The Vietnamese people were some of the greatest sufferers in the war. There were many long term effects acting on them. There was a huge loss of life – between 1969 and 1975, about 10% of those in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. 800 000 children had been orphaned and 1 000 000 women had been made widows. There were also many personal tragedies such as Napalm which burned people by melting the flesh leaving permanent disfigurement. Americans later found that chemicals used in the war such as Agent Orange possibly led to deformities and genetic malfunctions, for example, children without eyes or twisted limbs or even miscarriages. Many American GIs had unknowingly fathered children. With the contempt the Vietnamese felt towards the Americans, these children were generally shunned and rejected. As all wars inevitably do, the Vietnamese war caused many illnesses and there was a lack of these medical supplies to treat after-effects of war in Vietnam.
There were also many long term effects on the landscape. Bombing had caused huge craters and destroyed hundreds of villages. Industry had been destroyed. Forests were defoliated and crops destroyed. This resulted in soil erosion and flooding. The land was infertile for many years. Since Vietnam’s main industry was farming, the economy was ruined. Economic problems resulted. There was a shortage of raw materials, there was high unemployment (as the S V army was disbanded) farmers were forced to work on collective farms which they did not like.
Additional problems in Vietnam still existed in the wider long term. There was a shortage of experienced managers and administrators to govern Vietnam. The U.S.A. broke all links with Vietnam, including financial aid. This meant economic recovery was slow. Vietnam joined COMECON, which meant they received economic aid from the Soviet Union. This helped, but economic recovery was slow. These economic problems have both political and financial implications. The War in the U.S.A. did not bring the war to an end. The Chinese were upset when Vietnam joined COMECON. They were further angered when Vietnam forces invaded Cambodia and Laos in 1978 to overthrow pro-Chinese rulers. China invaded Vietnam in 1979 – a short war followed ( this showed the Vietnam War had been a Nationalist rather than a Communist War) – this showed more political problems in Vietnam. When the Cold War came to an end I the 1980’s and the Soviet Union split up, Vietnam no longer received aid and their relations with China improved.
In the long term, Vietnam did recover and its economy has developed in recent years.
There were many social, economic and political effects on the USA after the war. Many of the social effects were on the returning soldiers. American soldiers returning to the United States may not have expected to be treated as heroes. But they certainly didn’t expect to be treated as criminals or child murderers, as they sometimes were. Medical treatment for wounded or disabled veterans in the United States was poor. Many found it difficult to find jobs or to get their own jobs back – even thought a government law made employers keep their jobs open for them. A Veterans Administration survey in 1988 estimated that some 500 000 veterans suffered from ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’. Its symptoms could take ten or fifteen years to appear. Depression, panic and rage attacks are features of the disorder. They are often followed by divorce, drug addiction, alcoholism, and suicide. The drug use was widespread during the war. It was estimated in 197 that a third of the troops were addicted to opium or heroin. Smoking marijuana was routine. To some, this was the only way they could cope – their addiction continued after the War and added to the drug problem in the U.S.A. The average age of recruits was 19. Many were vulnerable to the psychological effects of war – many had become anaesthetised to violence because of the horrors they had witnessed – there were high levels of crime, alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, unemployment and suicide among former soldiers. It has been estimated that more veterans of the Vietnam War committed suicide than were killed in the conflict. Americans at first tried to forget the Vietnam War. It wasn’t until nearly ten years after the last American soldiers left, in November 1982 the veterans of the war finally got a national memorial in Washington. It was paid for by private donations. It lists the names of all those 58 132 and eight women who died. Also recorded are 2413 others who are listed as Missing in Action.
More social effects came from the American conscience. As the war became a thing of the past, there was a growth in American guilt and embarrassment (atrocities, bombing etc.) – this has been mainly recognised in films such as The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now and Born on the Fourth of July. An opinion poll in 1990 for Time magazine clearly showed the difference between the American public and the war veterans who had fought in the war. 57 per cent of the general public thought that the Untied States was wrong to get involved in the war while 58 per cent of veterans thought that the United States was right to get involved. Americans were embarrassed because they realised that Vietnam was not a ‘good’ war and because it was the first war the United States had ever lost.
Government policy caused many effects on the United States. One of the economic effects caused by Government policy was the huge cost of the war. The Vietnam War cost 120 billion dollars. Money spent on the War prevented the government from spending on other projects for example tackling poverty and clearing slums. A political effect was the foreign policy. The War saw great losses (56 000 dead and 156 000 wounded) and defeat. The government was determined to avoid another Vietnam. For many years they refused to send troops into any territory which did not directly affect U.S. security, for example, they did not intervene when the Soviet Union interfered in Afghanistan and Angola. This has changed in more recent times with more direct intervention such as the Gulf War. Another political effect was that the government was forced to reconsider the Domino Theory. Although Cambodia and Laos became communist, it stopped there. The U.S.A. was no longer involved in the Far East. This was further the case with the collapse of communism in Russia and many other areas. Also, many people thought that they had been misled by the Government and it took some time for this trust to be regained. The principle of protest was established during the Vietnam War and this has been maintained in the years since 1975.
Vietnam and the United States were both left to face their own problems once the war was over. No-one expected Americans to lose and lose in that way. People had always imagined America to be the rock that would always rise from any fall. None of these expectations were true. America suffered many losses whether they were during the war or post-war. The NLF had achieved their goal in uniting the North and the South but for a great price.
