Effects of the war on the United States

The impact of the war is likely to influence American life for many years to come, wrote James Reston after the signing of the cease fire agreement in January 1973. Some of these effects were short- term, hitting hard at the time (such as the Kent State massacre). Other effects were long-term and lasted for years after the war ended in 1975. Some even affect the United States today, such as the reluctance of many Americans to see their country intervene in the internal affairs of another country, such as in Bosnia in the early 1990s. 1. Cost: The huge cost of the war 100,000,000,000 pounds caused taxes to rise and led to inflation. Since so much money was needed to pay for the war, US forces elsewhere were left short of men, money and equipment. 2. Medical effects: Soldiers who had handled chemical weapons, such as the highly poisonous Agent Orange, were more likely than other servicemen to contract cancer and have children born with deformities. As many as half a million veterans suffered serious mental problems. Many had recurrent nightmares, recalling the horrors they had seen or inflicted on the enemy. A war correspondent said that after returning to New York, he woke up one night and knew that his living room was full of dead marines. 3. Social effects: instead of being treated as returning heroes, the 2,600,000 Vietnam veterans were unjustly treated as second-class citizens. They were seen as being losers, no matter how bravely they had fought. Some firms even discriminated against veterans, making the assumption that all were as bad as the worst. Some soldiers reacted to veterans took years to adjust to civilian life. Compared with other Americans, returning soldiers were more likely to turn to crime, alcohol drug addiction, suicide, or suffer broken marriages. In particular, Vietnam was blamed for the massive drugs problem in the USA in the 1970s and 1980s. 4. Disrespect for authority: Critics blamed the Vietnam crises for a decline in respect for authority. One parent said: We were brought up to never question authority. The government was right and the policeman was right and the priest was right and mum and dad were right. Anybody in authority knew what was best and how we should think and they told us hoe to think . This view was supported by James Reston writing in 1973. 5. Defeat for a Superpower: Many people across the world were delighted to view the American failure in Vietnam as a humiliating defeat for the most powerful nation on Earth at the hands of one of the poorest and smallest countries. It was an enormous blow to American pride in their country. Many Americans turned against the idea of Uncle Same (United States) as the worlds policeman. No more Vietnams weve got enough problems of our own were attitudes which affected US policy for many years. 6. Racism: Vietnam was even blamed for increasing racial tension in the United States since many blacks, rightly or wrongly, believed their young men had done a disproportionate amount of the fighting. 7. War crimes: US forces in Vietnam were accused of committing war crimes: - Dropping 4 million tonnes of bombs on Vietnam; - Killing or disfiguring people with napalm;

- Using chemical weapons, such as Agent Orange and other poisons. 8. Culture: A large number of novels, poems, movies, television shows, plays, paintings and sculptures about Vietnam were produced after the war : - Music Pop songs stressed the theme of peace, such as the songs of Bob Dylan and John Lennon. The war even inspired the musical Miss Saigon