20 years of war, 7.5m tonnes of bombs, 1.3m dead: How the US razed Vietnam to the ground
The war turned Vietnam’s lush landscapes into scorched earth. Entire provinces were reduced to rubble, waterways were polluted, forests decimated, and soil rendered infertile by chemicals
In the span of just two decades, Vietnam transformed from a colonial battleground into the epicentre of Cold War aggression, with the US at the helm of one of the most destructive military campaigns in modern history. What had begun as a nationalist struggle against French colonial rule evolved into a brutal war that saw Vietnam overwhelmed by bombs, defoliants, and foreign occupation.
The United States entered Vietnam not to defend it, but to remake it in the image of its ideological fears. Guided by the 'Domino Theory,' American policymakers believed that if Vietnam embraced communism, all of Southeast Asia would follow. That fear drove Washington to wage an all-out war not just against an enemy, but against a nation and its people.
Following the end of the First Indochina War in 1954, Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel — the North led by Ho Chi Minh's communist government and the South propped up by the United States and Western allies. Though a nationwide election was promised, it never took place. Instead, America deepened the divide, fuelling an internal conflict that soon became a full-scale international war.
Vietnam was physically, economically and emotionally shattered. An estimated 2.5 to 4 million people were displaced across Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Around 1.6 million Vietnamese, including political dissidents and those who had worked with US forces, fled the country, many becoming "boat people".
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The US military strategy was rooted in overwhelming force. Strategic bombing campaigns devastated Vietnam's infrastructure and the countryside. About 7.5 million tonnes of bombs — more than triple the amount dropped in World War II — rained down on Vietnam. B-52 bombers alone dropped $30,000 worth of explosives per mission, and nearly 1.6 million tonnes of ordnance were used throughout the war.
Operation Rolling Thunder and other sustained bombing campaigns levelled villages, destroyed farmland, and killed untold numbers of civilians. The North suffered $600 million in physical damage, but the bombing cost the US nearly $6 billion — a grim equation of disproportionate destruction.
Beyond explosives, the US waged chemical warfare. More than 19 million gallons of defoliants, including Agent Orange, were sprayed over 3.5 million acres of land. This environmental assault not only ruined agriculture but also poisoned ecosystems and human bodies. The long-term effects of dioxin contamination still afflict Vietnamese communities today, with birth defects, cancer and chronic illnesses persisting across generations.
From 1965 to 1975, the US poured approximately $176 billion into the Vietnam War, over $1 trillion in today's value.
While 58,193 American soldiers were killed, an estimated 1.35 million people — mostly Vietnamese—died in the broader conflict, including civilians caught in indiscriminate bombings, raids, and massacres. The My Lai Massacre, where over 500 unarmed villagers were killed by US troops, became a symbol of the brutality and impunity of the American war machine.
Injuries and disabilities added further trauma. Around 75,000 American veterans were left severely disabled, yet Vietnam's toll was far worse — millions maimed, orphaned, or psychologically shattered. Entire communities were uprooted, and entire generations were lost.
American military planners sought to win through attrition by killing more than could be replaced. Yet this approach ignored the resilience of the Vietnamese and the unpopularity of the US-backed South Vietnamese regime. By 1968, after the Tet Offensive, it became clear that victory was not within reach.
As the war dragged on, US public opinion turned sharply. The Pentagon Papers, leaked in 1971, revealed how officials had misled the public about the war's progress. Anti-war protests surged across America, and a policy shift — called 'Vietnamisation' — was introduced to transfer combat to South Vietnamese forces. But it was too late.
In April 1975, the US-backed regime collapsed. Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese army, and America's final helicopters fled from rooftops. The war ended not in victory, but in humiliation.
Vietnam was physically, economically and emotionally shattered. An estimated 2.5 to 4 million people were displaced across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Around 1.6 million Vietnamese, including political dissidents and those who had worked with US forces, fled the country, many becoming "boat people".
Cambodia and Laos also suffered greatly due to America's secret bombings and covert operations. Over time, both nations experienced their own collapse and communist takeovers — the very outcomes the US had tried to prevent, now triggered by its actions.
The war turned Vietnam's lush landscapes into scorched earth. Entire provinces were reduced to rubble. Waterways were polluted, forests decimated, and soil rendered infertile by chemicals. Today, unexploded ordnance continues to maim civilians, and the legacy of Agent Orange lingers in hospitals and homes.
The demographic makeup of US soldiers reflected a young, racially diverse force, yet also revealed inequalities. Though 88.4% of American forces were white, 12.5% of those killed were Black — a disproportionate toll. Hispanic soldiers, while undercounted officially, also suffered heavily.
Women, too, bore the burden — particularly 6,250 nurses, who witnessed the worst of the war's consequences. Many returned traumatised, facing silence and neglect back home.
Despite the magnitude of destruction, Vietnam endured. It was unified, though at a catastrophic cost. For decades, the country struggled with poverty, international isolation, and the long-term consequences of war.
Yet Vietnam slowly rebuilt — village by village, city by city. Today, it stands as a nation that has turned its wounds into resilience, its scars into strength.
But the question remains: at what cost?
The Vietnam War remains one of the most painful chapters in 20th-century history — not just for what it destroyed, but for the lessons it left behind. It was a war waged not for Vietnam, but against it — by a superpower determined to bend a people to its will, only to retreat when that will proved stronger.
