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This is a wonderful question and one that I myself have been pondering and battling as I went through medical school and ultimately graduated through this past year. It’s very insightful of you to ask, because perhaps you are looking to go into medical school yourself or are wondering what sorts of things people actually learn in school.There are actually a huge set of skills that they don’t teach you in medical school, but the main ones that I will cover are ones that I feel my particular institution fell short on (and a few of my friends who were at various other institutions as well have agreed). **Please note that I write this as a United States Allopathic Medical School Graduate so results and opinions may differ depending on where you are from**Business/money skillsThis fits under the same category that someone else has actually mentioned in their post which is “Management and Entrepreneurship.” Most of medical school time is spent memorizing anatomy, biological cycles within the body, medications, physical examination skills and pathological diseases. None of the curriculum required by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) which is the accrediting medical school body has a financial planning requirement. They have requirements for schools to offer financial aid and financial counseling (which tends to be in the form of an office much like undergraduates have), but no actual requirements to teach individuals how to run a business, the basics of money, the basics of running a hospital or clinic, etc. Reality is that sometimes someone with a Bachelor’s in Business which takes 3–4 years is leagues ahead of a Doctor of Medicine who has been in school for at least 8 years when it comes to financial mastery.This is an even more important skill to learn especially when you take in the fact that the AVERAGE medical school debt is around $166,000. On top of the fact that the average resident salary is $52,000 (please keep in mind this is PRE-TAX) with a 5%-7% accruing debt interest, it’s all the more important to teach future docs how to handle money. This fact has become prominent enough to even have stories in everyday news ($1 million mistake: Becoming a doctor)Teaching skillsAgain I will refer to the LCME curriculum standards which anyone can see here: http://lcme.org/wp-content/uploads/filebase/standards/2017-18_Functions-and-Structure_2016-03-24.docx (which is the most up to date as far as I understand). Currently the curricular content section under “Standard 7” states the following categories:Biomedical, Behavioral, Social SciencesOrgan Systems/Life Cycle/Primary Care/Prevention/Wellness/Symptoms/Signs/ Differential Diagnosis, Treatment Planning, Impact of Behavioral and Social FactorsScientific Method/Clinical/Translational ResearchCritical Judgment/Problem-Solving SkillsSocietal ProblemsCultural Competence and Health Care DisparitiesMedical EthicsCommunication SkillsInterprofessional Collaborative SkillsAs you can see it is not a requirement to teach medical students how to teach, about adult or child learning theory, or even about how to learn as an individual. Why might this be important you ask? Well as a physician no matter what you do YOU WILL TEACH. As a resident (the first level of being a doctor a.k.a a doctor in training) you WILL be teaching medical students and patients. As an attending (when you are a fully fledged physician practicing on your own) you WILL once again be most likely teaching medical students, residents, and of course patients. Teaching is such an invaluable skill that as one of the most academic fields out there I find it amazing that we choose to ignore educating such a valuable skill. Some institutions are trying to implement programs, for example the school I came from had a medical education track which I was a part of, but again this is not required so not every doctor knows how to do this.Research SkillsSo listed above you see “Scientific Method/Clinical/Translational Research.” The way my school implemented it was to give a few lectures on the subject (by a few I really mean a few, as in maybe 1–3 a year perhaps like 8–10 over the course of 4 years and this is with us being constantly in class for the first 2 years getting lectures at least 5 days a week from 7am-5pm). These lectures entailed how to critically read a research article, learning how to cite sources and find good articles, and learn how to understand basic statistics. Unfortunately as many Ph.D’s, Masters Degree holders, and many avid researchers know there is so much more to actually be able to do research. How does one go ahead and get a grant? What forms do you need and how do you get IRB approval? How does one start a lab and get funding? What does a career in research look like and how does it even start?My school was particularly good in that if you were interested enough you could work real hard and find a good mentor in research and join a track program called the “Research Track” that had additional lectures and resources, but again this was not a requirement so not every doctor learns these skills. We would also have some required “research” projects, but to be honest it was not regulated in a way that Master’s/Ph.D Thesis’ would be nor would you get any assigned