The Vietnam War was the most controversial war in American history. Costing more than 47,000 U.S. lives and $140,000,000, the war had momentous impact on the country, politically, economically, and socially. More significantly, the United States failed to achieve its stated war aims, for the first time in history. The goal was to preserve an independent, noncommunist government in South Vietnam, but by the war’s end in 1975, all of Vietnam was under the communist rule …showed first 75 words of 610 total…

…showed last 75 words of 610 total…the Vietnamese communists, the struggle was a total war for their own and their cause’s survival. For the United States, it was a limited war. Thusly, the failure of the United States in the Vietnam War was a result of two major factors: strong antiwar sentiment, and inaccurate rationalism. The Vietnam War brought an end to the domestic consensus that had sustained U.S. policy since World War II, and reshaped the nation forever.