Editing Vietnam War (section)

==Aftermath==
===In Southeast Asia===
==== In Vietnam ====
{{Further|Re-education camp (Vietnam)|Mayaguez incident}}
[[File:B52 CRASH WRECKAGE AT HUU TIEP LAKE HA NOI FEB 2012 (6887035292).jpg|thumb|upright=.7|B-52 wreckage in Huu Tiep Lake, Hanoi. Downed during [[Operation Linebacker II]], its remains have been turned into [[B-52 Victory Museum, Hanoi|a war monument]].]]
In July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robbers |first=Gerhard |title=Encyclopedia of world constitutions |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8160-6078-8 |page=[{{GBurl|id=M3A-xgf1yM4C|p=1021}} 1021]}}</ref> Despite speculation that the victorious North Vietnamese would, in Nixon's words, "massacre the civilians there [South Vietnam] by the millions," no mass executions took place.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elliot |first=Duong Van Mai |title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era |publisher=RAND Corporation |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0 |pages=499, 512–513 |chapter=The End of the War |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9o8fAo2R6wC&pg=PA499}}</ref>{{Refn|group="A"|A study by Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson estimated that 65,000 South Vietnamese were executed for political reasons between 1975 and 1983, based on a survey of 615 Vietnamese refugees who claimed to have personally witnessed 47 executions. However, "their methodology was reviewed and criticized as invalid by authors [[Gareth Porter]] and James Roberts." Sixteen of the 47 names used to extrapolate this "bloodbath" were duplicates; this extremely high duplication rate (34%) strongly suggests Desbarats and Jackson were drawing from a small number of total executions. Rather than arguing that this duplication rate proves there were very few executions in post-war Vietnam, Porter and Roberts suggest it is an artifact of the self-selected nature of the participants in the Desbarats-Jackson study, as the authors followed subjects' recommendations on other refugees to interview.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elliot |first=Duong Van Mai |title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era |publisher=RAND Corporation |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0 |pages=512–513 |chapter=The End of the War |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9o8fAo2R6wC&pg=PA512 }}<br />cf. {{Cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=Gareth |last2=Roberts |first2=James |date=Summer 1988 |title=Creating a Bloodbath by Statistical Manipulation: A Review of ''A Methodology for Estimating Political Executions in Vietnam, 1975–1983'', Jacqueline Desbarats; Karl D. Jackson. |journal=Pacific Affairs |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=303–310 |doi=10.2307/2759306 |jstor=2759306}}</ref> Nevertheless, there exist unverified reports of mass executions.<ref>''see'' Nguyen Cong Hoan' testimony in {{Cite report |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002939991 |title=Human Rights in Vietnam: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations: House of Representatives, Ninety-Fifth Congress, First Session |date=26 July 1977 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=149, 153 |access-date=2 September 2016 |archive-date=17 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117043107/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002939991 |url-status=live }};<br />''see also'' {{Cite journal |last1=Desbarats |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Jackson |first2=Karl D. |date=September 1985 |title=Vietnam 1975–1982: The Cruel Peace |journal=The Washington Quarterly |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=169–182 |doi=10.1080/01636608509477343 |pmid=11618274}}</ref>}}
[[File:35 Vietnamese boat people 2.JPEG|thumb|upright=.7|Vietnamese refugees fleeing Vietnam, 1984]]

