The ensuing political instability in South Vietnam persuaded Kennedys successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to further increase U.S. military and economic support. or a Hoax: How does the Neta C. Crawford (2023) SUMMARY AND PAPER > U.K. and U.S. Defense Worker Views on the Environmental Costs . Citation information The bombing. The functional break out of the cost by theaterIraq and Syriahelps provide a clear picture of mission focus and allocation of resources. Question 1: "did it seem like an utter waste of time and resources?" This draft disproportionately targeted certain populations, mostly the poor making it very unpopular. It was 150% of the IISS estimate of $604.5 billion for 2016. Fall of Saigon, capture of Saigon by North Vietnamese forces, which occurred from March 4 to April 30, 1975. : Assessing Chinas April 2023 Military Exercises Against Taiwan, ROK President State Visit to Washington: The Capital Cable #69, The Future of U.S. Natural Gas: A Conversation with Charif Souki, Download PDF file of "U.S. Military Spending: The Cost of Wars", Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, Diversity and Leadership in International Affairs Project, Energy Security and Climate Change Program, As is discussed in several parts of this report, work by Amy Belasco of the CRS has provided two reports that attempted to cost America's wars. 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. Some argued that Americas violence against civilians in Vietnam from incidental killings to atrocities like My Lai and indiscriminate carpet bombing made the United States no better than the communist regimes it was seeking to contain. He believed that if one Southeast Asian nation fell to communism, more would follow. See Media Page for more interview, contact, and citation details. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) Nixon and Johnson's thoughts on protesters thought they were communists, dangerous, too radical - encouraged the FBI to investigate the movement This meant that often wealthier men (who could afford college tuition) could avoid being sent to Vietnam, while men from poorer families could not avoid it. or did they just enlist and were picked randomly? Meaning of human cost. During the Vietnam War's official duration (4 August 1964-27 January 1973), 1,631 Sailors and 13,095 Marines were killed in action; 4,178 and 51,392 respectively were wounded. However, SIGIR stopped its operations in 2011. The question of who won the Vietnam War has been a subject of debate, and the answer depends on the definition of victory. 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. During one, on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen shot and killed four students. Vietnam War memory quiz events 1946-1964, Vietnam War memory quiz events 1965-1975, Vietnam War memory quiz terms and concepts (I), Vietnam War memory quiz terms and concepts (II). Global confidence in America as the arsenal of democracy also suffered. Families had to fight to survive Hope this helps :) Post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans The deaths of over a million communist soldiers Advertisement Such profiles are a key warning of basic problems in planning, programming, and budgeting. What were some human costs of the Vietnam War? Its attempts at state-building failed utterly, beginning with its support for the post-war French colonial regime and its flawed choice of Ngo Dinh Diem as leader of South Vietnam, through to its propping up of Nguyen Van Thieu and the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN). The Department of Defense also provides a range of other metrics on U.S. activities, and a costing of air support activity, although these are not linked to the budget. Vietnam was ruined. More than two decades of violent conflict had inflicted a devastating toll on Vietnams population: After years of warfare, an estimated 2 million Vietnamese were killed, while 3 million were wounded and another 12 million became refugees. The final tables reflect the acute dependence on contractors, and show that the ratio of this dependence has increased over time. The war had cost 58,000 American and 2 million Vietnamese lives. 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 $1.5 billion cost of the entire Iraq-Syria train and assist mission is 13 percent of the total OCO budget of $11.9 billion for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). those where some times helped by the VC but the VC attacked ares around the mekondelta and around the borders of laos and cambodia. Nevertheless, there was an inevitable wave of justifications, criticisms and retributions. The Vietnam War and active U.S. involvement in the war began in 1954, though ongoing conflict in the region had stretched back several decades. See answer Advertisement gavrielle Answer: People could not get shelter, resources they needed to survive. War protesters: it costs too much money, social problems at home, it's not our war, it can't be won, begins WWII against China and Russia, we should not be the 'police power' around the world. The nation grew to distrust its leaders as a result of governmental deceit, and Americans with differing views of the war were distrustful of and hostile to one another. OMB tables for FY2017 show total cost of homeland defense for all Departments and agencies was $71.8 billion in FY2015, $72.9 billion with supplemental, $71.7 billion in FY2016, and $70.5 billion in FY2017. Tensions escalated into armed conflict between the two sides, and in 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy chose to expand the military aid program. It establishes a seemingly The U.S. Constitution grants Congress sole authority to issue declarations of war. Confidence in the Domino Theory was undermined, if not destroyed. 