mentors (unless you were perhaps in the track program) so guidance was all up to how aggressively you sought it out. This means that some lackluster “research” projects were approved and not everyone actually learns how good solid research is conducted. Myself included.Technology/Innovation SkillsMy background was in Biomedical Engineering before I went to medical school. Upon going there, I practically lost it all. I found that quite a few of my classmates didn’t even know how to operate computers beyond the basic everyday usage, to the point that every time there was an I.T. issue (such as the projector shutting down) I was called to the front of the class to help fix the issue. Why would doctors need to know anything about technology? Well in an industry where our medical technology continues to grow at such a rapid pace, it would be good for doctors to at least understand how an x-ray, CT scanner, MRI, and Ultrasound machine worked. The surgical tools used in everyday surgeries have gotten so advanced now that we can perform operations that use to take patients weeks to heal now to operations with such small incisions that they heal within a few days. Isn’t that AMAZING?! The thing is we need more doctors who can understand the technology and continue working with engineers to keep innovating! I personally did research with Biomedical Engineers and Doctors during my time in medical school and the #1 frustration I kept hearing from both sides was “Ugh the Engineers don’t understand what us doctors need” and “Ugh the Doctors are so demanding, don’t understand anything about how technology is now.” Hence an interesting gap was born in my eyes.Interestingly enough Texas A&M University has plans to create such a program in creating “Physician Engineers”. If you are interested check it out here: Texas A&M planning to create medical school for physician engineers at Houston Methodist HospitalHealth PolicyMy school was located smack dab in the heart of Washington D.C. the nations capital. Health policy is currently an optional track program where students can actually go to Capitol Hill and get very very involved if they want to. This was an amazing opportunity offered. But again I stress this is OPTIONAL. This freaks me out because a lot of people graduating from medical school don’t know anything about how health policy works, how it is lobbied, and how to make change. This explains why there aren’t that many doctors on Capitol Hill.The scarier thing for me is that to this day…I DON’T COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND HOW HEALTH INSURANCE WORKS. And I ran the student run clinic at my institution. We often deferred to the social workers or the business department of the hospital. We are never taught how expensive different medications are, how patients get billed, how we can lower costs for patients in general. Heck we don’t even know the different policies, restrictions, and costs it takes to run a clinic or hospital. Again. This is optional. Shocking because I always shuddered at this question I would often get asked from patients “Do you take my health insurance? If not where can I go or what can I do? Because I really need help now.”How to find a job if one decides to do anything other than directly become a practicing physicianTo give everyone some statistics (and these numbers come from the National Residency Match Program a.k.a NRMP themselves and you can see them here: Press Release: Results of 2016 NRMP Main Residency Match Largest on Record as Match Continues to Grow). Over the last four years there has been a 10.6% increase in the number of U.S. Allopathic Medical Students graduating. Hitting an all time high of 18,668! Such a wonderful accomplishment that we should be proud of! Especially with the incoming doctor shortage that the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has done studies on in 2016 estimating a shortage of 61,700-94,700 physicians by 2025. (If you are interested look here: GME Funding and Physician Workforce). Now here is the other issue. We are opening more medical schools, but the RESIDENCY (doctors in training) positions are not growing as quickly. Take a look at this image:This is published data from the latest match which you can look at here if you are interested: http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Main-Match-Results-and-Data-2016.pdfNotice how the two lines aren’t getting closer together? Well the purple line is the number of doctors in training positions available. The green line is the number of people who graduated with M.D.s whether from this country or not applying for those spots. So we keep making more schools and having more potential applicants, but we aren’t increasing the number of spots available for training which is a required part of training doctors. I think we can all see the problem here. Still not convinced? Take a look at this graph:Registered Applicants up 1,036. Active applicants (those who got interviews and went to interview then selected a list of places they wanted to go to) up 571. Program positions? Up 538. Notice it’s smaller than those first two numbers. Active Seniors 18,187 up from last year. Matched Seniors 17,057 up from last year. % Positions filled by Seniors 61.2% DOWN from last year. Also take notice that the number