What were the consequences of the Vietnam War for civilians in both the United States and Vietnam following the U.S. withdrawal from the war?

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What were the consequences of the Vietnam War for civilians in both the United States and Vietnam following the U.S. withdrawal from the war?

For many, the Vietnam War and the conflict, changes, and divisions it caused in the United States is the defining event of the later part of this century. Twenty years later, we still see and feel the effects of the war- in the veterans who suffer the effects of Agent Orange or post-traumatic stress disorder, in the list of the dead on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, in the presence of a large population of American-Asian children and Vietnamese refugees now at home in the United States.  Vietnam still bears the scars of the effects of the war, particularly in its crippled victims of Agent Orange, and its hundreds of thousands of missing and wounded.

Vietnam

        The Vietnamese suffered heavy losses during the conflict with the USA.  The majority of the losses were civilians, primarily due to the ruthless and inhumane tactics of the American Army.

        The effects of chemical warfare were perhaps the most notable, Napalm and 'Agent Orange'.  Agent Orange was wholly inhumane, there was even botanical research into its effect, showing it to be extremely dangerous.  These findings were seemingly ignored.  Napalm was equally as deadly.  This led to widespread death of civilians, as the Americans attacked villages suspected to shelter Guerrillas.

         Agent Orange still causes birth defects and has cancerous links today, this is likely to carry on into the future.  For American veterans there have been funds set up to compensate them for their damaged health.  Unexploded land mines still claim lives today, virtually nothing can be done about it.

        Food in Vietnam was contaminated on a large scale.  The land is still unusable for vegetation to this day.  The Vietnamese cannot produce food on the scale which they once did, and cannot export food to boost their economy.  5.4 million acres of forest were lost.  In short, Vietnam has become a notorious environmental disaster.  It has major effects on the Vietnamese people.

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The labour market in Hanoi, where poor farmers from the countryside look for work

        America withdrew their troops in 1972, but problems persisted.  The North and South of Vietnam were united in 1975, only to enter a political conflict.  There were major problems with the government and the running of the country.  The North Vietnamese communists wanted to rule the country their way, with collective farming and nationalised industries.  Yet these methods were opposed by the South.  They were also impossible due to the contaminated land.

        By 1978 the localised conflicts had turned to wars with Cambodia, and ...

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