Impacts of the Vietnam War on Cambodia, Vietnam, and the United States

Question: Make notes on the impact of Vietnam on Vietnam, Cambodia, and the US through this text: "Continuing problems in Cambodia After Lon Nol overthrew Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1970, US troops entered Vietnam, but Cambodian communists formed an alliance with North Vietnam and began to fight against the pro-US government. Although the US and ARVN forces had superior fire power, the communists were resolute and Nixon withdrew US troops, fearing backlash in the US. Even though communist communications and logistics had been interrupted, they soon recovered. The USA may have been unwilling to provide ground troops, but the US air force bombed the country, eventually dropping 430,000 tons on Cambodia. The country was small relative to neighboring Vietnam, with only 7.5 million people. Although its army eventually rose to 175,000 and was fairly well supported by the general public, it was no match for the Khmer Rouge, which was receiving assistance from North Vietnam. To assist the government, the US military sent 119 advisers to Phnom Penh in 1971. Fearing his own overthrow, Nol discouraged cooperation across the army, navy and air force to avoid collusion, and while he welcomed US arms he did not heed any advice provided. The poorly paid, inefficiently led soldiers began to lose any incentive to fight, and desertions resulted. When the Paris Peace Agreement was announced in January 1973, including a halt of US bombing of Cambodia, the government hoped that this would signal the end of hostilities. Since the Khmer Rouge only numbered 40,000, a North Vietnamese exit from the country should have put government forces on the road to success. Instead, the Khmer Rouge intensified its fighting even as relations with North Vietnam were strained. They succeeded in a pincer strategy in which they isolated Phnom Penh from the rest of the country, and then launched an attack on the capital in January 1975. Government forces fought hard, and even dug a trench around the city to prevent its capture, but in April 1975 US forces were evacuated and within a week Phnom Penh was in the hands of the Khmer Rouge.This marked the beginning of a Khmer Rouge revolution, based on ruthless ideological cleansing. The aim was to destroy Cambodia's existing society and create a completely new agricultural country. Cambodian cities were emptied as their populations were forced into the countryside to work as farmers and lead a peasant lifestyle. It is estimated that about one million people were killed during the revolution, and the war had led to the deaths of about 700,000 Cambodians. Almost half of the population was turned into refugees. The Khmer Rouge launched attacks across the Cambodia-Vietnam border over frontier disputes. On 25 December 1978, the Vietnamese, with Soviet military aid, invaded Cambodia. Phnom Penh was captured early in January 1979. A pro-Vietnam Cambodian, Heng Samrin, was installed and the political situation stabilised. The invasion effectively brought the Khmer Rouge to an end, and its leadership fled to the countryside. The costs of the Vietnam War Clearly Cambodia had paid a huge price as a result of the war in Vietnam, but it was by no means the only victim of the war. The USA Vietnam had been the most divisive war in the USA since the American Civil War. Prior to the Tet Offensive of 1968, there had been general support for the war, but afterwards there was a strong anti-war culture that often divided generations. It also divided along the lines of social class; most of the soldiers were working class, and university students could be exempt from the draft, or conscription. It was on university campuses where some of the loudest criticisms of the war could be heard. Over 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War, the fourth highest death rate of all US wars. Around 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam during the USA's involvement, amounting to over nine per cent of the US population at the time. These soldiers saw more battle time than in any previous war. Upon their return, many veterans from Vietnam found that they were ostracised by the peace movement that naively saw them as supporting US policies. The veterans often faced indifference and even rejection from the US general public, who were tainted with the many scenes of brutality committed by US troops and by the realisation that Vietnam was a war the USA had lost. The veterans who witnessed these atrocities were themselves often brutalised by either physical or mental effects of jungle, guerrilla warfare that instilled constant fear and often wounded unsuspecting soldiers. A bitter debate in the USA followed the war. It focused on the issue of clemency for draft dodgers and deserters. An estimated 100,000 men left the USA to avoid conscription, most of them going to Canada, which accepted them as legal immigrants. President Ford created a Clemency Board to manage an 'earned amnesty' process. The issue fundamentally divided US society; some Americans saw this action as justifiable while others felt that such action was unconscionable as other men had to serve instead. In his inauguration speech of 21 January 1977, Jimmy Carter, who succeeded Ford as president, announced