017 to 2.5% in FY2021 and FY2.3% in 2030. Several charts summarize GAO criticism of the way DoD included given costs in the OCO account, and indicate that DoD may correct its reporting in the future. It would take another 30 years and several million lives, including more than 58,000 Americans, before this dream became a reality. 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. This has been grossly unrealistic since the late 1930s. 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. These types of metrics provide a tangible picture of what U.S. OCO spending actually buys. In an attempt to limit the volume of American casualties, he announced a program called Vietnamization: withdrawing U.S. troops, increasing aerial and artillery bombardment and giving the South Vietnamese the training and weapons needed to effectively control the ground war. Many American Vietnam veterans struggled to readjust to civilian life, suffering from psychological effects, increased risk of suicide and increased rates of cancer, possibly caused by exposure to defoliants. Following its 1945 defeat in World War II, Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control. Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified Vietnam. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. 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. Meaning of human cost. During the Vietnam War's official duration (4 August 1964-27 January 1973), 1,631 Sailors and 13,095 Marines were killed in action; 4,178 and 51,392 respectively were wounded. Definition of human cost in the Definitions.net dictionary. World War II. A third estimate, by Neta Crawford, puts costs at more than $4.8 trillion through FY2017, plus more than $7.9 trillion in cumulative interest on past appropriations, or more than $12.7 trillion. Three alternative cost estimates are also summarized in this section. The economic impact of the war was felt in both nations, especially Vietnam, where years of sustained American bombing and defoliation caused inestimable damage to farmland and infrastructure. $70.7 billion in FY2018 total budget authority and $44.1 billion in adjusted budget authority. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U.S. resumed in the 1990s. Johnson raised the number of South Vietnam deployments to 23,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of his first year in office. The Wars End. The estimated death toll of Us soldiers is 58,200 soldiers and around 200k - 250k vietnam soldiers perished. A great deal of agricultural land was poisoned with defoliant or drenched with napalm or diesel and set alight. The Congress, however, can be criticized for failing to insist on adequate reporting of wartime budgets and examining their costs in detail. 1) The deaths of over a million communist soldiers 2) Post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans Which legislation limited the influence of the president? Many were unfairly harassed and abused by anti-war protestors. Fall of Saigon | Description & Facts | Britannica In addition to this Vietnamization policy, Nixon continued public peace talks in Paris, adding higher-level secret talks conducted by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger beginning in the spring of 1968. In contrast to the air attacks on North Vietnam, the U.S.-South Vietnamese war effort in the south was fought primarily on the ground, largely under the command of General William Westmoreland, in coordination with the government of General Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon. , arn from other In 1970, a joint U.S-South Vietnamese operation invaded Cambodia, hoping to wipe out DRV supply bases there. The human, environmental and economic costs of the Vietnam War were devastating. The Korean War (article) | 1950s America | Khan Academy Key metrics are also provided on the funding profiles of key types of aid. U.S. Military Spending: The Cost of Wars - Center for Strategic and When the war was over France received their "colony" back. Why does scarcity mean that people must choose. Per capita GDP as of 2013 was $2,073, with an unemployment rate of just 2.1% and a poverty rate of 13.5%. Taken by surprise, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces nonetheless managed to strike back quickly, and the communists were unable to hold any of the targets for more than a day or two. Or would he have gone in a quote better direction based upon how he handled other things as president? These pressuresplus political sensitivity over U.S casualtieshelped create plans and/or the willingness to withdraw quickly from Iraq and Afghanistan. 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. Military Resources: Vietnam War | National Archives 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. Consequences of the war for the USA - The Vietnam War - CCEA - GCSE
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