Social Consequences
American
1. 500,000 out of 3 million veterans suffered from PTSD
2. 25% of all those incarcerated were Vietnam vets - current as of 1995 census
3. 44% of all homeless were Vietnam Vets
4. Vietnam Veteratns were 3x more likely to get a divorce than non vets
5. 58,000 American soldiers were lost in the Vietnam war
6. 1/3rd of all soldiers in Vietnam became alcoholic and 1/5th addicted to marijuana and heroin
Interesting to note, 11% of America's population was black, but 21% of all vets were black. Muhammad Ali summarises the internal divide in the US as he says "No Viet Cong ever called me a nigger"
Vietnamese
1. Lost 1 million communists in the war, roughly 10% of the total population.
2. Unexploded ordinance continues to affect Vietnam to this day. The Vietnamese government estimates that unexploded ordinance has caused an additional 42,000 deaths since the end of the war.
3. Senator Gaylord Nelson stated in 1972. "'scorched earth' policy has been a tactic of warfare throughout history, but never before has a land been so massively altered and mutilated that vast areas can never be used again or even inhabited by man or animal"
4. By 1972, there were an estimated 800,000 orphaned children in Vietnam roaming the streets.
5. The refugees, uprooted from the devastated land and fearful of renewed offensives, remained in the cities and towns—their disrupted, dispirited families aggravating the instability of South Vietnam's already fragile society," Stanley Karnow writes in Vietnam: A History.
- In short, the American vets were shamed at home and publicly disgraced, outcasts from society. The Vietnamese were independent - finally. However , they had inherited a scarred and battered nation that had witnessed the worst of humanity , on the verge of collapse.
American
1. 500,000 out of 3 million veterans suffered from PTSD
2. 25% of all those incarcerated were Vietnam vets - current as of 1995 census
3. 44% of all homeless were Vietnam Vets
4. Vietnam Veteratns were 3x more likely to get a divorce than non vets
5. 58,000 American soldiers were lost in the Vietnam war
6. 1/3rd of all soldiers in Vietnam became alcoholic and 1/5th addicted to marijuana and heroin
Interesting to note, 11% of America's population was black, but 21% of all vets were black. Muhammad Ali summarises the internal divide in the US as he says "No Viet Cong ever called me a nigger"
Vietnamese
1. Lost 1 million communists in the war, roughly 10% of the total population.
2. Unexploded ordinance continues to affect Vietnam to this day. The Vietnamese government estimates that unexploded ordinance has caused an additional 42,000 deaths since the end of the war.
3. Senator Gaylord Nelson stated in 1972. "'scorched earth' policy has been a tactic of warfare throughout history, but never before has a land been so massively altered and mutilated that vast areas can never be used again or even inhabited by man or animal"
4. By 1972, there were an estimated 800,000 orphaned children in Vietnam roaming the streets.
5. The refugees, uprooted from the devastated land and fearful of renewed offensives, remained in the cities and towns—their disrupted, dispirited families aggravating the instability of South Vietnam's already fragile society," Stanley Karnow writes in Vietnam: A History.