Question

How did the Vietnam War affect the American people when it went so horribly wrong?What were the responses to our role in Vietnam?

Answer 1

The Vietnam War had far-reaching implications for the USA. It led Congress to replace the military draft with an all-volunteer force and reduced the voting age to 18 for the country. It also inspired Congress to use the War Powers Act to attack the "imperial" presidency, restricting the ability of a president to send American forces into combat without explicit Congressional approval. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Vietnam have helped rebuild blighted urban communities. The Vietnam War was seriously damaging to the US economy. Unwilling to levy taxes to pay for the war, President Johnson unleashed an inflation cycle.

The war also weakened U.S. military morale and undermined U.S. engagement with internationalism for a time. The public was convinced that enemy casualty figures had been inflated by the Pentagon, disguising the fact the country was engaged in a military stalemate. The United States had been wary of getting involved anywhere else in the world during the 1970s and 1980s out of fear of another Vietnam. Since then, the aversion of the public to casualties has encouraged strict guidelines for force engagement abroad and strong dependence on air power to project American military might.

The Vietnam War deeply divided the Democratic Party. As late as 1964, more than 60 per cent of those surveyed described themselves as Democrats in opinion polls. The party had won 7 of the preceding nine presidential elections. But the war prosecution alienated many blue-collar Democrats, many of whom became either Republicans or political independents. To be sure, the Democratic Party also undermined other issues — such as urban unrest, affirmative action, and inflation. Many former supporters of the party viewed the party as dominated by its anti-war faction, weak in foreign policy and uncertain about the proper role of America in the world.

Equally important, the war undermined liberal reform and made the government deeply suspicious of many Americans. The programs of President Johnson's Great Society competed with the war for scarce resources, and constituencies that might have supported liberal social programs turned as a result of the war against the President. The war has also made Americans, particularly the generation of baby boomers, more cynical and less confident in government and authority.