of active seniors went up 162, but the number of matched seniors went up 125. That’s 37 seniors lacking in matching. Critics will say that there are numerous factors for this, and I whole-heartedly agree, but where the heck are these seniors going? In addition isn’t it worrisome that there are 1,130 UNMATCHED seniors??? This is only U.S. graduates, not even including those from Doctors of Osteopathic Medical Schools, U.S. citizens trying to come home from Carribbean Schools, and International Medical Graduates. For which the numbers are far worse and can hover down to 40–50%.Now what are these seniors suppose to do in the mean time or if they want to do something related to medicine but not be a clinical physician? Unfortunately having an M.D. degree doesn’t qualify you for a wide range of jobs that something like an M.B.A might qualify you for. At least not that I am aware of (I would love for someone with insight to comment on this), but from personal experience myself it is hard to figure out what jobs I can get with an M.D. degree solely because my education has only trained me to be a doctor. There is so much talent wasted, and there is so much about the healthcare field that needs to be fixed that I am shocked there isn’t more education and resources to get these graduates to other jobs/opportunities that can help the healthcare field in general. I am saying this after I spoke to 12 different physicians AND after going to my career center at my institution who could not advise me on what I could do with just an M.D. degree other than go to residency. Scary and disheartening if I do say so myself.7. How to stay physically healthy and have good mental hygieneIn medical school you are constantly under a stressful environment. This is something that no one ever seems to talk about. There was a survey based study done by Goebert et al. which showed that of more than 2,000 medical students and residents surveyed who responded (with an 89% response rate) 12% had probably MAJOR depression and 9.2% had probably mild/moderate depression. (study here: Depressive symptoms in medical students and residents: a multischool study.) Now this study isn’t perfect, and there are numerous flaws with a survey based design such as response bias, but the fact that 21.2% of medical students and residents had potential DEPRESSION with some having suicidal ideation should worry all of us. Having an incidence of disease of 5% makes the entire medical community react, why not 21.2%? The one phrase that medical schools LOVE saying is “Welcome. You will now be learning as if you are drinking from a fire hose.” I personally hate that phrase and think there is something fundamentally wrong with how you are teaching when that is how you start off your educational journey.It is estimated that about 300–400 physicians die annually from suicide. That is an average that means that about one doctor will die A DAY from a preventable cause. Which personally scares me. Especially since we are always talking about the “Physician Shortage.” The new CDC report notes that: “In 1999, the age-adjusted rate of suicide was 10.5 per 100,000 of the population. In 2014, it was 13.0, representing an overall rise of 24% The rate increased by 1% per year from 1999-2006, and then doubled to 2% after that” That means that each year there are 41,457 suicides in the United States alone (I used the current 2014 population data of the US having 318.9 million people). Mental health is extremely important. Poor mental hygiene costs lives. To put this into perspective a little bit Ebola in 2014 costed 4,033 deaths according to the CDC. That means more than 10 times the number of people are killing themselves each year. (And please note, I am not claiming that suicide is any more or less devastating than Ebola, lives lost are all equally saddening to me). (Here are links for these topics: Medical student suicide: It's impact is devastating. This case proves it., petition: Stop the suicide epidemic in medical schools and residency programs!). Physician Burn-out is very real, and something that many people are trying to work on.8. The actual entire process of what is expected to happen into medical school and residency and beyondThis to me is the funniest thing that ends up happening in medical school which is something that I have heard from numerous sources. Many just had to sort of figure out how medical school plays out as they went along. When we all enter medical school many of us didn’t know that there was a licensing examination that was broken up into 3 parts that is needed before we are allowed to practice (Step 1, Step 2, Step 3). And for those that did, they weren’t sure of when those tests would be taken, unless they were fortunate enough to have someone in the family who had been through the process before. In addition, many of us are not informed that you need to know what kind of doctor you want to be by the end of 3rd year because you have to know before you apply for residency since it is a large headache to switch from one specialty to another and it can even be nearly impossible to (for example if you wanted to switch from a primary care practice of family medicine to Orthopedic surgery or Ophthalmology). Most of us learn of these things either from the school or through word of mouth