his intention to give amnesty to all draft evaders, which led to controversy even then.The cost of the war was exorbitant; it was estimated that it cost the USA $167 billion. As a result of the war, the government did not have the funding to expand on domestic programming, and President Johnson's 'Great Society' suffered from this. After being elected in 1964, Johnson had announced sweeping reforms that were intended to eliminate poverty and racism. Johnson himself was a casualty of the war; even though more civil rights legislation was passed during his presidency than any other, and more programmes were put in place to assist struggling Americans, he could never leave behind the stigma of Vietnam. The main foreign policy issue facing the USA was the effect Vietnam had on its containment strategy. The USA had regarded South Vietnam as the cornerstone of democracy in Southeast Asia. The 'loss' of South Vietnam implied a threat to Southeast Asia through the domino effect, which stated that if one country in a region fell to communism, the others would too. Ultimately, the domino effect took root in Southeast Asia where Cambodia and Laos also came under socialist regimes, but Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia remained firmly in the capitalist camp. Without Indochina (effectively Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) lost its relevance and was disbanded in 1976. It is extremely difficult to assess the number of casualties that resulted from the Vietnam War, and numbers range from 1.3 to 9 million killed during all hostilities. The Vietnamese government put the number at 1.1 million Vietcong and NVA communist fighters, and reports of the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) killed range from 100,000 to 330,000. Even more difficult to gauge are civilian casualties, which are estimated to be around 250,000, depending upon the source. In 1975, the population of Vietnam was 48 million, so the casualties listed above demonstrate the extent of the human loss for the country. From 1975, Vietnam faced hostility from the USA. President Ford opposed Vietnam's entry into the United Nations and thereby isolated Vietnam from the wider international community. Ford also imposed a trade embargo on Vietnam, which remained in place until 1994 and withheld formal recognition until 1995. This was part of a US strategy designed to prevent Vietnam from developing economic relations with the West, and had a major impact on Vietnam's economic growth. The war also had a devastating impact on Vietnam's infrastructure. During the conflict, the USA dropped 643,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam and 700,000 tons on South Vietnam, causing massive destruction of prime agricultural land. Operation Ranch Hand was a defoliation programme that the USA used to expose guerrilla fighters. Chemicals such as Agent Orange and Napalm were used, poisoning over 2.4 hectares (6 million acres) of South Vietnamese land. In the border region between the North and the South, the Montagnard people of the central highlands lost nearly one fifth of their population, and 85 per cent of the population had to be resettled due to the destruction of their lands. The communists targeted the Montagnards, leading to a resistance movement that continued until the early 1990s. Despite Nixon's promise to offer reparations this never materialised. The US Congress passed the War Powers Act in 1973 and this specifically gave Congress the right to declare war, and prevented American presidents from acting without consent of the Congress. Although Vietnam emerged as a united country, many Southerners were forced to submit to 're-education camps'. Southern resentment was accentuated in March 1978 when Hanoi hastily imposed a communist-style economic system on the South. Collectivisation of agriculture was introduced and many Southern farmers lost their livelihoods. Many farmers went to the cities rather than engage in collectivisation. One consequence of this was a huge involuntary migration of Vietnamese people. About 1.5 million people left the country in order to enjoy a degree of prosperity elsewhere. They became known as the 'boat people', as they fled on often flimsy crafts. Approximately two thirds of them ended up in the USA, after first managing to find some refuge in states nearer to Vietnam. Vietnam remains a socialist republic, yet has embraced capitalism. It has seen vast material improvements in its infrastructure, and industrialisation has taken place. It now has a positive relationship with the USA, which benefits it financially. Summary The US policy of Vietnamisation was intended as a middle ground approach that would reduce opposition to the government in the USA, and provide South Vietnam with weapons and the support to be self-sustained. When this was unsuccessful, the USA engaged in both secret and public negotiations that led to the Paris Peace Agreement (1973) and US withdrawal from Vietnam. The USA attempted to continue supporting South Vietnam through bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia, but these were stopped by the US government in 1973, leaving the South Vietnamese to fend for themselves. US withdrawal was the reason for the fall of South Vietnam and the reunification of Vietnam as a socialist country."