Bitterness of War in Vietnam

sulphur Vietnam at the while was in a mess governmentally and scotchally. Many of the political leaders were simply political appointments friendly to the wishes of the colonial powers (first the French and then(prenominal) the linked States). The economy was in ruins because of the consumptive temperament of French colonialism. Later American efforts to develop South Vietnam's economy, know as "Vietnamization," were undermined largely by political corruption in which the Vietnamese government bureaucracy pocketed much of the aid for itself.

South Vietnam was neither democratic nor western in nature. It was part of a colonial empire that served western interests in containing the expansion of communism. As such, popular support for the "western" South Vietnamese regimen was scant. The Vietminh forces of the north were significantly complemented in their efforts by the growing communistic Viet Cong forces of the south. The only thing maintaining the partition was the presence of superior abroad array and financial resources.

Consequently, the United States found itself in a losing situation. The very existence of a South Vietnam required extraneous (American) intervention. But the fact of a foreign presence, exacerbated by the exploitive nature of French and American colonialism, stirred the historic Vietnamese sentiments of nationalism. The more troops and money the United States poured into

Gibson, James. (1986). The perfect war: Technowar in Vietnam. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press.

Porter, Gareth. (1975). A peace denied: The United States, Vietnam, and the Paris agreements. Bloomington: University of inch Press.

The impoverishment of such a protracted war has force Vietnam into a dependency relationship with the Soviet Union. Since Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia, chinaware is no longer an ally of Vietnam. The United States has refused reconstruction assistance. Thus, Vietnam has had no alternative but to become a Soviet axis of rotation nation. Vietnam is once again a country that is not independent.

some as important as the loss in American lives were two other major costs to the United States: economic costs, and the loss in global prestige.

The economic costs of the Vietnam war cannot be accurately calculated because there are some(prenominal) direct military expenditures and indirect social costs. Just to limit an idea of the level of military expenditures, the United States dropped more tonnage duty of bombs on Vietnam each year than were dropped in the entirety of creation war II. In the brief six month encroachment into Cambodia in 1973, that nation was devastated with more bomb tonnage than was dropped on Japan in the entire Second World War (Herring, 1986, p. 269). When one calculates all the other military costs, American military expenditures in Vietnam were exorbitant.

The United States also lost in footing of global prestige. Regardless of one's ideological perspective, the persistent involvement and then retreat of American forces in Vietnam have not been viewed favourably anywhere in the world. Unlike Gorbachev's Soviet Union which had the cognizance to pull out of Afghanistan before the war became too costly, the United States bankrupted itself and others in Vietnam before retreating. And unlike an image of a fearless nation, the United States did not carry through on its allegiance to defend treaty obligations. For the first time, the American
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