Vietnam War

====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>