10 Questions About the Vietnam War, Answered

The War in Vietnam remains one of the most complex and controversial conflicts in American history. Far more than merely a humiliating military failure, the Vietnam War forced the United States to reckon with the limits and false promises of the American exceptionalism that had taken hold after the conclusion of World War II.

The devastation wrought by the war is nearly impossible to understate. And still to this day, the Vietnam War remains a complicated topic. Read on if you’re looking for the answers to some common questions about the conflict. 

1. Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War?
2. When did the conflict start?
3. Why was the Vietnam War so controversial?
4. How many people were drafted during the Vietnam War?
5. How many people died in the Vietnam War?
6. How many became refugees?
7. How did the Vietnam War affect America?
8. What was the Tet Offensive and how did it impact the war?
9. How long did the Vietnam War last?
10. Who won the Vietnam War? 

Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War?

While the U.S. entered into the Vietnam War for a variety of reasons, American involvement was primarily predicated on a fear of communism spreading across the region. Prominent American figureheads including President John F. Kennedy believed North Vietnam’s nascent communist regime would result in a “domino effect” wherein a succession of Communist regimes could seize power across Southeast Asia. While Kennedy certainly played a role early in the conflict, much of the escalation of American military presence in the region was spearheaded by President Lyndon B. Johnson following JFK’s assassination. 

The Vietnam War widely considered to be an unsubtle continuation of the Cold War, a contentious geopolitical imbroglio that had been ongoing since the 1940s; it served as a convenient proxy war for the United States, Russia, and China.

When did the conflict start?

Conflict had been brewing in Vietnam well before the start of the Vietnam War. The French began controlling the country in the 1800s, and the Japanese invaded during World War II. Nationalist groups that opposed the foreign rule popped up in response. In 1945, Ho Chi Minh—a nationalist leader with communist influences—mobilized his forces, known as the Viet Minh, to overthrow the French after Japan withdrew following the end of World War II. 

After a nearly decade-long conflict between the Viet Minh and the French, in 1954, Vietnam was split along the 17th Parallel: Ho Chi Minh ruled the North, and anti-communist forces held the South. But peace did not last long. Tensions continued to simmer, with the U.S. providing training and equipment to the South.

Though the U.S. presence and involvement in Vietnam increased over the years, America did not outright enter the war until the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The joint resolution—officially a response to a brief confrontation between American and North Vietnamese naval forces in the titular Gulf—granted President Johnson the ability to declare war without seeking formal approval from Congress. In addition to the initial Gulf skirmish on August 2, 1964, the U.S. government fabricated a second confrontation on August 4, 1964 to bolster support for military intervention. 

In declassified internal reports from the National Security Agency, it was revealed that not only had the American naval forces been willing aggressors in the initial conflict, the August 4, 1964, attack was a complete work of fiction.

Why was the Vietnam War so controversial?

The War in Vietnam was controversial for a myriad of reasons, chief among them the flimsy reasoning of the “domino theory” that postulated that should Vietnam fall to communist forces, other countries in the region would quickly follow suit, in turn threatening American security. 

Despite Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all subscribing to this school of thought, the validity of the domino theory has been questioned by numerous experts and officials. In identifying communist ideology as the primary reason for aggression, the United States entered into a costly, bloody conflict with no clear end in sight. 

The draft was also widely unpopular among the American public. Through offering deferments to men attending college full-time, the burden of the draft largely fell on those of a lower socioeconomic background, further damaging the already strained relationship between the American working class and the federal government. 

The advent of television also had made the horrors and tragedies of the war widely visible. Despite the U.S. government’s unyielding insistence the war was progressing in favor of the Americans, the graphic images and real time reporting of casualties turned many Americans against the war effort. 

How many people were drafted during the Vietnam War?

Though more than two-thirds of American troops deployed in Vietnam were volunteers, roughly 1.9 million U.S. draftees were sent to Vietnam alongside an additional few hundred thousand deployed throughout Southeast Asia. 

At the beginning of the war, draft dodgers were viewed as cowardly and unpatriotic, but this stance changed as the war dragged on and became increasingly unpopular. Furthering the matter, many returning Vietnam veterans were ostracized for their participation in the war. 

How many people died in the Vietnam War?

