what summarizes the human cost of the vietnam war?

The anti-war movement, which was particularly strong on college campuses, divided Americans bitterly. While the number of American deaths was well documented, neither the South Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese or the NLF (Viet Cong) kept stringent records about personnel or losses. Discussions of the cost of the Vietnam War have tended to underemphasize human capital considerations. 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. When the war was over France received their "colony" back. 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. The American death toll in Vietnam is dwarfed by the devastating losses suffered by local people. They also reflect the fact that fact that the DoD began to avoid the budget caps established by the Budget Control Act from FY2014 onwards by including them in the Afghan War OCO account. Publisher: Alpha History 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. Who betrayed Esugei and left Genghis Khans family behind? Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. 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. D. It allows the reader to It was the last major event of the Vietnam War. Overview The Vietnam War was a prolonged military conflict that started as an anticolonial war against the French and evolved into a Cold War confrontation between international communism and free-market democracy. Total was $43.5 billion in FY2015, $44.4 billion with supplemental, $45.2 billion in FY2016, and $50.4 billion in FY2017 less DoD. United States Budgetary Costs and Human Costs of 20 Years of War in Iraq and Syria, 2003-2023. In addition to the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand also committed troops to fight in South Vietnam (albeit on a much smaller scale). 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. Moreover, the Cold War may be over, but the United States still faces strategic challenges from Russia and the emergence of China as a major global power in what is already a multipolar world. Someone please:(. Efforts to integrate net assessment with budget submissions were effectively killed by the Joint Staff decades earlier, during the Reagan Administration. Trojans' side of the story. 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. In August of 1964, after DRV torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. OMB does not report total costs of homeland defense for all departments in the FY2018 budget request for unexplained reasons. The defeat in Vietnam, they argued, was a betrayal of the US military by civilian politicians. The true figures, however, are probably much higher. By the end of June 1972, however, after a failed offensive into South Vietnam, Hanoi was finally willing to compromise. 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. 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). Vietnam War, (195475), a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The total cost of all U.S. aid to Afghanistan through FY2016 is $115.3 billion, which is 16 percent of the total OCO cost of $728.9 billion from FY2001 to FY2016. Direct link to Logan's post Everyone had made mistake, Posted 4 years ago. Thousands of Vietnamese simply vanished, lost in thick jungle or tunnels, obliterated by bombs or incinerated by napalm. The two countries were divided along the 17th Parallel, also known as the Line of Demarcation. Clarification: Sal said in the previous video that the Tet Offensive was executed by the Viet Cong, but in this article it states that it was done by the North Vietnamese. 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. 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. The civil war in Vietnam lasted from 1955 to 1975, with direct U.S. military involvement from 1964 to 1973. . Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified Vietnam. 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. Date updated: December 20, 2022 These chemicals also had an insidious impact on both Vietnamese civilians and American soldiers and their allies. A great deal of agricultural land was poisoned with defoliant or drenched with napalm or diesel and set alight. Map showing the division between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The discussion of how activities link to a strategy is the one example of such a public budget justification in more than 15 years of official reporting on the wars. If one counts the Cold War, the United States has been at war for virtually every year since 1941. These war costs stalled some of Lyndon Johnsons Great Society reforms, including anti-poverty measures and improvements to social security. 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. Military history is often the history of force quality defeating force quantity, and strategies and dollar spending need to be validated by explaining the role and function of deployed personnel. This section compares current total U.S. baseline and war spending with the spending of other states. The later years of the war saw increased physical and psychological deterioration among American soldiersboth volunteers and drafteesincluding drug use, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mutinies and attacks by soldiers against officers and noncommissioned officers. America was deeply affected by these heavy losses and struggled to understand the meaning, significance and lessons of the Vietnam War. Agent Orange left its mark on the environment and it also had a serious human impact as it had the potential to damage . From 1975 to the early 1980s, the world press was filled with horror stories about refugee boats sinking or disintegrating at sea, while thousands of refugees drowned, starved or were murdered by pirates. The number of civilians killed ranges from 627,000 to two million. One of the most common defoliants used in Vietnam, Agent Orange, was later found to contain carcinogenic dioxins. A coup by some of his own generals succeeded in toppling and killing Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, in November 1963, three weeks before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. . Which is correct? Feeding, supplying and paying the armies and navies was, by far, the largest expenditure of the war. 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. 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. 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. More than 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam, and more than 150,000 were wounded. 