United States Involvement In The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was one of the longest and most debilitating wars for the US, it is the only war the US has ever lost. The consequences of the war and aftermath were significant and impacted American lives from economically, socially, culturally, to even domestic politics and foreign policy. Opposition to the US’s involvement in the war began in 1964 with public speeches, letters of opposition, marches, sit-ins and other peaceful antiwar demonstrations. Although, protests were present, in 1965 64% of Americans were largely supportive of sending troops to Vietnam and only 21% disagreed (other 15% didn’t feel strongly either way). By May of 1966, the percentage of Americans who didn’t support the war increased by ten points. The numbers fluctuated
By November 1967, there were almost 500,000 American troops in Vietnam and US casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. The draft lottery in 1969 was seen as a “fair” solution to the increasing number of volunteers needed and not enough volunteers but it failed to address the unfair discrimination against the low-educated and low-income class, and encouraged a stronger resistance to the Vietnam war and even the draft itself. Due to a double standard there were more and more draft dodgers, and expanded the antiwar movement. Some draft dodgers were men who could attend college, they didn’t get drafted until late in the war, when fighting had minimized, but getting rid of the draft didn’t solve the unfairness. The majority of the elite have stopped participating in military services. On the walls at Yale are the names of hundreds of Yalies who died in WWI and II but only 35 died in Vietnam, and none since. In other words, the lowest three income deciles have suffered 50% more casualties than the highest three. During the draft, more casualties were reported daily, even as US commanders demanded more troops. Under the draft system, as many as 40,000 were called into service each month, which also
Almost every father during the Vietnam war had served in WWII and most women knew the difference in size between a destroyer and a cruiser, a platoon and a company, because their husbands had all been on destroyers or platoons. The men who fought in wars before were seen as protectors, heroes and brave honorable men but the Vietnam veterans were not welcomed home as previous veterans had been. The American public seemed to shun, if not belittle, the 2 million-plus Americans who went to Vietnam, and the more than 58,000 who died. Nothing was done to aid veterans or their families who needed assistance in adjusting. Even films and television programs started depicted Vietnam vets as drug-crazed psychotic killers. The men themselves were ashamed and hated what they did like the My Lai Massacre among many other things. The millions of men who were taught to deal and trade in violence and who came this close to dying for the biggest nothing in history, returned with a sense of anger and betrayal but eventually they settled and Americans later acknowledge their sacrifice and suffering, and realized that most had been good soldiers in a bad war. Although most veterans did succeed in readjusting, many didn’t. More Vietnam veterans committed suicide after the war than had died in the war and even more became homeless, many of them