However many South Vietnamese were sent to [[Re-education camp (Vietnam)|re-education camps]] where they endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labor.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Sagan |first1=Ginetta |last2=Denney |first2=Stephen |date=October–November 1982 |title=Re-education in Unliberated Vietnam: Loneliness, Suffering and Death |url=https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982 |access-date=1 September 2016 |website=The Indochina Newsletter |archive-date=28 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428231519/https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nghia |first=M. Vo |title=The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam |publisher=McFarland |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7864-1714-8}}</ref> According to Amnesty International, this figure varied depending on different observers: "...{{Nbsp}}"50,000 to 80,000" (''Le Monde'', 1978), "150,000 to 200,000" (''The Washington Post'', 1978), and "300,000" (Agence France Presse from Hanoi, 1978)."<ref>{{Cite web |year=1979 |title=Amnesty International Report, 1979 |url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/POL100011979ENGLISH.PDF |access-date=26 March 2018 |publisher=Amnesty International |page=116|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323142937/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol10/001/1979/en/|archive-date=March 23, 2023}}</ref> Such variations are because "Some estimates may include not only detainees but also people sent from the cities to the countryside." According to a native observer, 443,360 people had to register for a period in re-education camps in Saigon alone, and while some were released after a few days, others stayed for more than a decade.<ref>''Huy, Đức. Bên Thắng Cuộc. OsinBook.''</ref> Between 1975-80, more than 1 million northerners migrated south, to regions formerly in the Republic of Vietnam, while, as part of the [[New Economic Zones program]], around 750,000 to over 1 million southerners were moved mostly to mountainous forested areas.<ref name="Desbarats">{{Cite book |last=Desbarats |first=Jacqueline |title=Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation |series=Indochina report ; no. 11 |publisher=Executive Publications |location=Singapore |date=1987}}</ref><ref name="Chapman">{{Cite news |last=Chapman |first=William |date=17 August 1979 |title=Hanoi Rebuts Refugees on 'Economic Zones' |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/17/hanoi-rebuts-refugees-on-economic-zones/a26c10ab-3791-4d76-9c4a-db4f7d48be32/ |access-date=30 June 2021|archive-date=June 14, 2023|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20230614164256/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/17/hanoi-rebuts-refugees-on-economic-zones/a26c10ab-3791-4d76-9c4a-db4f7d48be32/}}</ref> [[Gabriel García Márquez]] described South Vietnam as a "False paradise" when he visited in 1980:
{{Blockquote|The cost of this delirium was stupefying: 360,000 people mutilated, a million widows, 500,000 prostitutes, 500,000 drug addicts, a million tuberculous and more than a million soldiers of the old regime, impossible to rehabilitate into a new society. Ten percent of the population of Ho Chi Minh City was suffering from serious venereal diseases when the war ended, and there were 4 million illiterates throughout the South.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Read Gabriel García Márquez's Moving Vietnam Piece |magazine=Rolling Stone |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-vietnam-wars-19800529 |access-date=25 April 2018 |archive-date=17 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617093009/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-vietnam-wars-19800529 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
The US used its [[United Nations Security Council veto power|security council veto]] to block Vietnam's UN recognition three times, an obstacle to it receiving aid.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 September 1977 |title=Vietnam Is Admitted to the U.N. As 32d General Assembly Opens |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/21/archives/vietnam-is-admitted-to-the-un-as-32d-general-assembly-opens.html |access-date=27 April 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409052642/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/21/archives/vietnam-is-admitted-to-the-un-as-32d-general-assembly-opens.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==== Laos and Cambodia ====
By 1975, the North Vietnamese had lost influence over the Khmer Rouge.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|708}} [[Phnom Penh]], Cambodia's capital, fell to the Khmer Rouge in April. Under [[Pol Pot]], the Khmer Rouge would [[Cambodian genocide|kill 1–3 million Cambodians]] from a population of 8&nbsp;million, in one of the [[List of genocides by death toll|bloodiest genocides ever]].<ref name=Heuveline/>{{Rp|}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sharp |first=Bruce |date=1 April 2005 |title=Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia |url=http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm |access-date=15 July 2016 |quote=The range based on the figures above extends from a minimum of 1.747 million, to a maximum of 2.495 million. |archive-date=15 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131115041409/http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>The [[Documentation Center of Cambodia]] has mapped some 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1.3 million suspected victims of execution; execution is believed to account for roughly 60% of the full death toll. See: {{Cite book |last1=Seybolt |first1=Taylor B. |title=Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict |last2=Aronson |first2=Jay D. |last3=Fischoff |first3=Baruch |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-997731-4 |page=238}}</ref><ref>[[Ben Kiernan]] cites a range of 1.671 to 1.871 million excess deaths under the Khmer Rouge. See {{Cite journal |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Kiernan |date=December 2003 |title=The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia: The Death Tolls in Cambodia, 1975–79, and East Timor, 1975–80 |journal=Critical Asian Studies |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=585–597 |doi=10.1080/1467271032000147041 }}</ref>

The relationship between Vietnam and [[Democratic Kampuchea]] (Cambodia) escalated after the war. In response to the Khmer Rouge taking over [[Phu Quoc]] and [[Tho Chu]], and the belief they were responsible for the disappearance of 500 Vietnamese natives on Tho Chu, Vietnam launched a counterattack to take back the islands.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farrell |first=Epsey Cooke |title=The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the law of the sea: an analysis of Vietnamese behavior within the emerging international oceans regime |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |year=1998 |isbn=90-411-0473-9}}</ref> After failed attempts to negotiate, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea in 1978 and ousted the Khmer Rouge, in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. In response, China invaded Vietnam in 1979. The two countries fought a border war: the [[Sino-Vietnamese War]]. From 1978 to 1979, some 450,000 ethnic [[Hoa people|Chinese]] left Vietnam by boat as refugees or were deported.

