2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the US withdrawal from Vietnam and the war still casts long shadows over American life.
The cost in lives was enormous. Over almost 20 years, more than 2.7 million Americans served in uniform in the conflict, and around 58,318 lost their lives. Estimates of Vietnamese deaths are more than 3 million civilians and soldiers from both sides. Thousands of US veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and tried to readjust on their return home.
Americans struggled to make sense of events in Vietnam. They had to come to terms with the reality that for the first time in the country’s history, they had lost a war. Disturbing televised images of conditions on the ground and war atrocities made them question the wisdom and the morality of US foreign policy.
