Impact of US opposition to the war

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A deeply divided society

  • the war led to a growing gulf between the public and previously trusted institutions, such as the government and armed services
  • returning soldiers were sometimes met with real hostility- as the anti-war movement grew, veterans could be targeted as 'baby-killers'. Sometimes they were verbally or physically attacked, and some veterans found it difficult to find work
  • there was a high suicide rate among returning soldiers, as men returning from Vietnam were sometimes outcasts who felt that US society had let them down. They had been made to fight a war that US society did not support and they carried the responsbility and guilt for it
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Financial impact and pressure on US government

Financial impact

  • US society was also affected by the lack of resources to adress the problems they had domestically
  • for example, Johnsons Great Society agenda, which aimed to reduce inequality and racial divisions, lost money that was spent on the war instead

Pressure on US government of anti-war movement

  • the reputation of the USA was diminished
  • the US government was concerned that involvement abroad should not lead to similar problems to those encountered in Vietnam 
  • by the end of 1975, the whole of Vietnam was under a communist government, so the was seemed to have been pointless
  • in the 1950s, the American public had respect for its government but 20 years later the general feeling was that people should be more questioning of the power of, and decosopms made by the government
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