The Pathet Lao overthrew the monarchy of Laos in 1975, establishing the [[Lao People's Democratic Republic]]. The change in regime was "quite peaceful, a sort of Asiatic '[[velvet revolution]]'"—although 30,000 former officials were sent to reeducation camps, often enduring harsh conditions.<ref name=Courtois/>{{Rp|575–576}}

==== Unexploded ordnance ====
[[Unexploded ordnance]], mostly from US bombing, continues to kill people, and has rendered much land hazardous and impossible to cultivate. Ordnance has killed 42,000 people since the war.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 December 2012 |title=Vietnam War Bomb Explodes Killing Four Children |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/03/vietname-war-bomb-explodes_n_2229727.html |website=The Huffington Post |access-date=21 March 2014 |archive-date=19 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219040016/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/03/vietname-war-bomb-explodes_n_2229727.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/vietnam-war-shell-explodes-kills-two-fishermen/story-fn3dxix6-1226046291270|title=Vietnam war shell explodes, kills two fishermen}}</ref> In Laos, 80&nbsp;million bombs failed to explode and still remain. Unexploded ordnance has killed or injured over 20,000 Laotians and about 50 people are killed or maimed annually.<ref name="Wright">{{Cite news |last=Wright |first=Rebecca |date=6 September 2016 |title='My friends were afraid of me': What 80 million unexploded US bombs did to Laos |work=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/05/asia/united-states-laos-secret-war/ |access-date=18 September 2016 |archive-date=17 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117203916/https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/05/asia/united-states-laos-secret-war/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lao PDR - Casualties and Victim Assistance |url=http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/lao-pdr/casualties-and-victim-assistance.aspx |access-date=17 July 2022 |website=Landmine and Clustering Munition Monitor |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114839/http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/lao-pdr/casualties-and-victim-assistance.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> It is estimated the explosives will not be removed entirely for centuries.<ref name="Nguyen" />{{Rp|317}}

==== Refugee crisis ====
{{Main|Indochina refugee crisis|Vietnamese boat people}}
Over 3&nbsp;million people left Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the [[Indochina refugee crisis]] after 1975. Most Asian countries were unwilling to accept them, many led by boat and were known as [[boat people]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Stephen Castles |last2=Mark J. Miller |date=10 July 2009 |title=Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region |url=http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migration-asia-pacific-region |publisher=Migration Policy Institute |access-date=11 August 2014 |archive-date=14 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614072213/https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migration-asia-pacific-region |url-status=live }}</ref> Between 1975-98, an estimated 1.2&nbsp;million [[refugee]]s from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries resettled in the US, while Canada, Australia, and France resettled over 500,000, China accepted 250,000.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=William |title=Terms of refuge: the Indochinese exodus & the international response |publisher=Zed Books |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85649-610-0 |page=[{{GBurl|id=_rjiOXMRd4sC|p=127}} 127]}}</ref> Laos experienced the largest refugee flight proportionally, 300,000 out of a population of 3&nbsp;million crossed the border into Thailand. Included among them were "about 90%" of Laos' "intellectuals, technicians, and officials."<ref name=Courtois/>{{Rp|575}} An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 boat people died at sea, according to the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nghia |first=M. Vo |title=The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975–1992 |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7864-2345-3 }}{{pn|date=May 2025}}</ref>

