The Effect of the Conflict in Vietnam on civilians.

For the Veterans of the war the return to society was difficult and often impossible, as many as 500,000 veterans suffered from ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ which include depression, panic and rage attacks and it was often followed by drug addiction, suicide, alcoholism and divorce. The veterans returned home not to be treated as heroes but as murderers and child-killers. The treatment for injured veterans was poor and those who weren’t injured failed to find jobs or return to old ones

Overall the war was an embarrassment to Americans and they realised that Vietnam was not a ‘good’ war and the veterans were an embarrassment of the first war the Americans had ever lost.

The cease-fire of 1973 did not end the disorder across Vietnam, the south Vietnamese were not ready to surrender to the communists, and a fragile truce was holding the country together.

The country had lost nearly two million men and both sides used the cease-fire to prepare for the inevitable breakout of full-blooded hostilities. The communists infiltrated reinforcements down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and due to aid from the U.S. the South Vietnamese Air Force was the fourth largest in the world. During the following years however the U.S. began to pull out funds and the North Vietnamese were rapidly growing stronger than the South.

This meant that when the communists launched their spring offensive in 1975 resulted in an overwhelming victory, the South Vietnamese refugees fled south in a desperate attempt to escape the fighting. When president Thieu resigned the flag of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam was raised above the presidential palace in Saigon. The war was over but the problems that now faced the country in 1975 were immense. The nation’s infrastructure was in turmoil because of massive amounts of damage from bombs. Also, chemical weapons and warfare had destroyed cropland and large areas of forest. Farms were left in ruins and tens of thousands of agricultural animals had been destroyed. The economy was in tatters and the southern cities were overcrowded with refugees, people began to flee to other countries to find jobs and escape the communist dictatorship.

The only way that the country could find its feet would be through international aid. The U.S. had cut all ties with Vietnam after the humiliation of defeat; this narrowed down the options for the Vietnamese. They now had to rely on the USSR for aid and assistance, however this would not last long due to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War.

 Vietnam had to endure further conflicts with China over the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and hence the economy plunged deeper into turmoil. However steps are now being taken for Vietnam to restore trade links with the rest of the world and improvements are being made and the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo will make the reconstruction of the nation possible.