What was the outcome of the Vietnam war?
For Vietnam the outcome was a victory for the Communists, who took control of both North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The major outcome for the Vietnamese people was a huge loss of lives, devastation of land and property and disruption in the traditional way of life. The country of Vietnam, particularly the south, had become exposed to Western cultural trappings and the Western way of life, and continues to retain some of the aspects of the American way of life. The imposition of farming co-operatives proved to be more difficult than imagined. The north of the country became overcrowded. Resettlement efforts disrupted the way of life of the local tribes. Many refugees left Vietnam as “boat people” and settled in other countries. In many cases the adaptation to another way of life in a foreign country was a painful process. Until the fall of the Communist Bloc, the communists countries were the only reliable sources of help for the Vietnamese to recover from the damages of the war.
For America it was terrible. The men who returned home to the U.S.had no warm welcome. There was rampant drug use both on the civilian and returning military side. The war was a particularly brutal one where Americans were so far out of the realm of any training they’d had. I think the general oppressive feeling of failure and lives wasted in vain took a toll on the collective conscience.
