​The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War effected America tremendously but many overlook the "winners" of the war. Although with the amount of deaths and territorial damage who really is the winner. Nevertheless the war in Vietnam had a major impact on both South and North Vietnam. The combination of America’s massive military and the tactics employed by the NLF ensured that the civilian population suffered appalling losses. During the air war, America dropped 8 million ton of bombs between 1965 and 1973. The type of bombs used varied and ranged from high explosive bombs used to blanket bomb a target to napalm used on clinical air strikes on a village. America also dropped anti-personnel mines by the thousands. One plane could drop a thousand of these in one flight. These mines could be made out of either metal or plastic and had the potential to inflict major injuries on anyone who trod on them. America used defoliants, the chemical most used for ‘Operation Ranch Hand’ was known as ‘Agent Orange’. In 1969 alone, 1,034,300 hectares of forest was destroyed. ‘Agent Blue’ was sprayed on crops in an effort to deprive the North of its food supply. Between 1962 and 1969, 688,000 acres of agricultural land was sprayed primarily on paddy fields. The stress of fighting an unseen enemy also took its toll on American troops. They took their anger and frustration out on villages that may or may not have been helping the NLF.  Villages in South Vietnam were very much vulnerable to NLF atrocities. Any village that did not provide the NLF with shelter or food could expect punishment. This could be the arbitrary execution of the village elder and his family. In the South, the largely peasant population suffered from the military activities of both sides. Caught in between, there was also the real possibility of having to deal with unexploded bombs that had fallen in working areas but had not exploded. ‘Agent Orange’ left its mark on the environment and it also had a serious human impact as it had the potential to damage the chromosomes of a foetus. No one is quite sure how many children were born with physical deformities post-war nor do we know how many infants died prematurely from the impact of ‘Agent Orange’. In the North, US bombing had to have an impact on the people living there and the basic infrastructure of the North was all but destroyed – however primitive it may have been when compared to the West.