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More than 3 million Americans served in the Vietnam War, some 1.5 million of whom actually saw combat in Vietnam. [88] James E. Westheider wrote that "At the height of American involvement in 1968, for example, 543,000 American military personnel were stationed in Vietnam, but only 80,000 were considered combat troops."
At the time, less than a quarter of Americans polled, 24%, believed it was a mistake to send troops to Vietnam, while 60% of Americans polled believed the opposite. Three years later, in September 1968, 54% of Americans polled believed it was a mistake to send troops to Vietnam, while 37% believed it was not a mistake.
During the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many college students across the United States participated in anti-war demonstrations and protests. [4] Although protesters urged the US to withdraw troops and end the war, the anti-Vietnam War movement was a more broad movement for greater peace and less war.
In recalling the 1971 congressional testimony of some US veterans who were critical of the war, one of whom compared US action in Vietnam to genocide, Lewy suggests that some "witnesses sounded as if they had memorized North Vietnamese propaganda." [8] The book is broadly critical of domestic opponents of American participation in the Vietnam ...
In February 2017, on the 50th anniversary of the essay's publication, a conference was held at University College London. [4] In 2019, a book based on this conference was published entitled, The Responsibility of Intellectuals: Reflections by Noam Chomsky and others after 50 years and edited by three Chomsky biographers, Nicholas Allott, Chris Knight and Neil Smith. [5]
The year was the most expensive in the Vietnam War with America spending US$77.4 billion (US$ 678 billion in 2025) on the war. The year also became the deadliest of the Vietnam War for America and its allies with 27,915 ARVN soldiers killed and the Americans suffering 16,592 killed compared to around two hundred thousand PAVN/VC killed.
As McNamara said, "the dangerous illusion of victory by the United States was therefore dead." [78]: 367 Vietnam was a major political issue during the United States presidential election in 1968. The election was won by Republican Richard Nixon who claimed to have a secret plan to end the war. [25]: 515 [177]
This has been considered the trigger for an increasingly skeptical, although small, American press corps in Vietnam. Ap Bac was of particular political sensitivity, as John Paul Vann , a highly visible American officer, was the advisor, and the U.S. press took note of what he considered to be ARVN shortcomings.