===In the United States===
{{Main|United States in the Vietnam War}}
[[File:Marine da nang.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|A young [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, [[Da Nang]], 3 August 1965]]
Failure of US goals is often placed at different institutions and levels. Some have suggested it was due to failure of leadership.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lippman |first=Thomas W. |date=9 April 1995 |title=McNamara Writes Vietnam Mea Culpa |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/09/mcnamara-writes-vietnam-mea-culpa/a85cc058-54fe-4074-bda3-b374885ede8f/ |access-date=28 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228230351/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/09/mcnamara-writes-vietnam-mea-culpa/a85cc058-54fe-4074-bda3-b374885ede8f/ |archive-date=28 December 2019 |quote=As recounted by McNamara{{Nbsp}}... the war could and should have been avoided and should have been halted at several key junctures, one as early as 1963. According to McNamara, he and other senior advisers to President Lyndon B. Johnson failed to head it off through ignorance, inattention, flawed thinking, political expediency and lack of courage.}}</ref> Others point to military doctrine. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara stated that "the achievement of a military victory by U.S. forces in Vietnam was indeed a dangerous illusion."<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|368}} The inability to bring Hanoi to the bargaining table by bombing illustrated another US miscalculation, and the limitations of military abilities in achieving political goals.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=17}} [[Chief of Staff of the United States Army|Army Chief of Staff]] [[Harold Keith Johnson]] noted, "if anything came out of Vietnam, it was that air power couldn't do the job."<ref name="Buzzano">{{Cite web |last=Buzzanco |first=Bob |date=17 April 2000 |title=25 Years After End of Vietnam War, Myths Keep Us from Coming to Terms with Vietnam |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605195117/http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm |archive-date=5 June 2008 |access-date=11 June 2008 |website=[[The Baltimore Sun]]}}</ref> General William Westmoreland admitted bombing had been ineffective, saying he doubted "that the North Vietnamese would have relented."<ref name=Buzzano/> Kissinger wrote to President Ford that "in terms of military tactics ... our armed forces are not suited to this kind of war. Even the Special Forces who had been designed for it could not prevail."{{Sfn|Kissinger|1975}} Hanoi had persistently sought unification, and the effects of US bombing had negligible impact on North Vietnam's goals.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|1–10}} US bombing mobilized people throughout North Vietnam and internationally, due to a superpower attempting to bomb a small society into submission.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|48–52}}

Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention. President [[Ronald Reagan]] coined the term "[[Vietnam Syndrome]]" to describe the reluctance of the public and politicians to support military interventions abroad. US polling in 1978 revealed nearly 72% of Americans believed the war was "fundamentally wrong and immoral."<ref name="Hagopian" />{{Rp|10}} Six months after the beginning of Operation Rolling Thunder, [[Gallup, Inc.]] found 60% of Americans did not believe sending troops was a mistake in September 1965, and only 24% believed it was. Subsequent polling did not find a plurality believed sending troops was a mistake until October 1967, and did not find a majority believing it was until August 1968, during the third phase of the Tet Offensive. Thereafter, Gallup found majorities believing it was a mistake through the signing of the Peace Accords in January 1973, when 60% believed it was a mistake, and retrospective polls by Gallup between 1990 and 2000, found 69-74% of Americans believed it was a mistake.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Newport|first1=Frank|last2=Carroll|first2=Joseph|date=August 24, 2005|title=Iraq Versus Vietnam: A Comparison of Public Opinion|publisher=Gallup, Inc.|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/18097/iraq-versus-vietnam-comparison-public-opinion.aspx|access-date=May 8, 2024|archive-date=9 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509004839/https://news.gallup.com/poll/18097/Iraq-Versus-Vietnam-Comparison-Public-Opinion.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Vietnam War POW/MIA issue]], concerning the fate of US service personnel listed as [[missing in action]], persisted. The costs loom large in American consciousness; a 1990 poll showed the public incorrectly believed more Americans died in Vietnam than World War II.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 May 2001 |title=Victory in Europe 56 Years Ago |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/1552/Victory-Europe-Years-Ago.aspx |publisher=Gallup News Service |access-date=2 January 2015 |archive-date=4 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104162059/http://www.gallup.com/poll/1552/Victory-Europe-Years-Ago.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Financial cost====
{| class="wikitable floatright" style="width: 35%;"
|+US expenditures in South Vietnam (1953–74)<br />Direct costs only<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dacy |first=Douglas |url=https://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/108054.pdf |title=Foreign aid, war, and economic development: South Vietnam 1955–1975 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-521-30327-9 |page=242}}</ref>
|-
! Military costs || Military aid || Economic aid|| Total || Total (2015 dollars)
|-
| $111&nbsp;billion || $16&nbsp;billion || $7&nbsp;billion || $135&nbsp;billion || $1&nbsp;trillion
|}

