How did the vietnam war alter the american psyche in the years after the 1975 defeat in Hanoi?

and what were the main factors in the Vietnam War which contributed to America's protest movement in the late 1960's and 1970's?


Considering:


President Nixon and LBJ


and the Congress Policy


and other things too.











=] Ta|||North Vietnam's government truly was Vietnamese. South Vietnam just represented the USA, which was an alien culture to the Vietnamese. As the war escalated, the bombing of innocent people only proved that the USA and South Vietnam government were not Vietnamese.





In the Vietnam War, the costs overwhelmed the benefits over the long-term, for Americans. I include death and injury as well as expenses as costs.





In the end, it is the American people who paid for this war. If you see the economy is in bad shape, are you going to favor spending on a war with no end? If you know someone who was killed or injured, would you favor a war with no end?





What were the benefits of this war? Control of a region with a culture most Americans do not understand? How does that benefit most Americans? The benefits seem insubstantial and fleeting.





Since at some level most Americans know that the costs overwhelm the benefits, then it was in our best interests to end each of this war even if it results in a lost.





The Pentagon claims that they were successful in killing more of the enemy than American allies were killed. This may be true but the enemy did not surrender.





The Vietnamese believed they were fighting for their country's survival and the Americans and their allies were not. The Americans gave up because they did not have as much at stake as the Vietnamese.|||The Vietnamese won in 1975. The defeat of the southern forces occurred in Saigon on April 29th, not in Hanoi.





Vietnam was finally unified and independent of either French colonial masters, or the 550,000 United States "military advisers" supporting the "nation" called "South Vietnam."





The American psyche was altered in some ways - the American people began to blame the media, "traitors" in their midst, and other scapegoats for their own government's mismanagement, failed "nation-building," and "Domino Theory" foreign policy.





It is now deep within their psyche, and for over 30 years now the American people cannot think of the nation of Vietnam without thinking of the Second Indochina War...no recognition is ever given to the people of Vietnam for their victory, instead you will see degrading comments about their military being "third-rate."|||Americans like to tell themselves that they never lost a war. And here they "lost" to a third rate army. It was a shock to the national confidence.


The protesting was because people felt that it wasn't America's fight. It was thought that winning or losing really wouldn't affect America. But it did. Tens of thousands of Americans were killed, more wounded physically and mentally. Billions of American tax dollars were poured down that hole instead of supporting people at home. It wasn't a volunteer army, there was a draft and young men were being forced to go or face jail.


LBJ had the war dropped in his lap when Kennedy died. Because Kennedy had sent "advisors" and a few troops, LBJ felt bound to finish what Kennedy had started, (domestically and internationally.) LBJ was ill served by military advisors that kept telling him to throw a few more troops and a little more money at the problem, because how hard could it be to beat a bunch of "spooks" with primitive training and equipment? It became a matter of pride to them that they could win this war. Because it was in reality going so badly, the generals started under reporting casualties and hiding their intrusions to other nations.


The war and the national hatred of it kept Johnson from running for a second term and opened the way for Nixon.


Nixon pulled the plug, but botched in such a manner that America felt little relief.|||Check your facts first.


It wasn't a defeat in Hanoi so much as as a surrender of Saigon. There was no battle in Hanoi except to drop bombs on them.


That war dragged on too ******* long with too many lives lost to prop up a corrupt government, just to keep it from becoming a Communist government.


That was the only real reason the American soldier was in there.


Big Hairy Deal. Now everyone knows how to beat us is to wear us down.


As for the other stuff you need, go to Wikipedia and look it up.


The reason I say this is that you are asking someone to write a book to explain all that. None of it was simple. None of it was a "black and white" explanation. There were a lot of "gray" areas.