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. Some war fighting and support costs are not included in the OCO request. What can you le 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. Warfare had demolished the countrys infrastructure and economy, and reconstruction proceeded slowly. 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". One caveat to this, however, was that men who were in college could be excused from the draft. In the early 1900s the country was part of a French colony. Vietnam, a nation in Southeast Asia on the eastern edge of the Indochinese peninsula, had been under French colonial rule since the 19th century. Did you know? A historians view: Inscribed on the black granite walls are the names of more than 58,000 men and women who gave their lives or remain missing. Those who argue that the United States opponents won the war cite the United States overall objectives and outcomes. Other allies later joined the war. At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. The Congress has done no better. Vietnam veterans in the US, Australia and other countries have suffered from increased rates of cancers and birth defects in their offspring. Between July 1966 and December 1973, more than 503,000 U.S. military personnel deserted, and a robust anti-war movement among American forces spawned violent protests, killings and mass incarcerations of personnel stationed in Vietnam as well as within the United States. The South Vietnamese then led their own invasion of Laos, which was pushed back by North Vietnam. Fearful that the war would jeopardize his domestic agenda, Johnson concealed the extent of the military escalation from the American public. All American men had to register for the draft at age 18. It would take years to recover. The escalating US involvement in Southeast Asia was driven by the logic of the. Following its 1945 defeat in World War II, Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control. These types of metrics provide a tangible picture of what U.S. OCO spending actually buys. There are, however, several problems with current projections of FY2018 and beyond. An estimated 18 million gallons of defoliants, bearing codenames like Agent Blue and Agent Orange, were dropped by US planes over the course of the Vietnam War. $65.7 billion in FY2016 total budget authority and $41.2 billion in adjusted budget authority. Seeking to regain control of the region, France backed Emperor Bao and set up the state of Vietnam in July 1949, with the city of Saigon as its capital. Congress passed the. The size of U.S. military spending is difficult to estimate in comparable terms. answer choices He believed it was the duty of the United States to assist all nations in need. 58,000 American servicemen and an estimated 250,000 Vietnamese dead. The closest the Congress has come to establishing a credible system of formal review is to create limited public reporting requirements on the Iraq and Afghan wars for the DoD, and the requirement for Iraq lapsed at the end of combat activity in 2011. NARA Resources Core Collections on the Vietnam War From the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, "This guide summarizes core holdings on: the war in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos especially during the Nixon and Ford administrations; the flight of refugees from Indochina after April 1975 and the admittance of many to the United States; the accounting of U.S. armed forces MIAs and 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. The U.S. military reported 58,220 American casualties. In 2016, Vietnam's GDP growth was 6.2%, driven by export-oriented manufacturing and robust domestic demand. A government survey in 1988 concluded that 479,000 people just over 15 per cent of US service personnel posted to Vietnam had been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It contains 186,751 words in 265 pages and was updated last on March 27th, 2022. American body counts of the enemy were notoriously unreliable and were often little more than ambitious estimates. These war costs stalled some of Lyndon Johnsons Great Society reforms, including anti-poverty measures and improvements to social security. Many returning veterans faced negative reactions from both opponents of the war (who viewed them as having killed innocent civilians) and its supporters (who saw them as having lost the war), along with physical damage including the effects of exposure to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange, millions of gallons of which had been dumped by U.S. planes on the dense forests of Vietnam. "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. In that respect, it failed: the two Vietnams were united under a communist banner in July 1976. One key element of any effective effort to cost a war should be to assess its casualties. What is even more striking, is the failure of both recent presidents and the Congress to properly analyze and justify the cost of America's wars. They make a striking contrast to the total OCO costs. 