Between 1953-75, the US was estimated to have spent $168&nbsp;billion on the war (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.168|1964|r=1}} trillion in {{Inflation/year|US}}).<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 January 2014 |title=How Much Did The Vietnam War Cost? |language=en-US |work=The Vietnam War |url=https://thevietnamwar.info/how-much-vietnam-war-cost/ |access-date=17 May 2018}}</ref> This resulted in a large [[budget deficit]]. Other figures point to $139&nbsp;billion from 1965 to 1974 (not inflation-adjusted), 10 times education spending, and 50 times more than housing and community development.<ref name="CQ">{{Cite web |title=CQ Almanac Online Edition |url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal75-1213988#H2_1 |access-date=14 June 2018 |website=library.cqpress.com}}</ref> It was stated that war-spending could have paid every mortgage in the US, with money leftover.<ref name=CQ/> {{As of|2013}}, the US government pays Vietnam veterans and their families more than $22&nbsp;billion annually in war-related claims.<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 March 2013 |title=US still making payments to relatives of Civil War veterans, analysis finds |work=Fox News |agency=[[Associated Press]] |url=https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-still-making-payments-to-relatives-of-civil-war-veterans-analysis-finds}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Jim Lobe |date=30 March 2013 |title=Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Will Cost U.S. 4–6 Trillion Dollars: Report |agency=[[Inter Press Service]] |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/iraq-afghanistan-wars-will-cost-u-s-4-6-trillion-dollars-report/}}</ref>

====Impact on the U.S. military====
{{See also|Vietnam War resisters in Canada|Vietnam War resisters in Sweden}}
[[File:OperationHueCity1967wounded.jpg|thumb|A marine gets his wounds treated during operations in Huế City, in 1968]]
More than 3&nbsp;million Americans served, 1.5&nbsp;million saw combat.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/fredturner/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node/7 |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=29 May 2011 |archive-date=8 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508201447/http://www.stanford.edu/group/fredturner/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node%2F7 |url-status=dead }}</ref> "At the height of American involvement in 1968, for example, 543,000 American military personnel were stationed in Vietnam, but only 80,000 were considered combat troops."{{Sfn|Westheider|2007|p=78}} Conscription in the US existed since World War II, but ended in 1973.<ref name=bbmdst>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rjoTAAAAIBAJ&pg=6104%2C3785258 |newspaper=The Bulletin |location=Bend, Oregon |agency=UPI |title=Military draft system stopped |date=January 27, 1973 |page=1}}</ref><ref name=mdebld>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_6ojAAAAIBAJ&pg=5837%2C1959488 |newspaper=The Times-News |location=Hendersonville, North Carolina |agency=Associated Press |title=Military draft ended by Laird |date=January 27, 1973 |page=1 }}</ref>

58,220 American soldiers were killed,<ref name="USd&w" group="A" /> more than 150,000 wounded, and at least 21,000 permanently disabled.<ref name="DigitalHistory">{{Cite web |title=The War's Costs |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=513 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505035502/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=513 |archive-date=5 May 2008 |access-date=3 November 2019 |publisher=Digital History}}</ref> The average age of troops killed was 23.<ref>Combat Area Casualty File, November 1993. (The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. The Wall), Center for Electronic Records, National Archives, Washington, DC</ref> According to Dale Kueter, "Of those killed in combat, 86% were white, 13% were black..."<ref name="Kueter">{{Cite book |last=Kueter |first=Dale |title=Vietnam Sons: For Some, the War Never Ended |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4259-6931-8}}</ref> Approximately 830,000 veterans, 15%, suffered [[posttraumatic stress disorder]].<ref name="DigitalHistory" /> This unprecedented number was because the military had provided heavy psychoactive drugs to servicemen, which left them unable to process trauma.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=8 April 2016 |title=The Drugs That Built a Super Soldier: During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Military Plied Its Servicemen with Speed, Steroids, and Painkillers to Help Them Handle Extended Combat |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/ |magazine=The Atlantic|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520145751/https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/|archive-date=May 20, 2023}}</ref> Drug use, racial tensions, and the growing incidence of fragging—attempting to kill unpopular officers—created problems for the military and impacted its capability.<ref name="Lepre">{{Cite book |last=Lepre |first=George |title=Fragging: Why U.S. Soldiers Assaulted their Officers in Vietnam |publisher=Texas Tech University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-89672-715-1}}</ref>{{Rp|44–47}} 125,000 Americans left for Canada to avoid the draft,<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 November 2005 |title=War Resisters Remain in Canada with No Regrets |work=ABC News |url=https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1325339 |access-date=26 February 2010|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312063551/https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1325339|archive-date=March 12, 2023}}</ref> and approximately 50,000 servicemen deserted.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 June 2005 |title=Vietnam War Resisters in Canada Open Arms to U.S. Military Deserters |url=http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=24009b4dc8fe8dadcfa96c37bce9dea6 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812205654/http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=24009b4dc8fe8dadcfa96c37bce9dea6 |archive-date=12 August 2014 |access-date=12 August 2014 |publisher=Pacific News Service}}</ref> In 1977, President [[Jimmy Carter]] granted an unconditional pardon to all Vietnam-era [[Draft evasion in the Vietnam War|draft evaders]] with [[Proclamation 4483]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 January 1977 |title=Proclamation 4483: Granting Pardon for Violations of the Selective Service Act, August 4, 1964 To March 38, 1973 |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/carter_proclamation.htm |access-date=11 June 2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404185642/https://www.justice.gov/pardon/proclamation-4483-granting-pardon-violations-selective-service-act|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref>

