The Vietnam War resulted in a complete defeat for the United States. Over 57,000 American lives were lost in their unsuccessful effort to stop the spread of communism. The Viet Cong took control of Saigon in 1975, forcing the evacuation of all remaining U.S. personnel. This reunited Vietnam after years of war that devastated the country and its people. In the aftermath, millions of Vietnamese refugees fled the country by boat seeking asylum, many dying in the process, while Vietnam struggled to recover from the immense physical and economic destruction of the war.

1. VIETNAM
WAR
OUTCOMES
OF THE
VIETNAM WAR
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3. OUTCOME
The outcome of the Vietnam War for the Americans was a
complete defeat.
57,000 American lives were lost in the attempt to stop the
spread of communism through Vietnam.
The Viet Cong would take Saigon and all US personal were
evacuated from the city.
The Vietnamese had experienced the true horrors of war.
The Viet Cong were able to unite Vietnam and become
independent.
The Viet Cong defeated the most powerful military force
in the world.

4. 1. VIETNAM UNITED
Americans left Vietnam in 1973, but they continued to
support the South Vietnamese army - the ARVN - with
financial and military aid.
In April 1975 the South Vietnamese regime collapsed and
Vietnam was united.
When a single tank crashed through the gates of the
Presidential Palace in Saigon on the 30th of April 1975,
Vietnam became unified.
A provisional revolutionary government was installed in
Saigon but it became immediately apparent that this
government was being controlled from Hanoi.

5. 1. VIETNAM UNITED cont.
200,000 supporters of the former South Vietnamese regime
were sent into re-education camps where they faced
indoctrination, forced labour and some brutality.
All prisoners were released by 1988.
The propaganda machine started and the South was
reeducated.
Western influences were discouraged, brothels and bars
were closed and the city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

6. 2. THE IMPACTS ON VIETNAM
The ‘Boat People of Vietnam’
seemed to encapsulate all the
suffering Vietnam had suffered
from 1965 to 1975.
Despite the end of the Vietnam
War, tragedy for the people of
Vietnam continued into 1978-79.
‘Boat People’ were not only the
refugees who fled Vietnam but
also to the people of Cambodia
and Laos who did the same.

7. REFUGEES
‘Vietnamese Boat People’ tends to be associated with only
those in the former South who fled the new Communist
government.
People with Chinese background from North Vietnam fled to
Hong Kong.

8. WAR IN THE REGION
In late 1978, Indochina degenerated into war between
Vietnam, Cambodia and China.
In December 1978, Vietnam attacked Kampuchea while in
February 1979, Vietnam attacked Chinese forces in the
north.
These two conflicts produced a huge number of refugees
(approx. 1.5 million).

9. REFUGEES
The primary cause of death was drowning though many
refugees were attacked by pirates and murdered or sold into
slavery and prostitution.
Some countries in the region, such as Malaya, turned the
boat people away even if they did manage to land.
Boats carrying the refugees were deliberately sunk offshore
by those in them to stop the authorities towing them back
out to sea.
Many of these refugees ended up settling in the United
States and Europe.
The United States accepted 823,000 refugees; Britain
accepted 19,000; France accepted 96,000; Australia and
Canada accepted 137,000 each.

10. 7 MILLION TONS OF BOMBS
It is estimated that 2.5 million Vietnamese people were
killed between 1945 - 1975.
By the end of the war, 7 million tons of bombs had been
dropped on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia - more than
twice the amount of bombs dropped on Europe and Asia in
World War II.
The effects of defoliants like Agent Orange were also
becoming more apparent.

11. DIFFICULT RECOVERY
It was not until the 1980’s and 1990’s that Vietnam was able
to recover from the Vietnam War.
The destruction was so severe that it was very difficult for
the country to recover.
Foreign investment and tourism has enabled Vietnam to
recover but they are still ranked 129th out of 194 in terms
of GDP per capita.

12. JUST READING
Source A: J Pilger, Heroes, 1986
“By 1970 a pattern of deformities began to emerge in Vietnam: babies
born without eyes, with deformed hearts and small brains and with
stumps instead of legs... The impact on the environment was
devastating.
A mangrove forest which had taken at least 20 years to rise, where
people drew harvests of birds, honey and wood for charcoal, had been
destroyed.
Decaying plant matter had robbed the water of oxygen and reduced
the catches of fish and crabs by as much as 80%. The land around
had salinated and was rock hard and good for nothing.”

13. THE IMPACT ON AMERICA
58,000 Americans died in Vietnam.
The war had cost so much that President Johnson's Great
Society programme of social reform had to be cancelled.
Loss of confidence: America had failed to "contain"
communism.
In 1973, Nixon announced that America was abandoning the
Truman Doctrine.
The domino theory was proved to be wrong. The fall of
South Vietnam to communism was not immediately followed
by a similar effect in other countries.

14. PSYCHOLOGICAL AFTEREFFECTS
News of atrocities such as the killings at My Lai lost the US
its claim to moral superiority, and its status as the world’s
defender of freedom and right.
700,000 Vietnam veterans suffered psychological
aftereffects.

15. THE END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
For the United States the end of the war in Vietnam was
traumatic.
America had to come to terms with a lost war and a failed
domino theory.
58,000 American lives had been lost in the failed attempt to
prevent a Communist takeover of Indochina.
The US government and people wanted to forget the war.
Returned soldiers were made to feel guilty for losing.
It was another ten years before the Vietnam Veteran’s
Memorial was erected in Washington DC.

17. JUST READING
Source B: P Kennedy, The rise and fall of the great powers, 1988
“The vast boom in spending on the war badly affected the American
economy ..... (higher than average inflation, a weakened dollar, increased
federal deficits) ..... While the United States was pouring money onto
Vietnam the USSR was devoting steadily larger sums to its nuclear forces
..... And to its navy, which in these years emerged as a major force in
gunboat diplomacy ..... Morale in the armed services plummeted .....
Shakeups in the CIA and other agencies ..... cramped their effectiveness. its
methods of fighting in support of a corrupt regime (South Vietnam)
alienated public opinion, in Western Europe as much as in the third world,
and was a major factor in what some writers have termed America’s
‘estrangement’ from much of the rest of the planet. It led to a neglect of
American attention to Latin America ..... At United Nations debates, the
American delegate appeared increasingly beleaguered and isolated.”

18. THE TRADE EMBARGO
Vietnam was punished and a trade embargo was placed
upon Vietnam. US companies were banned from trading or
investing with Vietnam and its allies were encouraged to
carry out the same policy.
In 1994 President Clinton lifted the embargo and in 1995
he announced the normalisation of relations between the
USA and Vietnam.