Around four million Vietnamese people had been killed or injured in the war. The south had 250,000 soldiers killed and 600,000 wounded. The North had suffered much greater losses, 900,000 soldiers dead and two million wounded. Death is a short-term impact, however this left many people with missing limbs and many children without parents, all of which had to be cared for, for years to come; therefore a long-term effect.
The war caused the collapse of Vietnam’s economy, which was once thriving. The cost of the war due to production of equipment and material losses was too great for the country to take. There was not enough money to care for the casualties or rebuild destroyed buildings. Nixon promised $3.25 billion in reconstruction aid to Vietnam, but the aid was never granted, and to make things worse the US created trade barriers that made it hard for Vietnam to buy or sell abroad. Peasants who joined the Vietcong because they were promised land became disloyal when their land was taken from them. Private farms were taken over by the government and collectivized like Stalin did in Russia. This affected food production badly. These economic problems were short-term however, because on February 1994 President Bill Clinton lifted the trade barrier, and on July 11, 1995, the United States formally restored full diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
Vietnam’s environment was badly damaged by the American use of high explosive bombs, napalm, chemical weapons, mortar shells and artillery. B-52 bombers left behind huge craters, which today are full of water and even fish. Shot down planes, empty artillery shell casings, and disused weapons litter the ground where battlefields once were. Napalm and Agent Orange destroyed a fifth of Vietnam’s forests and farmlands and also due to the spraying of Agent Orange, many people were made more likely to contract cancer and have children born with deformities. These are other long-term effects.
There were lots of bad consequences for the US as well, although America was able to recover quickly.
Politically, the only effect America had to deal with was the embarrassment of their superpower being defeated by a smaller, under developed country. Losing to an army with such primitive weapons as spears knocked a huge blow to America’s national pride. As this however was just a superficial consequence, it is short-term.
The war was very costly to the US; the government spent $100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) on financing the army. Most of this will have been spent on the constant bombing raids during Operation Rolling Thunder, as bombs are expensive and 500,000 tonnes were dropped over North Vietnam. Because of the economic drain of the war the US government raised taxes to compensate. This angered taxpayers as they felt that they were paying for the war. America soon recovered from the money loss so the cost of war was a short-term impact.
More than 58,000 Americans lost their lives in Vietnam. Over 300,000 US soldiers were wounded, half of them very seriously and Agent Orange not only effected Vietnamese people, but the American soldiers that handled the chemical were also fathers to deformed children and contractors of cancer. Soldiers were not only injured physically, but many suffered from psychological conditions. Most common were flashbacks and Veterans that have flashbacks still suffer from them today. The consequences above are therefore long-term.
Perhaps worse than injuries incurred, was the way returning Vietnam Veterans were treated by people. They were treated as outcasts rather than heroes discriminated against by employers. People saw them as bad people because of the bad things that had happened in the war. They were even blamed for the increase in drug problems that were arising and most Veterans turned to crime.
Racial tension was building in America after the war. African Americans felt cheated because they fought for America when America would not give them equal rights, and the Southern states still harbored racists like the KKK.
Finally, the Vietnam War caused the making of several films about it. Some of them showed the bad aspects of it, like the climate, the ambushes and the atrocities. Platoon is such a film, which was directed by Oliver Stone who fought in Vietnam himself. But there are other films such as Rambo, which glorified the war and tried to convey the idea of American Victories and made a futile effort to restore America’s pride over the war.
The most important impacts of the war are the long-term effects suffered by Vietnam. Mainly the children born with deformities. They will have to live their whole lives suffering the consequences of the war when they weren’t even born while it was happening. America recovered easily from the impacts it faced, and there are no real long-term effects that carry on today, except for a deep down feeling of guilt.