The war called into question army doctrine. Marine general [[Victor H. Krulak]] criticized Westmoreland's attrition strategy, calling it "wasteful of American lives{{Nbsp}}... with small likelihood of a successful outcome."<ref name=Buzzano/> Doubts surfaced about military's ability to train foreign forces. There was found to be considerable flaws and dishonesty by commanders, due to promotions being tied to the body count system touted by Westmoreland and McNamara.<ref name=Mohr/> Secretary of Defense McNamara wrote to President Johnson: "The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Scheer |first=Robert |date=8 July 2009 |title=McNamara's Evil Lives On |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mcnamaras-evil-lives/ |magazine=The Nation |access-date=28 February 2020|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404185636/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mcnamaras-evil-lives/|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref>

===Effects of U.S. chemical defoliation===
{{Further|Environmental impact of the Vietnam War}}
[[File:Defoliation agent spraying.jpg|thumb|U.S. helicopter spraying chemical [[defoliant]]s in the [[Mekong Delta]], South Vietnam, 1969]]
One of the most controversial aspects of the US military effort, was widespread use of chemical [[defoliant]]s between 1961-71. 20 million gallons of toxic herbicides (like [[Agent Orange]]) were sprayed on 6 million acres of forests and crops.<ref name="Westing-1984"/> They were used to [[Wikt:defoliate|defoliate]] parts of the countryside to prevent the Viet Cong from being able to hide weaponry and encampments under the foliage, and deprive them of food. Defoliation was used to clear sensitive areas, including base perimeters and ambush sites along roads and canals. More than 20% of South Vietnam's forests and 3% of its cultivated land was sprayed. 90% was directed at forest defoliation.<ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|263}} The chemicals used continue to change the landscape, cause diseases and birth defects, and poison the food chain.<ref>{{Harvnb|Palmer|2007}}; {{Harvnb|Stone|2007}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Lynne |last=Peeples |date=10 July 2013 |title=Veterans Sick From Agent Orange-Poisoned Planes Still Seek Justice |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/agent-orange-vietnam-veterans_n_3572598.html |access-date=4 September 2013}}</ref> US records have listed figures including the destruction of 20% of the jungles of South Vietnam and 20-36% of the [[mangrove]] forests.<ref name="Fox-2003">{{cite book |last=Fox |first=Diane N. |url=http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/dnfox/pdf/chemical_politics.pdf |chapter=Chemical Politics and the Hazards of Modern Warfare: Agent Orange |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727144516/http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/dnfox/pdf/chemical_politics.pdf|archive-date=2010-07-27 |title=Synthetic Planet: Chemical Politics and the Hazards of Modern Life |editor-last=Monica |editor-first=Casper |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge Press}}</ref> The environmental destruction caused was described by Swedish Prime Minister [[Olof Palme]], lawyers, and academics as an [[ecocide]].<ref name="Zierler-2011">{{Cite book |last=Zierler |first=David |title=The invention of ecocide: agent orange, Vietnam, and the scientists who changed the way we think about the environment |date=2011 |publisher=Univ. of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-3827-9 |location=Athens, Georgia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-18 |title=How Imperative Is It To Consider Ecocide As An International Crime? |url=https://www.ijllr.com/post/how-imperative-is-it-to-consider-ecocide-as-an-international-crime |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=IJLLR}}</ref><ref name="Falk-1973">{{Cite journal |last=Falk |first=Richard A. |date=1973 |title=Environmental Warfare and Ecocide — Facts, Appraisal, and Proposals |journal=Bulletin of Peace Proposals |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=80–96 |doi=10.1177/096701067300400105 |jstor=44480206 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=17 February 2022 |last=Cassandra |first=Bianca |title=Industrial disasters from Bhopal to present day: why the proposal to make 'ecocide' an international offence is persuasive |url=https://theleaflet.in/industrial-disasters-from-bhopal-to-present-day-why-the-proposal-to-make-ecocide-an-international-offence-is-persuasive/ |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=The Leaflet |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Chiarini-2022">{{Cite journal |first=Giovanni |last=Chiarini |date=1 April 2022 |title=Ecocide: From the Vietnam War to International Criminal Jurisdiction? Procedural Issues In-Between Environmental Science, Climate Change, and Law |ssrn=4072727 |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4072727 |journal=Cork Online Law Review}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-07 |title='Ecocide' movement pushes for a new international crime: Environmental destruction |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ecocide-movement-pushes-new-international-crime-environmental-destruction-n1263142 |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=NBC News}}</ref>