as we are going along. Mainly because we are so overwhelmed with trying to learn the medical knowledge, trying to plot your career path for the rest of our lives is something most of us aren’t even thinking about…but we should be because well…it’s the career path for the REST OF OUR LIVES. Note this may sound grossly exaggerated, but ask any doctor how hard it is to switch from one specialty field to another in the case interest changes, and you will be surprised at how hard it truly is. I have met very motivated physicians who really wanted to switch and basically had to start back at square one as a resident physician and work their way back up, that is if they get into any of the already limited residency positions.These are a few of the personal things that I have observed are missing. Again this is MY personal experience with MY institution, I can’t say that this is how it feels everywhere, but I have spoken to numerous friends at at least 10 different institutions who agree that they felt the same way as well. This includes individuals who decided to leave medical school altogether because of some of these issues.Phew, now this was an extremely extremely long post. I hope that it was at least somewhat helpful, thank you for reading all the way through. If I came off as just a complainer, I apologize because that is not what I wanted to do at all. These are observations that I have made as someone who is extremely passionate about education with an extensive background in it. I am personally trying to find a job in medical education as well currently so that I hope to be able to make some changes to the field. If anyone has any comments or questions please don’t hesitate to ask! I love to answer :)Thanks again for reading and have a great one! It would mean so much to me if you could up-vote this post and share it as well if you find it helpful because I really want to shed more light on the path to becoming a doctor and the medical system in general. It is such an important topic for even those who don’t want to be doctors to understand since we all eventually get involved in the medical system one way or another.Thank you so much once again.

What is it that conservatives are afraid of about a Joe Biden presidency?I wanted to write this answer much earlier, but I decided to hold off on doing so until the Texas Lawsuit played out. Now that it has and the end of 2020 is approaching, it appears to be all but certain that Biden will be sworn into office as the 46th President of the United States of America 21 days from now.. Thus, I would like to provide my take fears of a Joe Biden Presidency and what it will entail and more than likely what will soon become a Kamala Harris Presidency..As a Social & Cultural Conservative, I cannot help but be absolutely terrified by what the incoming Democratic Administration has planned for America and abroad. The real question one should be asking here isn’t what is it that Conservatives are afraid of about a Joe Biden Presidency, but rather what is it that conservatives couldn’t be afraid of coming out of a Joe Biden Presidency?Because there is plenty to fear about a Biden Presidency and I will lay it out full here, from his domestic & foreign policy plans to what the impact his years in office may very well have on American society culture and politics as well as the global impact of it all going forward.What a lot of people do not understand is that Joe Biden is by no means a moderate at all. He has lurched to the hard left along with the rest of the Democratic Party and this is not even my opinion, its an absolute fact. In order to get the Socialists on his side, he decided to unite with Bernie Sanders and create what is known as the Biden-Sanders Unity Taskforce.See here: https://joebiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/UNITY-TASK-FORCE-RECOMMENDATIONS.pdfIt is a 110 page document that tell you all that you need to know about what Biden’s domestic policy will look like, especially should the Democrats take the Senate on January 5th (but more on that later). This document, as Mark Levin put it, reads just like the Constitution of the USSR.Some of the answers below have already covered much of what this entails, but I would like to expand on it a bit more.This leads me to covering what I fear coming out of Biden’s Presidency on the domestic front. Starting with:Massive Amnesty followed by free healthcare and entitlement to welfare programs for over 11 Million Illegal AliensIt’s pretty obvious what they’re trying to do here, after all the Democrats have been trying to accomplish transforming the demographic makeup of America since the 1960s at least. I have seen this happen before in my lifetime and what it has done to my country as large, especially my home state of California, which is now an iron-fisted one-party state that has been getting more fascistic each passing year. This is because most immigrants who come into this country, especially Latin American immigrants come here mainly for a better quality living, but they vote for the same socialist policies that ruined their countries which caused them to move out in the first place.Both Pew Research and the Center for Immigration Studies did excellent analyses on the voting patterns of Latin American Immigrants:Images Courtesy