How Did The Vietnam War Affect People

“I was arrested in Northern Vietnam attempting to escape because my family was pretending to be Vietnamese when we were Chinese. We were arrested by the police and put in jail. We were searched for all valuables, jewelry, and money. The only thing we had was a Rolex watch hidden underneath my head. We had nothing” (Do). This was what it was like for Southern Vietnamese people escaping to countries such as China. The Communists and the North won the Vietnam War. Due to the War, millions of civilians became homeless and unemployed. Thousands of children became orphans (The War’s Effect on the Vietnamese Land and People). The new Communist government instilled new laws and policies so business owners were seized of all their land and possessions. …show more content…
1.3 million civilians were killed during the War. The U.S. Military dropped more than 14 million bombs on Vietnam, which was mostly on the South Vietnamese countryside. They also sprayed about 20 millions gallons of chemicals (The War’s Effect on the Vietnamese Land and People). American soldiers killed crops and farms and burned forests and vegetation. This led to millions of homeless refugees. So many were killed and became homeless. When the North Vietnamese won the war, Saigon fell, which led to another 10 million homeless refugees and 3 million unemployed. Luu says, “After the Vietnam War officially ended in April of 1975 with the fall of Southern Vietnam to the Northern Vietnamese communists, the new regime stripped our family of its livelihood, confiscating our family businesses and much of our savings.” People who owned private businesses and hundreds of officers in the military were forced to go to re-education camps, and all of their wealth and property was taken away. At re-education camps, people endured extreme labor and torturous conditions. They were forced to learn Communist ideas, and many did not survive in the camps. Many South Vietnamese escaped Vietnam to avoid