Agent Orange and similar substances used by the US have caused many deaths and injuries, including among the crews that handled them. Scientific reports have concluded that refugees exposed to sprays continued to experience pain in the eyes, skin and gastrointestinal upsets. In one study, 92% of participants suffered incessant fatigue; others reported [[monstrous birth]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rose |first1=Hilary A. |last2=Rose |first2=Steven P. R. |title=Chemical Spraying as Reported by Refugees from South Vietnam |journal=Science |date=25 August 1972 |volume=177 |issue=4050 |pages=710–712 |doi=10.1126/science.177.4050.710 |bibcode=1972Sci...177..710R }}</ref> Analysis of studies on the association between Agent Orange and birth defects, have found a significant correlation such that having a parent who was exposed to Agent Orange, will increase one's likelihood of possessing or acting as a carrier of birth defects.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ngo Anh |first1=D. |first2=Richard |last2=Taylor |first3=Christine L. |last3=Roberts |first4=Tuan V. |last4=Nguyen |date=13 February 2006 |title=Association between Agent Orange and Birth Defects: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=1220–1230 |doi=10.1093/ije/dyl038 |pmid=16543362 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The most common deformity appears to be [[spina bifida]]. There is substantial evidence defects carry on for three generations or more.<ref>{{Cite web |first1=Charles |last1=Ornstein |first2=Hannah |last2=Fresques |first3=Mike |last3=Hixenbaugh |date=16 December 2016 |title=The Children of Agent Orange |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/the-children-of-agent-orange |access-date=23 February 2018 |website=ProPublica}}</ref> In 2012, the US and Vietnam began a cooperative cleaning toxic chemicals on [[Danang International Airport]], marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 August 2012 |title=U.S. starts its first Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-usa-agentorange-idUSBRE87803K20120809}}</ref>

[[File:A vietnamese Professor is pictured with a group of handicapped children.jpg|thumb|Handicapped children in Vietnam, most of them victims of [[Agent Orange]], 2004]]
Vietnamese victims affected by Agent Orange attempted a class action lawsuit against [[Dow Chemical]] and other US chemical manufacturers, but a [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York|US District Court]] dismissed their case.<ref>{{Harvnb|Roberts|2005|p=380}}<br />In his 234-page judgment, the judge observed: "Despite the fact that Congress and the President were fully advised of a substantial belief that the herbicide spraying in Vietnam was a violation of international law, they acted on their view that it was not a violation at the time."</ref> They appealed, but the dismissal was cemented in 2008 by an [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|appeals court]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Crook|2008}}.</ref> {{As of|2006}}, the Vietnamese government estimated there were over 4,000,000 victims of [[Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds|dioxin]] poisoning in Vietnam, although the US government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In some areas of southern Vietnam, dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Anthony |last=Faiola |date=13 November 2006 |title=In Vietnam, Old Foes Take Aim at War's Toxic Legacy |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html |access-date=8 September 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711142514/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html|archive-date=July 11, 2007}}</ref>

The U.S. Veterans Administration has listed [[prostate cancer]], [[lung cancer|respiratory cancers]], [[multiple myeloma]], [[Diabetes mellitus type 2|type 2 diabetes]], [[B-cell lymphomas]], [[soft-tissue sarcoma]], [[chloracne]], [[porphyria cutanea tarda]], [[peripheral neuropathy]] as, "presumptive diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides during military service."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Administration |first=US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health |title=VA.gov {{!}} Veterans Affairs |url=https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/conditions/index.asp |access-date=2023-09-10 |website=www.publichealth.va.gov |language=en}}</ref> Spina bifida is the sole birth defect in children of veterans recognized as being caused by exposure to Agent Orange.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Veterans' Diseases Associated with Agent Orange |url=http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509191150/http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp |archive-date=9 May 2010 |access-date=4 September 2013 |publisher=[[United States Department of Veterans Affairs]]}}</ref>