of CIS.org[1][1][1][1]Images courtesy of Pew Research Center[2][2][2][2]There is a substantial amount of more surveys that have been done by both non-partisan groups in the last five years alone that detail what mass immigration does the the U.S, especially if there is no assimilation. And Joe Biden himself said in an interview with Lester Holt on NBC News that he wants to “pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people in America.”Full interview here:Video courtesy of NBCSimply put, if the Democrats are unable to change the minds of voters, then they will replace them or rather import people who will be more keen on voting for their radical agenda, for the ends justify the means. No other country in the world that I can think of does anything of this sort, except for my country. Immigration was the signature issue that Trump ran on in 2016 and the most important issue for many Conservatives such as I who know what it will do to America.What I fear here is that Biden and the Democratic Party at large may very well succeed in achieving desired result with or without their party in control of the Senate as many Republican Senators are already hinting that they may work with Biden on this issue. South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham aka Grahamnesty is one of the more vocal proponents for this already… as is Mitch McConnell, after all that’s what the GOP Establishment is known for, selling out their base and making deals with Democrats no matter the consequences…The Democratic Party are bent on turning America into a one-party country and they are on the precipice of doing so, especially with a massive new amnesty to illegal aliens. Since the early 1990s, states that were once either Red States or swing states have been going Blue, falling like dominos to the Democrats and should this amnesty happen, not only will it be the largest amnesty ever passed, not only will America have to focus on taking care of 11+ million new people that could have dire consequences for the economy, our healthcare system and more, but it will all but guarantee that no Republican will ever will the presidency.2. The Green New DealAnother part of the Biden-Sanders Unity Taskforce plan. I cannot stress what this will do to the U.S. economy and the country at large. This whole thing from top to bottom is plain and simple an abomination. This makes the Square Deal, New Freedom, New Deal, Fair Deal and Great Society all look like small stimulus bills by comparison.Now, you might think that stuff such as “safe, affordable, adequate housing” for every American citizen sounds nice right? Well, the question boils down to this: WHO IS GOING TO BE PAYING FOR THIS?Certainly not the government, its the American taxpayer! But want to know what else is in this insane, bloated monstrosity?Elimination of nuclear energy. So all of the nuclear power is to be eliminated 11 years from now. This would purge approximately 19.6%[3][3][3][3] of American energy that’s generated, rendering Americans reliant on windmills again.. nice!Then there’s the elimination of all fossil fuels! THIS IS WHAT KEEPS AMERICA ALIVE ECONOMICALLY! Oil and Natural Gas are to be eliminated under the Green New Deal and what’s going to become of the big industries of Oil and Natural Gas? The people who are currently employed by these companies? Where will they go for work? They won’t be finding a job with decent pay to feed their families anytime soon now will they?OH WAIT! That’s right! They will get a Government Guaranteed job under the Green New Deal, all pre-packaged with a “family-sustaining wage, family and medical leave, vacations, and a pension.”So, this will keep people reliant on the government for their entire lives. No more private sector, all power to the state… but again the question goes back to WHO IS GOING TO BE PAYING FOR ALL OF THIS!?I could go on about their plan to make a “highspeed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary.”, free college and the elimination of most cars in this country, but I’ve pretty much summed up most of it.With the two Senate seats in Georgia on the precipice of falling to the Democrats, thus giving them either a majority or having Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker in the Senate each and every time, I have little doubt that the Democratic Party will attempt to ram this through and with a few RINOs in the Senate to go along with them, I fear that they will most likely succeed in achieving this as well..3. The “Medicare for All” or rather “Medicare for None” plan..The Progressives have long sought to implement a universal, single-payer healthcare system that will replace the current free-market system as we know it. I shouldn’t have to even explain why this won’t work for America. Even in the Nordic countries that Democrats now praise so much, the citizens there still have to pay out of pocket and not as universal as people would like to think.