Check this paper for any mistakes please! Its about the vietnam war?

Question

The most abrupt effect of the Vietnam War on the U.S. was the death toll of Americans. The war took about 58,000 lives and left tens of thousands wounded. The war also killed several of the innocent Vietnamese. John stated “I think it may have been the end of innocence for many of us.” Prior to the war, the majority of people trusted the U.S. government and fully supported the information they were given. After the tragic war, several people were uneasy and questioned the actions and views of those in power. John is not so sure whether the Vietnam War had a great impact on the world. “Who can say how the world might be different today if what happened to them had never taken place? Chaos theory helps explain why answering this is impossible. Everything’s connected-the beating of a butterfly’s wings in the Brazilian rain forest can cause a hurricane in Florida. There are simply way too many variables involved to let anyone say how the world was affected.” John believes the U.S. should not be praised nor condemned. He feels that we should not have gone to war. Policymakers really thought they were right, when they were really not doing the right thing. Too many people died and there was not much accomplished for the greater good.

Answer 1

There are a few wrong details. I would start with the number of dead Vietnamese. The number is between 2M and 4M. The erosion of trust is self evidently not as important as some would like. The fact is Americans still allow their government to go to war without demanding any degree of proof. Five years after Viet Nam, Reagan was paying for the murder of a Salvadoran bishop.
On the topic of Vietnam and its consequences, chaos theory won't help you. The Viet Nam was for nationalism what Iraq is today for Jihadis. It was a sign of everything that was wrong with empire. Ho Chi Mihn was a light in the darkness for latin americans. Young priests and students took to arms in Latin American to depose the consuls of the empire. Che Guevara often speaks of Viet Nam. Latin American intellectuals often parallel Viet Nam to the terror campaign conducted against those young priests and students.
Viet Nam was a time for realization. Those hopefuls who had believed FDR and his professed "self determination" realized with Viet Nam that colony and not freedom was the utmost interest of the yanquees.
In official circles 'Nam has left us a two-fold inheritance. 1) Long wars have the effect of depleting national coffers by flooding the international market with dollars and robbing them of their value. This leaves US companies at a disadvantage to export goods. US business rallied the gov. out of Viet Nam. 2) Unless total control of the media is enforced long wars can awaken a "crisis of democracy". The Tripartite commission was formed to see to it that the US population would remain passive in future engagements. The anti-war movement and what you call "the erosion of trust" was then called "The Viet Nam syndrome". In order to avoid future participation of the underlying population in policy making, the financial interests that sought war tightened the screws on the media in order to keep the people passive.
If you want to write about Viet Nam, talk about how the Vietnamese established their own country in in the bloodless August Revolution (1945), liberated from the French by the Japanese, themselves a fallen empire by the end of the 1939-1945 war. Write about how the French came back, supported by the US, and how the then-US-backed-Chinese invaded the North of the country. Write about how the country was split in half, a spoil of war. I would then go on about the prodigious struggle of the Vietnamese to evict the French colonists. Then about how they won, aided by Communist China, in the unlikely Dien-Bien-Phu (1954).
The Geneva accords (1954) resulted from the Vietnamese vicotry and established a roadmap to unification after nationwide elections. The US steps in. Elections are no longer in viable, puppet tyrant Diem would lose, Ho Chi Mihn would win. Democracy is no good if the rivals get elected.
Then the US fills the place up with Military advisers (read torture teachers) form the US, the peasants are rounded up into concentration camps and dissidents are summarily killed. Buddhist monks incinerate themselves in protest against US backed Diem.
Then Tonkin, the incident that never happened, leads LBJ to start the most terrifying campaign of genocide since the holocaust, bombing and raiding indochina to smithereens. The gooks fight back during their new year... Tet, 1968. It was the year of the pig, and a great doc on the period bears that name. Well, it goes without saying that the NLF (National Liberation Front) was not victorious per se. It is hard to beat people who have no misgivings to incinerate children with napalm or spray poison over peasant towns. But the commies taught the yankees a lesson, a well determined people will not be beaten.
The US could not just leave with a hurt pride, so they stayed for 7 years, bombing and torturing. POISONING (see Agent Orange). Then pulling out, blockading a third world country and playing them against their neighbors.
The vietnamese deathtoll once again is 2-4M.
The world realized the US was indeed a paper tiger. One which only attacked countries as utterly harmless as post-war Indochina. So there, an outsiders' POV.

Answer 2

"The most abrupt effect of the Vietnam War on the U.S. was the death toll"

I wouldn't call this an "abrupt" effect. The death toll rose slowly trough the late 50's and early 60's (the "military advisers" period, to become significant under the Johnson presidency after the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" and the early Nixon presidency. Remember the shape of the Washington Vietnam Memorial!

Once the war was on TV every day, and body bags started arriving in every town, the trust in the administration started to erode. Similar to the Iraq War now. So better call it "the most important effect".

"The war also killed several of the innocent Vietnamese."

Pardon? The estimates of civilian dead in North and South Vietnam combined vary between *360,000* and *600,000*! That's not "several"!

"John stated “I think it may have been the end of innocence for many of us.” "

Which John? John Lennon? Context please!

"After the tragic war, several people were uneasy and questioned the actions and views of those in power."

Already *during* the war. There was a massive peace movement in the 60's! Google "March on the Pentagon" and "Armies of the Night", and look those terms up in Wikipedia!

Answer 3

First, let's get the numbers straight. You cannot dismiss the reality with the sentence: "The war also killed several of the innocent Vietnamese." The fact is that US intervention in Vietnam cost about 3.5 MILLION Asian lives in addition to 56 THOUSAND American lives. So it was a major tragedy, a kind of genocide or holocaust, caused by the foolish and vain attempt of the US Government to prevent Vietnam from achieving independence.

A desire for independence from foreign control is what always drove them. The fact that their Communists took the lead means nothing much. The Vietnamese wanted above all to get rid of all foreign powers trying to run their country. They blew off the Chinese, the French, the Japanese, the French again, then finally the Americans.

American intervention there started with the collaboration of Joseph Kennedy with Cardinal Francis Spellman, both intensely loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. They saw that Ho Chi Minh was overwhelmingly popular with his people and they feared the erosion of the power of the Roman Catholic Church in Vietnam. So Joseph Kennedy got his son Jack, then a Senator, to introduce a Bill promoting US support for the failing French administration, at the request of the Cardinal. The Vietnam War was essentially Cardinal Spellman's war using the US in the interests of his church.

The big escalation (Think: "surge") brought about by LBJ was based on a lie (Think WMDs). He hoodwinked Congress with the myth of the alleged "attack" on US ships in the Tonkin Gulf, an event that never happened. Congress, then as now, was too cowardly to stand up to the president and say ENOUGH.

Answer 4

You can double check you facts using www.wikipedia.org it is a free site and it written in a way that is easy for people to understand and get information quickly. Have a look. Hope this helps you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_war

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Well, although tragic to those directly effected, the # of dead was not that significant. I think the biggest impact was the erosion of trust the average american has of its government... which you also mention. I'd move that to the top.

Answer 6

There are simply too many / (sounds better without way.)

Answer 7

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