Vietnam War

==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|B-52 wreckage in Huu Tiep Lake, [[Hanoi]]. Downed during [[Operation Linebacker II]], its remains have been turned into a war monument.]]
On 2 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 President Nixon's words, "massacre the civilians there [South Vietnam] by the millions," there is a widespread consensus that 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}};<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>}} However, in the years following the war, a vast number of South Vietnamese were sent to [[Re-education camp (Vietnam)|re-education camps]] where many 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}}</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 Report 1979, this figure varied considerably depend on different observers: "...{{Nbsp}}included such figures as "50,000 to 80,000" (''Le Monde'', 19 April 1978), "150,000" (Reuters from Bien Hoa, 2 November 1977), "150,000 to 200,000" (''The Washington Post'', 20 December 1978), and "300,000" (Agence France Presse from Hanoi, 12 February 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 may be 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 of them were released after a few days, others stayed there for more than a decade.<ref>''Huy, Đức. Bên Thắng Cuộc. OsinBook.''</ref> Between 1975 and 1980, 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 uninhabited 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>
[[File:35 Vietnamese boat people 2.JPEG|thumb|upright|Vietnamese refugees fleeing Vietnam, 1984]]

[[Gabriel García Márquez]], a [[Nobel Prize]] winning writer, described South Vietnam as a "False paradise" after the war, 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}}</ref>}}
The U.S. used its [[United Nations Security Council veto power|security council veto]] to block Vietnam's recognition by the United Nations three times, an obstacle to the country receiving international 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 |issn=0362-4331|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}}</ref>

==== Laos and Cambodia ====
By 1975, the North Vietnamese had lost influence over the Khmer Rouge.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|708}} [[Phnom Penh]], the capital of Cambodia, fell to the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge would eventually [[Cambodian genocide|kill 1–3 million Cambodians]] out of a population of around 8&nbsp;million, in one of the [[List of genocides by death toll|bloodiest genocides in history]].<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.}}</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 |s2cid=143971159}}</ref>

The relationship between Vietnam and [[Democratic Kampuchea]] (Cambodia) escalated right after the end of the war. In response to the Khmer Rouge taking over [[Phu Quoc]] on 17 April and [[Tho Chu]] on 4 May 1975 and the belief that they were responsible for the disappearance of 500 Vietnamese natives on Tho Chu, Vietnam launched a counterattack to take back these 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 several failed attempts to negotiate by both sides, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea in 1978 and ousted the Khmer Rouge, who were being supported by China, in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. In response, China invaded Vietnam in 1979. The two countries fought a brief border war, known as 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 December 1975, establishing the [[Lao People's Democratic Republic]] under the leadership of a member of the royal family, [[Souphanouvong]]. 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 for several years. The conflict between Hmong rebels and the Pathet Lao [[Insurgency in Laos|continued]] in isolated pockets.<ref name=Courtois/>{{Rp|575–576}}

==== Unexploded ordnance ====
[[Unexploded ordnance]], mostly from U.S. bombing, continues to detonate and kill people today and has rendered much land hazardous and impossible to cultivate. According to the Vietnamese government, ordnance has killed some 42,000 people since the war officially ended.<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}}</ref><ref>[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/vietnam-war-shell-explodes-kills-two-fishermen/story-fn3dxix6-1226046291270 Vietnam war shell explodes, kills two fishermen] The Australian (28 April 2011)</ref> In Laos, 80&nbsp;million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country. According to the government of Laos, unexploded ordnance has killed or injured over 20,000 Laotians since the end of the war and currently 50 people are killed or maimed every year.<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}}</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}}</ref> It is estimated that the explosives still remaining buried in the ground will not be removed entirely for the next few 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 these refugees, many of whom fled 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 Polict Institute}}</ref> Between 1975 and 1998, an estimated 1.2&nbsp;million [[refugee]]s from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries resettled in the United States, while Canada, Australia, and France resettled over 500,000. China accepted 250,000 people.<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> Of all the countries of Indochina, Laos experienced the largest refugee flight in proportional terms, as 300,000 people out of a total population of 3&nbsp;million crossed the border into Thailand. Included among their ranks were "about 90 percent" of Laos's "intellectuals, technicians, and officials."<ref name=Courtois/>{{Rp|575}} An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 [[Vietnamese 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}}</ref>