Though the U.S. lost more than 58,000 troops during the conflict, the American loss of life is dwarfed by the staggering losses shouldered by the Vietnamese. In addition to the roughly 200,000 South Vietnamese soldiers killed fighting alongside the Americans, more than 1 million North Vietnamese soldiers and 2 million civilians lost their lives during the war. During the conflict, the Americans and their allies dropped more than 7 million tons of explosives on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—that’s more than double the 2.7 million tons Allied Forces used in World War II. 

How many became refugees?

After the South Vietnamese capital Saigon (present day Ho Chi Minh City) fell to North Vietnamese forces in April 1975, American forces began to pull out of the region, marking the beginning of the Indochina refugee crisis, a largely destabilizing mass exodus from Vietnam and neighboring countries like Cambodia and Laos in the decades following the war. Estimates vary, but experts believe the war displaced roughly 2 million Southeast Asians. 

Since many countries in the region like Malaysia and Thailand were initially reluctant to accept Vietnamese refugees, many refugees were forced to take treacherous journeys overseas on crudely fashioned ships in hopes of finding a new home. Refugees on these kinds of boats faced inclement weather, overcrowding, and pirate attacks, leading to an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 perishing at sea.  

How did the Vietnam War affect America?

In addition to tarnishing the American reputation internationally, the country’s involvement in the war sowed significant civil unrest back home. While many members of the American public initially supported the U.S.’s meddling in the region, as the conflict dragged on and became increasingly costly, more and more Americans turned against the war effort. Many veterans found themselves returning home as social pariahs, a stark contrast to the reverence given to returning World War II veterans just decades prior. In particular, public opinion on the war shifted greatly when the military’s barbaric actions at the My Lai massacre came to light in 1969. 

Extensive coverage on the war was featured on news programs across the country, making this the first war broadcast to people’s living rooms; more than 90 percent of American homes had a television by the time the war ended in 1975. In 1971, after The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers—a bombshell report outlining how the U.S. misled the public about the war—the opinion of the American people shifted greatly toward opposing the war. 

What was the Tet Offensive and how did it impact the war?

The Tet Offensive was a series of surprise attacks launched by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces against the South Vietnamese and their allies in early 1968. Roughly 85,000 communist troops carried out a series of attacks across the region in hopes of sparking civil unrest and weakening South Vietnamese strongholds on Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. 

The Tet Offensive undermined the perception of American forces dominating the war and furthered anti-war sentiment back in the U.S. It was a serious military escalation of the conflict and prolonged American involvement in the war—while also eroding American support at home and abroad. Despite South Vietnamese and American forces technically “winning” the battles (i.e. sustaining less casualties than their opponent), the Tet Offensive was a hugely symbolic win for the communist insurgency. 

How long did the Vietnam War last?

The American military did not directly involve itself in the Vietnam War until the Gulf of Tonkin incident in the mid-1960s. Despite not being officially involved, American military personnel were stationed in the region throughout the 1950s and early 1960s to serve as “military advisors” to the French colonial forces and later to the South Vietnamese. The U.S. presence peaked in 1969, with more than half a million American troops stationed in Vietnam; by the war’s conclusion in 1975, nearly 3 million Americans had at some point been deployed to the country. 

American troops vacated the region after the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, and the conflict officially ended in 1975 after North Vietnamese forces seized control of the South Vietnamese capital city Saigon and united Vietnam under one communist regime. 

Who won the Vietnam War? 

Although no real “winners” can ever emerge from a conflict so bloody, the Vietnam War ended in a fashion decidedly favoring the North Vietnamese forces. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces taking a much heavier loss of life than the U.S., but the American forces failed in their primary goal of preventing a communist regime from seizing control in Vietnam—despite a technically superior military, American forces were no match for the North Vietnamese troops’ employment of guerilla warfare and strategic use of the country’s tropical topography.

The American withdrawal from Vietnam was one of necessity, not of choice; the country had begun to buckle under the financial and social strain of all-out war by 1973. Vietnam’s neighboring countries Laos and Cambodia each assumed communist regimes in 1975, just two years after American troops vacated. Even though North Vietnamese forces never won a major battle against the United States, they nonetheless won the war. 

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