Expectations

  • We had unrealistically high expectations for the Vietnam war, starting with the amount of effort and troops on the ground. 
  • We had seen what was possible in WWII through American involvement 
  • If we could Defeat Axis powers in Europe, we could defeat Vietnamese farmers in the jungle 
  • An attempt to recreate the "uncontested heavyweight champs of the world" attitude 

Reality

  • Vietnam was a terrible mistake for to amount of lives lost, the inhumane tactics, and the embarrassing nature of how the war was seen from the Homefront. 
  • ​58,220 American soldiers were killed overseas in Vietnam. The number of Vietnamese killed is unknown because of Viet Cong tactics in. hiding dead, and the amount of villages incinerated. 
  • We weren't really wanted in Vietnam to begin with. Butted in on their conflict as a way to flex our might. Began off of as a simple miscommunication, later to be declared a lie, in the Gulf of Tonkin 
  • ​Excessive force was used through the spreading of American made agent orange and Napalm. Agent orange killed thousands even after the conclusion of the war. Troops returned with cancers, and the Vietnamese were poisoned for generations to come. 
It has been said that the United States was deceived into entering and expanding the Vietnam War by its own overoptimistic propaganda. The record suggests, however, that the policy-makers stayed in Vietnam not so much because of overly optimistic hopes of winning ... as because of overly pessimistic assessments of the consequences of losing."
                                      - JONATHAN SCHELL, The Real War