[4][4][4][4]But that doesn’t stop the Democratic Party from wanting to implement a full government run-healthcare plan. It’s all for control over every aspect of our lives, all down to what we eat practically.Bernie Sanders had quite a different and more rational view on Single-Payer healthcare decades back. In fact, here’s what he had to say about it in an interview back in 1987:Of course, today he sings a different tune and while it may not happen under a Joe Biden Presidency, it may very well happen under a Kamala Harris Presidency.. especially should the Democrats take the Senate next year, which leads me to my next biggest fear.4. A Kamala Harris PresidencyOne that will happen not long after Biden takes office I’m afraid. There’s a reason why Pelosi brought up the 25th Amendment months back and it wasn’t for Trump, it was to be used against Biden should he win the election and take office. They know full-well that Biden isn’t as coherent or cognitively there as he was just 4–6 years ago. They knew the only way to get a radical Neo-Marxist into the Oval Office was by having him or her run as VP on a “moderate” ticket.Hence, Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris:Image of harris.senate.govFormerly a Senator from California who has the most Progressive i.e. Left-leaning voting record in the United States Senate, who has far more radical views than both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren was chosen as Biden’s VP.Biden was the trojan horse for something much worse! Hence, should Kamala Harris get into office, she will without a doubt govern like a Neo-Marxist and implement the most radical agenda possible with either a third of it or two-thirds of it depending on which party holds congress 2 years from now.She will, as Biden has already stated he will do, re-join the Paris Climate Accord on day one. Should DACA be reinstated as well, then she will only expand on it and codify it into law with the help of Congress soon enough.She’ll also weaponize the IRA, FBI, CIA and the rest of the government institutions against all dissenting groups i.e. Conservative activist groups and spy on the Republican Party and possibly use these institutions for much more than that. We saw a bit of this during the Obama years with the IRS Scandal and the Fusion GPS Scandal, known by many as #ObamaGate, but we can only imagine how much worse this will get under a Harris Administration.A President Kamala Harris will push to defund the police nationwide and have it replaced “community-based, unarmed emergency responders”. We saw attempts at this made in several cities and counties across the country from Los Angeles to most notably Minneapolis.[5][5][5][5]Without a doubt, she will try to assert and consolidate power in a manner not seen since the era of Woodrow Wilson. She’s the worst-case scenario that I fear to come out of a Biden Presidency.Aside from this, there are other major issues that I fear will happen under a Biden Presidency (or a Harris Presidency).5. Packing the Supreme Court and SenateOne of the major issues that was brought up during the 2020 United States Presidential Election was the issue of Court Packing. You see, since President Trump already managed to get three justices on the Supreme Court who would typically rule to the right of previous justices (excluding Scalia), the Democratic Party along with their nominees, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have sought to pack the courts.Now, many will go on to say that Biden is against court packing and that he won’t attempt to do it. But if that were so, then why couldn’t he give a straight answer to the media about this? It’s really not a hard answer to give after all, but alas he told everyone that voters don’t deserve to know his position on court packing. See video below:Video courtesy of http://KTNV.comShould the Democrats take the two Georgia Senate seats during the January 5th runoffs, they will take the Senate as mentioned before. But that’s not all! After that, they will with Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker eliminate the filibuster rule so that way, nothing will stop them. They will cram everything into a bill and ram it through without any real opposition and Biden, being controlled by his puppet-masters in the White House will pretty much sign each and every legislation that gets to his desk and a possible amendment to add seats to the SCOTUS is certainly one of them.On top of that, they will make the attempt to add both Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. as the 51st and 52nd states of the United States respectively. But it won’t be for the sake of statehood, but for power, power, power and more power because that’s what the Left is all about! Biden (or Harris) will be more than happy to sign off on this, giving his party 4 extra Senate seats, thus giving the Democrats a permanent lock on the Senate and perhaps more than that as they will be able to legislate whatever their heart’s desire.. which will be nightmarish.5. More Bureaucratic Lawmaking based around “The Science” and COVID-19.I’m afraid that under Biden, the laws based around containing COVID-19 will only get much worse. Both on the local, state and definitely the federal level. Already, we’ve seen these lockdowns get worse in states such as New York, Michigan and especially California where they have implemented a new “Stay at Home Order”.Here’s what the California Department of Public Health posted on Twitter:The stay-at-home orders for San Joaquin Valley and Southern California are being extended.We must continue to do our part to protect each other by engaging in fewer activities with fewer