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. introduction in the play In September 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the birth of an independent Vietnam. These pressuresplus political sensitivity over U.S casualtieshelped create plans and/or the willingness to withdraw quickly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Work by Todd Harrison, for example, shows that total U.S. defense-related costs totaled some $905 billion in FY2017: At the same time, if one does use the $619.7 billion total for the U.S., it is: U.S. military spending has risen steadily over time, but without any serious net assessment of the patterns in that growth, the comparative efficiency of U.S. spending on baseline and war activity, and how allied and potential threat states use their budgets and resources. The United States however, is fighting what are civil-military wars where the "hold," "stability," and "recovery and development" effort is critical to winning popular support. A decade of warfare left Vietnam, particularly its northern provinces, utterly devastated. The United States had provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnams government and military since Vietnams partition into the communist North and the democratic South in 1954. Direct link to christopher.fortomaris's post they worked together but . By 1966, large areas of South Vietnam had been designated as free-fire zones, from which all innocent civilians were supposed to have evacuated and only enemy remained. They illustrate two reporting problems: The charts and tables in this section focus on total DoD spending by year, and OCO expenditure by war. 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. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. In 1970, a joint U.S-South Vietnamese operation invaded Cambodia, hoping to wipe out DRV supply bases there. All Rights Reserved. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Nixon sought to deflate the anti-war movement by appealing to a silent majority of Americans who he believed supported the war effort. Use the notes you completed during the lesson to summarize the reasons the United States aided France in Vietnam. The two countries finally resumed formal diplomatic relations in 1995. In 1976, Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, though sporadic violence continued over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. The American death toll in Vietnam is dwarfed by the devastating losses suffered by local people. Everyone had made mistakes, in any situation I don't think it could've gone "better". In March 1965, Johnson made the decisionwith solid support from the American publicto send U.S. combat forces into battle in Vietnam. 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. Since 1941 Congress has declared war only six times, all during World War II. Which is correct? Here, simply seeing OCO spending data is essentially useless. 1. America was deeply affected by these heavy losses and struggled to understand the meaning, significance and lessons of the Vietnam War. What does human cost mean? Direct link to Kim Kutz Elliott's post All American men had to r, Posted 2 years ago. For more information, please visit our FAQ or Terms of Use. Total personnel are another key measure of the cost of war, particularly when high-cost all-volunteer forces are involved, and casualties are a key political consideration. The DoD semi-annual report now focuses almost exclusively on military activity, and there is no State/USAID counterpart. Even if one uses the higher estimate of military spending used by Todd Harrison, the total is now under 6.0%. Despite the later inclusion of the South Vietnamese and the NLF, the dialogue soon reached an impasse, and after a bitter 1968 election season marred by violence, Republican Richard M. Nixon won the presidency. 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. 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. Why are first-hand accounts important? Washington, DC 20036. Copyright: The content on this page may not be republished without our express permission. He was in Vietnam when he was 20 years old. Yet, the theory of human capi-tal has been applied widely, as for example in estimating the costs of illness or injury.1 In 1931, J. Clark estimated the cost of death and disability resulting from the First World War [2]. This, in turn, creates a strong incentive to try to create effective local forces as soon as possible. reason to finally surrender They reflect the acute pressure that the rising cost of the Iraq War put on funding for the Afghan conflict during FY2005 through FY2008; They also show that reduction in troop levels did not bring proportionate cuts in total war costs. The human, environmental and economic costs of the Vietnam War were devastating. Explore the final years of the war in Vietnam, which saw the United States and her Allies confront the brutal realities of loss and withdrawal from a jungle . These estimates do not include post-war deaths from famine and disease; or the millions killed by regimes like the Khmer Rouge, who came to power largely because of the disruption created by the Vietnam War. This section supplements the OCO cost data with some brief metrics on the overall size of the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. 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. , arn from other One of the most common defoliants used in Vietnam, Agent Orange, was later found to contain carcinogenic dioxins. 