compare and contrast Johnson policies in Vietnam with nixon

IB high level history student must be IB format
uses Sanders book The cold war and the Americas
need asap today!

ANSWER

Consequences of Vietnam

The Vietnam War also known as Second Indochina War lasted for a period of around 20 years; it was a war between the North Vietnam and part of South Vietnam Communists against the government of South Vietnam and its primary ally, the United States. Several countries got involved and suffered severe setbacks politically, economically and socially. Some of the countries that got involved were France, Laos, Cambodia, Soviet Union, South Korea, United States and China. All these countries had several members of their population lost during the war, resulting to instability in the respective countries. This paper emphasizes on the social, political and economic impacts of the war on Cambodia and Laos countries. Cambodia and Laos being the neighbors of Vietnam, suffered ruthlessly during this war. This was because there were internal and external fights in the subject countries.

Cambodia being a victim of the war, suffered terribly during this period of unrest in the country. Statistics show that approximately 1.7 Million citizens of Cambodia succumbed to death due to exhaustion, starvation and also malnutrition. Politically, many citizens ended up being tortured and executed for opposing the reigning state. Economically, the war resulted to high stock inflation rates, increased budgetary expenses, export earnings got minimized and the country experienced skyrocketing balance-of-payments shortfall. Cambodia had difficulties on production of goods and services; especially on the rice production sector, thereby significantly affecting their economy. The country was forced to import rice from Thailand for the first time ever in 1972. The involvement of the USA in the war angered so many people in Cambodia; public institutions like college campuses demonstrated and protested, thereby leading to unrests and deaths. The country sunk from all angles since the war was both internal and external, resulting to confusion in the country (Baird 2017).

Laos was not left behind during this war, they too suffered almost the same fate to Cambodia; the country appeared peaceful until early 1945 when the reigning King was forced to declare independence. A civil war was initiated later on by the King, resulting to the devastating effects in the entire country. So many bombs were directed to Laos leading to the destruction of key water catchment areas; many lives were lost and still being lost to date due to the active bombs that were left by the US CIA during the war. There was political unrest in the country, the reigning King was forced to make so many tough decisions; an approximated number of deaths of 62, 000 lives were lost during the war in Laos.  The extension of the Vietnam War to Laos led to the emergence of nationalist-communist groups in the country. The country got economically emaciated at some point due to the unstable and unreliable food supply. There was a significant economic drop in the country; the war paralyzed the investments and the businesses in the country, thereby leading to low and substandard income to both individuals and the government (Burns et al., 2017).

In conclusion, the Vietnam War had several impacts to the subject countries; after getting involved in a fight for close to two decades, Cambodia and Laos became war-free states and started on fresh grounds. Many families and relationships were dismantled, some people fled to the neighboring countries. Like in many other cases, the subject war led to several destructions and destabilizations in the subject countries and many others. Cambodia and Laos had to undergo several months to restore normalcy in their lands. The countries in question did not have to undergo the fateful events but due to their locations and inferiority, they ended up suffering an unforgettable fate.

References

Baird, I. G. (2017). Resistance and contingent contestations to large-scale land concessions in southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia. Land, 6(1), 16.

Burns, K., Corrigan, B., Sanders, F., & Burns, K. (2017). The Vietnam War. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group.