Free Essay: The Vietnam War Was Unfairly Destructive to the United States

The Vietnam War was unfairly destructive to the United States since it disrupted the economy and the culture of foreign policy and domestic politics. President Kennedy was sending troops to protect the airbase, which was used by the United States during the bombing activities. Thus the war resulted in burning the villages, killing girls, women, and men as well as destroying temples and churches that were termed as safe (Jeffords 33). However, the essay focuses on the Vietnam War, which was unfairly destructive to the United States regardless of its superiority gained during the 2nd world war.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

First, the Vietnam War was unfairly destructive to the United States since it was costly as it damaged the economy where more than 169 dollars were used. President Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy in 1963 after their assassination declared the Vietnam War although the state had immense challenges like unemployment, and high inflation (Page 21). High spending on the conflict resulted to the rise of an unfavorable balance of trade which led to global monetary threats to America's gold reserves between 1967 and 1968 a situation that implied that the United States could no longer afford the war. The inflation led to a rise in food prices, as well as oil price, increased in 1973, but President Nixon showed an effort of dealing with economic issues via fiscal adjustment and price and wage control.

Secondly, America paid political or administrative costs during the Vietnam War since there were traumatic conflicts that led to the mistrust of the government and all its officials. For example, President Johnson acquired the resolution of Gulf of Tonkin and sent the troops to Vietnam and organized the secret bombing of the Kent State, Cambodia, and My Lai massacre under the administration of Nixon (Saing and Kazianga 15). This incident changed the attitude of individuals towards the US government since many became skeptical, cynical, and suspicious and it was discredited for several years after conflicts. As a result, the American government became afraid to involve in another war as it could tarnish the State prestige.

Finally, the Vietnam War was unfairly destructive to the US because it led to the death of the soldiers a situation which made the state not to win. For example, the technical sergeant of the America Air Force that is Richard Fitzgibbon was murdered, which showed how the US casualties suffered during the Vietnam War (Wang and Reed 30). However, although the Vietnam War was unfairly destructive in US, it was advantageous since it led to the end of the draft because it failed to address the issues of unfair discrimination among low-income class and uneducated (Herr 60). Hence, the ending of the draft by President Nixon led to the introduction of draft dodgers as well as the anti-war movement which advocated for individual equality and justice

To sum up, the Vietnam War unfairly destructed the US because it resulted to mistrust of the government, damaged the economy and death of soldiers a situation which led to unemployment, rise in inflation and poverty. The conflict also led to the policy changes, especially where Congress replaced the military draft with the all-volunteer army, and the voting age was reduced to 18 years. However, Congress passed the war powers or resolution act in 1973 to restrict the powers of the president to send US troop into combat for 90 days with absent of congressional consent for an intention of preventing the state from engaging in another war (Shulimson 14). Therefore, regardless of America superiority, it experienced negative consequences after the Vietnam War because almost 200 dollars, which could be used for other State activities, were used in the conflict.

Works Cited

Herr, Hansjorg. The Communist Manifesto: What can we learn today for a country like Vietnam?. No. 98/2018. Working Paper, Institute for International Political Economy Berlin, 2018. 51-66

Jeffords, Susan. The remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam war. Vol. 10. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. 21-40

Page, Caroline. US official propaganda during the Vietnam War, 1965-1973: the limits of persuasion. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016. 21

Saing, Chan Hang, and Harounan Kazianga. "The long-term impacts of violent conflicts on human capital: US bombing and, education, earnings, health, fertility and marriage in Cambodia." The Journal of Development Studies (2019): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1618449

Shulimson, Jack. US Marines in Vietnam: The defining year, 1968. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2015.14

Wang, Xiaojin, and Michael Reed. Trade deflection arising from US antidumping duties on imported shrimp. No. 1375-2016-109540. 2015. 30