Over 100,000 US troops lost limbs in the war and required treatment. 'Draft dodgers' were treated badly and some fled the country. American troops returning from the war were also subject to ill-treatment. Many civilians treated them as brutal thugs who should be punished or avoided.

The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was a major conflict of the Cold War.

As described in NYT reporting throughout 1965, monsoon weather, thick jungle and inhospitable terrain, malarial mosquitoes, and extreme heat were intense impediments to the American military machine and affected its conduct of the war.

The Vietnam War severely damaged the U.S. economy. Unwilling to raise taxes to pay for the war, President Johnson unleashed a cycle of inflation. The war also weakened U.S. military morale and undermined, for a time, the U.S. commitment to internationalism.