Answer:
The United States was affected by the Vietnam War in many ways. The Vietnam War led to veterans coming home ill from the exposure to agent orange, ptsd, and addictions. The country as a whole was affected by a negative economy.
Beyond policy changes, the U.S. also paid a high political cost for the Vietnam War. The long and traumatic conflict saw a mounting mistrust of government and its officials. A chain of unexpected events starting in mid 1960s – such as the way President Johnson obtained the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to send troops to Vietnam, revelations of secret bombings of Cambodia, the My Lai massacre and Kent State tragedy under Nixon administration – put America into a crisis of confidence and faith. On the eyes of American people, government leaders were no longer credible. The abrupt end of Nixon’s presidency with the Watergate scandal only confirmed this sentiment.
The Vietnam conflict totally changed the attitudes of a generation. More and more American citizens became suspicious, skeptical and cynical about the government and public institutions in the wake of the Vietnam War. The military, in particular, was discredited for years after the conflict.
