Consequences of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War caused many deaths of Americans and Vietnamese. 58,000 Americans were killed and 303,000 were wounded. Vietnamese deaths reached as much or more than 2 million. It left Southeast Asia in trouble and caused another war. America was then divided and forced to deal with not being successful in the war. Many of the soldiers in the war were afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder from all they had seen and dealt with in the war. Many also suffered with crippling disorder, “shell shock” and “combat stress.” They also were left with horrifying visions and nightmares about what they went through and dealt with while fighting in the War. Several soldiers turned to drugs and alcohol to deal with the pain and others turned to suicide. Many of the soldiers not killed in the War were still killed after because of all they had to deal with, they could not deal with it anymore. The ending of the war put violence and chaos in Southeast Asia. Communists imprisoned more than 400,000 Vietnamese in labor camps. The U.S invasion of Cambodia had unleashed a civil war. The Vietnam War caused many other wars throughout the world and did not do well for anyone that went through it or was any part of it.