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. Center for Strategic and International Studies When the United States technically "lost" the war, did it seem like an utter waste of time and resources? 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. On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 DRV forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap launched the Tet Offensive (named for the lunar new year), a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. Thousands struggled to find and hold down jobs, form new relationships and keep their marriages intact. Direct link to Sean Rim/Dog's post Agent Orange not only eff, Posted 5 months ago. 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. As the first U.S. troops were withdrawn, those who remained became increasingly angry and frustrated, exacerbating problems with morale and leadership. Check all of the boxes that apply. Date updated: December 20, 2022 Many Americans simply chose not to speak of the Vietnam conflict, described by diplomat George Kennan as the most disastrous undertaking in 200 years of US history. February 18, 2018. Germany, and the U.K. But while Ho and his supporters wanted a nation modeled after other communist countries, Bao and many others wanted a Vietnam with close economic and cultural ties to the West. 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. Metrics showing allied funding and aid activity help put the U.S. spending effort in the proper perspective. Direct link to Zob Rombie's post The main reason the war e, Posted 4 years ago. 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). an estimated 25,000 American servicemen and 757,143 Vietnamese dead about 200,000 American servicemen and an estimated 4 million Vietnamese dead 58,000 American servicemen and an estimated 1.5 million Vietnamese dead 58,000 American servicemen and an estimated 250,000 Vietnamese dead 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. These boats were manned by fishermen unfamiliar with navigating the open sea and some even left without a specific destination in mind. Which best describes the cost of the Vietnam War in human terms? The Special Inspector Generals also have not been tasked with addressing the overall cost of each conflict, the overall effectiveness of U.S. civil and military efforts, or the nature and success of U.S. plans and strategies. How did the fear of the Soviet Union and Communism affect American culture and society? Sign up to receive The Evening, a daily brief on the news, events, and people shaping the world of international affairs. Reports of the Tet Offensive stunned the U.S. public, however, especially after news broke that Westmoreland had requested an additional 200,000 troops, despite repeated assurances that victory in the Vietnam War was imminent. The Vietnam War had a huge cost in human lives. Bombarded by horrific images of the war on their televisions, Americans on the home front turned against the war as well: In October 1967, some 35,000 demonstrators staged a massive Vietnam War protest outside the Pentagon. He expected that France would become a stronger ally if assisted by the United States. Reporting on the civil dimensions of war is often lacking, and the civil and military budgets of war are developed and implemented separately by the departments and then reviewed (if at all) by separate Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees in each house and by separate elements in the appropriations committees. The Vietnam War was a 19-year conflict involving Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The United States lost almost 60,000 personnel and civilians in Vietnam: 58,269 servicemen were killed and another 1,672 recorded as missing. As the second of the Indochina Wars, the Vietnam War was originally fought between North and South Vietnam. The memorial, located near the western end of the Mall, is a black granite V-shaped wall inscribed with the names of the approximately 58,000 men and women who were killed or missing in action. Anne's diary helped the world understand what it was like living in hiding during 2023 Center for Strategic & International Studies. Who betrayed Esugei and left Genghis Khans family behind? The invasion of these countries, in violation of international law, sparked a new wave of protests on college campuses across America. The Korean peninsula off the east cost of Asia has had a long history of foreign invaders. The communists, headed by Ho Chi Minh, would govern the northern half, with its capital at Hanoi, while South Vietnam, with its capital at Saigon, would remain non-communist. For some young people, the war symbolized a form of unchecked authority they had come to resent. In August 1964, the US government received word that two North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. $66.0 billion in FY2017 total budget authority and $41.3 billion in adjusted budget authority. After the United States withdrew from the conflict, North Vietnam invaded the South and united the country under a communist government. The number of civilians killed ranges from 627,000 to two million. The origins of American involvement in Vietnam date back to the end of the Second World War, when the Vietnamese were struggling against the continued French colonial presence in their country. 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. Direct link to PiggyCosette's post The government most likel, Posted 3 years ago.
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