what was the most terrible thing of the Vietnam War besides Americans gave up and many died because of that?

Question

How could the events of the Vietnam era signified in the generation that came of age during that time and is now coming to the point of dealing with it in American life?

What could we do to improve and especially for future generations of our kids?

Answer 1

The Assassination of So Vietnam leader Diem was crucial in everything that began to go wrong in Vietnam. It was a bloody, nasty war. Not that war is ever pretty, but it was really brutal.

The other problem for the American army was they couldn't always identify the enemy.

I think Historians have thought that Vietnam was a shining example of American hubris and a case study in what to avoid in the future.

Looks like we now have another example for the history book.

Answer 2

One of the terrible things is this nonsense that the U.S. forces gave up. They didn't. After President Nixon resigned he was replaced by Gerald Rudolph Ford. A man who had never gotten one electoral college vote for either President or Vice President. He had been Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. So, he had no "I.O.U.s" with the majority party or the people. Ergo, the Congress in the Autumn of 1974 ended all funding for the forces of South Vietnam. In April of the next year the nation of South Vietnam ceased to exist.
To me, the other terrible thing is that none of the peddlers of "conventional wisdom" ever mention that the counter-offensive we launched following the Tet Offensive of February 1968 reduced the Viet Cong to less than 30% fighting effectiveness and the remainder of the engagements in that war took place against formations of North Vietnamese regulars. So, the insurgents had been defeated.
We can improve the future of our children by telling them the truth about history instead of politically partisan fairy tales trying to pass themselves off as history.

Answer 3

We supported the wrong party. President Diem was unpopular among Vietnamese and Presient Thieu was known to be very corrupted leader. Just imagine all the money and weapons we supplied to the South; however, they fled their posts before seeing the Viet Cong. I'm sure you can read it everywhere, the VC actually didn't fight for Saigon. They simply came in and claimed it. No South VN soldiers were insight.

Answer 4

The use of Agent Orange by the Americans to defoliate the dense jungle in North and South Vietnam.
This very toxic chemical killed many Americans who were involved in handling it and even more Vietnamese civilians causing birth defects for years to come.

Answer 5

That is tantamount to 'giving up.' Congress ceased funding and American forces were pulled out of Vietnam. Putting aside nationalistic, patriotic garbage and getting down to bare facts, it was a defeat, plain and simple.

Answer 6

a whole generation lost faith in the American government. It boils my cabbage to hear Government officials, especially Democrats, call those of us who still carry that scar and still distrust the government, "mean-spirited" because we don't welcome the government running our lives, spending our money for us and generally babysitting us from the womb to the tomb. i don't think we are "mean-spirited", we just don't believe someone else should be making our decisions for us. last time that happened, our young men were just cannon fodder in the eyes of people running a war-from their nice, clean, cozy, designer - decorated, air conditioned washington, d.c. offices. we make sure that the same mistakes then aren't ever made again. it's not that war is wrong, sometimes it's necessary but there's a wrong way to manage it. this time, the general is in iraq, not washington.