===In the United States===
{{Main|United States in the Vietnam War}}
[[File:Marine da nang.jpg|thumb|upright|A young [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, [[Da Nang]], 3 August 1965]]

Failure of U.S. goals in the war is often placed at different institutions and levels. Some have suggested that the failure of the war was due to political failures of U.S. 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 a failure of U.S. 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 also illustrated another U.S. miscalculation, and demonstrated the limitations of U.S. military abilities in achieving political goals.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|17}} As [[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 that the bombing had been ineffective, saying he doubted "that the North Vietnamese would have relented."<ref name=Buzzano/> U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in a secret memo to President Gerald 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 of the country since the Geneva Accords, and the effects of U.S. bombings had negligible impact on the goals of the North Vietnamese government.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|1–10}} The effects of U.S. bombing campaigns had mobilized the people throughout North Vietnam and mobilized international support for North Vietnam due to the perception of a super-power attempting to bomb a significantly smaller, agrarian society into submission.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|48–52}}

In the post-war era, Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention. President [[Ronald Reagan]] coined the term "[[Vietnam Syndrome]]" to describe the reluctance of the American public and politicians to support further military interventions abroad after Vietnam. U.S. public polling in 1978 revealed that nearly 72% of Americans believed the war was "fundamentally wrong and immoral."<ref name="Hagopian" />{{Rp|10}}

The [[Vietnam War POW/MIA issue]], concerning the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as [[missing in action]], persisted for many years after the war's conclusion. The costs of the war loom large in American popular consciousness; a 1990 poll showed that the public incorrectly believed that more Americans died in Vietnam than in 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}}</ref>

====Financial cost====
{| class="wikitable floatright" style="width: 35%;"
|+United States expenditures in South Vietnam (SVN) (1953–1974) Direct costs only. Some estimates are higher.<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>
|-
! U.S. military costs || U.S. military aid to SVN || U.S. economic aid to SVN || Total || Total (2015 dollars)
|-
| $111&nbsp;billion || $16.138&nbsp;billion || $7.315&nbsp;billion || $134.53&nbsp;billion || $1.020&nbsp;trillion
|}

Between 1953 and 1975, the United States was estimated to have spent $168&nbsp;billion on the war (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.168|1964|r=2}} 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 federal [[United States public debt|budget deficit]]. Other figures point to $138.9&nbsp;billion from 1965 to 1974 (not inflation-adjusted), 10 times all education spending in the US and 50 times more than housing and community development spending within that time period.<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> General record-keeping was reported to have been sloppy for government spending during the war.<ref name=CQ/> It was stated that war-spending could have paid off every mortgage in the US at that time, with money leftover.<ref name=CQ/>

As of 2013, the U.S. government is paying Vietnam veterans and their families or survivors more than $22&nbsp;billion a year 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=http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/20/us-still-paying-for-costs-civil-war-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|left|A marine gets his wounds treated during operations in Huế City, in 1968]]
More than 3&nbsp;million Americans served in the Vietnam War, some 1.5&nbsp;million of whom actually saw combat in Vietnam.<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> James E. Westheider wrote that "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 United States had existed since World War II, but ended in January 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>