===In popular culture===
{{Main|List of Vietnam War films}}
[[File:Thuong Tiec.jpg|thumb|Stone plaque with photo of the "Thương tiếc" ''(Mourning Soldier)'' statue, originally, installed at the [[Bình An Cemetery|Republic of Vietnam National Military Cemetery]]. The original statue was demolished in April 1975]]
The war has featured extensively in television, film, video games, music and literature. In Vietnam, a film set during Operation Linebacker II was ''[[Girl from Hanoi]]'' (1974) depicting war-time life. Another notable work was the diary of Đặng Thùy Trâm, a North Vietnamese doctor who enlisted in the Southern battlefield, and was killed aged 27 by US forces. Her diaries were published in Vietnam as ''Đặng Thùy Trâm's Diary'' (''Last Night I Dreamed of Peace''), where it became a bestseller and was made into a film ''[[Don't Burn]]''. In Vietnam, the diary has been compared to ''[[The Diary of a Young Girl|The Diary of Anne Frank]]'', and both are used in literary education.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 December 2014 |title=Amsterdam Mayor visits Hanoi-Amsterdam High School |work=VOV Online Newspaper |url=http://english.vov.vn/society/amsterdam-mayor-visits-hanoiamsterdam-high-school-284797.vov |url-status=dead |access-date=17 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428231359/https://english.vov.vn/society/amsterdam-mayor-visits-hanoiamsterdam-high-school-284797.vov |archive-date=28 April 2019}}</ref>

One of the first major films based on the war was [[John Wayne]]'s pro-war ''[[The Green Berets (film)|The Green Berets]]'' (1968). Further cinematic representations were released during the 1970s and 80s, the most noteworthy examples being [[Michael Cimino]]'s ''[[The Deer Hunter]]'' (1978), [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' (1979), [[Oliver Stone]]'s ''[[Platoon (film)|Platoon]]'' (1986) and [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' (1987). Other films include ''[[Good Morning, Vietnam]]'' (1987), ''[[Casualties of War]]'' (1989), ''[[Born on the Fourth of July (film)|Born on the Fourth of July]]'' (1989).<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|}}

The war influenced a generation of musicians and songwriters, both pro/anti-war and pro/anti-communist, with the [[Vietnam War Song Project]] having identified 5,000+ songs referencing the conflict.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brummer |first=Justin |title=The Vietnam War: A History in Song |url=https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/vietnam-war-history-song |access-date=6 August 2021 |website=History Today}}</ref> The band [[Country Joe and the Fish]] recorded ''[[The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag]]'' in 1965, and it became one of the most influential protest anthems.<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|}}

====Myths==== <!-- Redirect target of [[Mythology of the Vietnam War]] and [[Vietnam War myths]] -->
{{See also|Myth of the spat-on Vietnam veteran|Vietnam stab-in-the-back myth}}
Myths play a role in the [[historiography]] of the war, and have become part of the [[culture of the United States]]. Discussion of myth has focused on US experiences, but changing myths of war have played a role in Vietnamese and Australian historiography. Scholarship has focused on "myth-busting",<ref name="Milam">{{Cite book |last=Milam |first=Ron |title=Not A Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8078-3712-2}}</ref>{{Rp|373}} attacking orthodox and revisionist schools of American historiography, and challenging myths about American society and soldiery in the war.<ref name="Milam" />{{Rp|373}}

Kuzmarov in ''The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs'' challenges the popular and Hollywood narrative that US soldiers were heavy drug users,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuzmarov |first=Jeremy |title=The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs |publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-55849-705-4 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=qDbtvEIxWigC|dq=nixon+%22tide+of+drug+abuse%22|p=3}} 3–4]}}</ref> in particular the notion that the My Lai massacre was caused by drug use.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|373}} According to Kuzmarov, Nixon is primarily responsible for creating the drug myth.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|374}} Michael Allen accuses Nixon of mythmaking, by exploiting the plight of the [[National League of POW/MIA Families]] to allow the government to appear caring, as the war was increasingly considered lost.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|376}} Allen's analysis ties the position of potential missing Americans, or prisoners into post-war politics and presidential elections, including the [[Swift Vets and POWs for Truth|Swift boat]] controversy.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|376–377}}