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. They all reflect a common pattern of erratic funding and slow reaction to the return of the Taliban. Meaning of human cost. Reporting that only covers military personnel is outdated and grossly incompetent. "John F. Kennedy expanded US support for the South Vietnamese government, including an increase in US military advisers, the doubling of military assistance, and authorization of the use of napalm, herbicides, and defoliants". The final charts summarize the FY2018 budget submission data for the OCO accounts in the detail provided by the DoD budget summary. 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. After the My Lai Massacre, anti-war protests continued to build as the conflict wore on. The Department of Defense has, however, provided a supplement to the FY2018 budget request that does provide many useful insights, and the only integrated discussion of civil-military issues in the FY2018 budget submission. The Wars End. Three alternative cost estimates are also summarized in this section. Background Vietnam had many troubles before the Vietnam War. De-escalation, negotiation, and Vietnamization, The United States negotiates a withdrawal, 9 Questions About the Vietnam War Answered, https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War, Vietnam War - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Vietnam War - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Vietnam, a nation in Southeast Asia on the eastern edge of the Indochinese peninsula, had been under French colonial rule since the 19th century. Patrick Hagopian. The Vietnam War was a 19-year conflict involving Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. He expected that France would become a stronger ally if assisted by the United States. What were some human costs of the Vietnam War? 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. For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. After the United States withdrew from the conflict, North Vietnam invaded the South and united the country under a communist government. Westmoreland pursued a policy of attrition, aiming to kill as many enemy troops as possible rather than trying to secure territory. The United States pays $22 billion per year in war compensations to Vietnam veterans and their families. Direct link to David Alexander's post Oh, I think that if you c, Posted 4 years ago. Psychologically, the effects ran even deeper. There were a number of long-term and short-term reasons to explain why the USA became involved in Vietnam in the late 1950s. 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. What were some human costs of the Vietnam War? Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. There have been several legal attempts to seek compensation from the US government and chemical manufacturers. "War" may not be the normal state of U.S. national security planning indefinitely into the future, but warand/or the constant risk of waris a grim reality of our time. Total estimates of the cost through FY2018 have been made earlier. 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 . In September 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the birth of an independent Vietnam. As the first U.S. troops were withdrawn, those who remained became increasingly angry and frustrated, exacerbating problems with morale and leadership. The French defeat at the Dien Bien Phu was followed by a peace conference in Geneva. Direct link to Jeff Kelman's post How come there was a "Vie, Posted 7 years ago. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., lists more than 58,300 names of members of the U.S. armed forces who were killed or went missing in action. In 1968 and 1969, there were hundreds of protest marches and gatherings throughout the country. The bombing. Despite the concerns of some of his advisers about this escalation, and about the entire war effort amid a growing anti-war movement, Johnson authorized the immediate dispatch of 100,000 troops at the end of July 1965 and another 100,000 in 1966. 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. These types of metrics provide a tangible picture of what U.S. OCO spending actually buys. 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". 4. One key aspect of the current cost of U.S. wars is thatdespite their high costthey represent a comparatively low burden on the U.S. economy in terms of GDP, total federal spending, labor, capital, and use of the U.S. industrial base. 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. By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops, compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s. The war had pierced the myth of American invincibility and had bitterly divided the nation. Information and translations of human cost in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Confidence in the Domino Theory was undermined, if not destroyed. It was 150% of the IISS estimate of $604.5 billion for 2016. 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. Based on the current dollar value, the Vietnam War cost the equivalent of about $1 trillion. Meanwhile, the United States, its military demoralized and its civilian electorate deeply divided, began a process of coming to terms with defeat in what had been its longest and most controversial war. Corrections? He died of cancer at 44. Data on cost per solider warn that efforts to minimize personnel may have sharply raised cost per soldier deployed, creating major diseconomies of scale. 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. 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. Such profiles are a key warning of basic problems in planning, programming, and budgeting. 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. 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 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. In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington, D.C. On it were inscribed the names of 57,939 American men and women killed or missing in the war; later additions brought that total to 58,200. In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in 1973. Direct link to Davin V Jones's post That is simply how they v, Posted 5 months ago. It gives the Greeks a Fall of Saigon, capture of Saigon by North Vietnamese forces, which occurred from March 4 to April 30, 1975. They are more than five times more expensive than the Korean War. What would you have done in Ho's place? Wars cost money to fight, and the Civil War was no exception. 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. What does human cost mean? As the second of the Indochina Wars, the Vietnam War was originally fought between North and South Vietnam.
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