By the war's end, 58,220 American soldiers had been killed,<ref name="USd&w" group="A" /> more than 150,000 had been wounded, and at least 21,000 had been 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 the U.S. troops killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years.<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, 86.3 percent were white, 12.5 percent were black and the remainder from other races."<ref name="Kueter" /> Approximately 830,000 Vietnam veterans suffered some degree of [[posttraumatic stress disorder]] (PTSD).<ref name="DigitalHistory" /> Vietnam veterans suffered from PTSD in unprecedented numbers, as many as 15.2% of Vietnam veterans, because the U.S. military had routinely provided heavy psychoactive drugs, including amphetamines, to American servicemen, which left them unable to process adequately their traumas at the time.<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 and non-commissioned officers with grenades or other weapons—created severe problems for the U.S. military and impacted its capability of undertaking combat operations. Between 1969 and 1971 the U.S. Army recorded more than 900 attacks by troops on their own officers and NCOs with 99 killed.<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}} An estimated 125,000 Americans left for Canada to avoid the Vietnam 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 American 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=dead |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 January 1977, United States president [[Jimmy Carter]] granted a full and 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 Vietnam War called into question the U.S. Army doctrine. Marine Corps general [[Victor H. Krulak]] heavily criticized Westmoreland's attrition strategy, calling it "wasteful of American lives{{Nbsp}}... with small likelihood of a successful outcome."<ref name=Buzzano/> In addition, doubts surfaced about the ability of the military to train foreign forces. Furthermore, throughout the war there was found to be considerable flaws and dishonesty by officers and commanders due to promotions being tied to the body count system touted by Westmoreland and McNamara.<ref name=Mohr/> And behind the scenes Secretary of Defense McNamara wrote in a memo to President Johnson his doubts about the war: "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 |issn=0027-8378 |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===
{{See|Environmental impact of the Vietnam War}}[[File:Defoliation agent spraying.jpg|thumb|left|U.S. helicopter spraying chemical [[defoliant]]s in the [[Mekong Delta]], South Vietnam, 1969]]
One of the most controversial aspects of the U.S. military effort in Southeast Asia was the widespread use of chemical [[defoliant]]s between 1961 and 1971. 20 million gallons of toxic herbicides (like [[Agent Orange]]) were sprayed on 6 million acres of forests and crops by the U.S. Air Force.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Westing |first=Arthur H. |url={{GBurl|id=4SfwtAEACAAJ}} |title=Herbicides in War: The Long-term Ecological and Human Consequences |date=1984 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=5ff}}</ref> They were used to [[Wikt:defoliate|defoliate]] large parts of the countryside to prevent the Viet Cong from being able to hide weaponry and encampments under the foliage, and to deprive them of food. Defoliation was also used to clear sensitive areas, including base perimeters and possible ambush sites along roads and canals. More than 20% of South Vietnam's forests and 3.2% of its cultivated land was sprayed at least once. 90% of herbicide use 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> Official US military records have listed figures including the destruction of 20% of the jungles of South Vietnam and 20-36% (with other figures reporting 20-50%) of the [[mangrove]] forests.<ref name=":02">{{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 by this defoliation has been described by Swedish Prime Minister [[Olof Palme]], lawyers, historians and other academics as an [[ecocide]].<ref name=":2">{{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=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Falk |first=Richard A. |date=1973 |title=Environmental Warfare and Ecocide — Facts, Appraisal, and Proposals |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44480206 |journal=Bulletin of Peace Proposals |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=80–96 |doi=10.1177/096701067300400105 |jstor=44480206 |s2cid=144885326 |issn=0007-5035}}</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=":6">{{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 other similar chemical substances used by the U.S. have also caused a considerable number of deaths and injuries in the intervening years, including among the US Air Force crews that handled them. Scientific reports have concluded that refugees exposed to chemical sprays while in South Vietnam continued to experience pain in the eyes and skin as well as gastrointestinal upsets. In one study, ninety-two percent of participants suffered incessant fatigue; others reported [[monstrous birth]]s.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Rose |first1=Hilary A. |last2=Rose |first2=Stephen P. |year=1972 |title=Chemical Spraying as Reported by Refugees from South Vietnam |url=https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.177.4050.710 |magazine=Science |volume=177 |issue=4050 |pages=710–712 |doi=10.1126/science.177.4050.710}}</ref> Meta-analyses of the most current studies on the association between Agent Orange and birth defects have found a statistically significant correlation such that having a parent who was exposed to Agent Orange at any point in their life will increase one's likelihood of either possessing or acting as a genetic 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> Although a variety of birth defects have been observed, the most common deformity appears to be [[spina bifida]]. [[Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins|Chloro-dioxins]], which are inevitably formed as a byproduct of Agent Orange synthesis, are highly [[Teratology|teratogenic]], and there is substantial evidence that the birth 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 United States and Vietnam began a cooperative cleaning up of the toxic chemical on part of [[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 U.S. chemical manufacturers, but the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York|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 February 2008 by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Crook|2008}}.</ref> {{As of|2006}}, the Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,000,000 victims of [[dioxin]] poisoning in Vietnam, although the United States government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the 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]], [[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 currently the sole birth defect in children of veterans that is 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>