people, keeping masks on anytime you leave the house, and staying home. pic.twitter.com/6mFVYdHeAa— CA Public Health (@CAPublicHealth) December 29, 2020And of course there are numerous scientific studies that have shown that these lockdowns have been proven not to work at all. In fact, they only make the virus spread more:Image courtesy of the COVID Tracking Report.Of course, this won’t stop the likes of Fauci & Birx with their pseudo-science or the Democrats in power from imposing more laws that are blatantly unconstitutional. Already, Biden has called for a federal mask-mandate as he said and to quote from him:"I'm absolutely convinced that in 100 days we can change the course of the disease and change life in America for the better. My first 100 days, I'm going to ask for a masking plan. Everyone for the first 100 days of my administration to wear a mask,"[6][6][6][6]And of course, he’s going to achieve this goal by executive fiat, which is also BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL!This is terrifying to say the least! How long will these lockdowns last? Will everyone be required to get a mandatory vaccine which may or may not work? Will the American people be forced to wear a mask and be cooped up in their houses for not months, but years to come because the government said so?I could go on and on about this. Because it would appear that in many cases we are seeing totalitarianism in the form of scientific fascism rise in the United States and there isn’t much resistance to it and with a Biden Presidency, it will only get worse and not just in the case of liberties and personal freedoms being taken away, but also we may bear-witness a greater loss of jobs which will result in the worst Great Depression in American History.And this is just half of what I am afraid of about a Joe Biden Presidency.. what could go wrong with more COVID lockdowns and restrictions or worse, a Second Great Depression?What could go wrong..? We already got a taste of it back in July of 2020, which leads me to the next topic:6. Emboldening of Antifa, BLM and violent riots nationwide.For the last four years at least, we have seen a rise in radical leftist groups such as the Antifa and BLM. Both of them are Marxist groups which have many sympathizers within the Democratic Party.We have seen the destruction they have wrought in Berkeley back in 2017, we saw what they did back in Minneapolis and across the whole nation back in July of this year as well as in Portland as recently as last month:Image Courtesy of Getty ImagesVideo credited to KGW NewsIn America, most of the media outlets (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, NYT, WP, etc.) and some members of the Democratic Party as well as even the Republican Party (Mitt Romney in particular) have all either kept quiet about these militant groups or have openly praised them twice or more.We can expect these groups to grow even more under a Biden administration. Especially Antifa which has a firm foothold on college campuses, all federally funded of course. Instead of them being designated a terrorist organization like how the Trump Administration should’ve done, but ultimately didn’t, we’ll most likely see them becoming emboldened now.I guarantee that people will become more fearful of going outside in the big cities as the rise of what is known as Anarcho-Tyranny will continue to grow. Hence the exodus from them going on.Of course, we can’t help but give Big Tech credit for promoting these groups. After all, they have recently been doing a lot of dirty work lately at home and abroad. Hence another fear I have.7. No reigning in of the Big Tech IndustryBig Tech, from Twitter, Facebook and Google has grown to a point where it’s become a virtual monopoly over the American free market. They have gained so much power and influence as it has been shown in our daily lives. The American Youth (my generation in particular) uses many of the Big Tech platforms quite often and usually get their news and information in general from it.However, the Big Tech companies these days like to pretend that they aren’t platforms, but publishers instead. They have continued to censor dissenting voices and opinions on their platforms, usually coming from the Right and skew the newsfeed to the Left. As a matter of fact, in a recent survey conducted by the Media Research Center showed that in the key swing states (Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin) We found that roughly 82% of Biden voters weren’t informed of the scandals surrounding Biden or Trump’s success. [7][7][7][7]Full survey shown here: https://cdn.mrc.org/TPC-MRC+Biden+Voter+Messaging+Survey+Analysis+Nov+2020_final.pdfThis election, all of Big Tech weaponized their platforms by silencing stories about Hunter Biden, the dealings with China and more. They also donated millions to the Democrats this year. Here’s just a couple graph of how much they donated and to whom:Twitter:Facebook:Both images courtesy of the Media Research CenterThere’s more of course! YouTube has created a new policy about the 2020 election in which they will have any videos that go against what is “stated fact” about the election taken down. That will kickstart next year.Big Tech has gotten so out of control to the point where the Department of Justice has finally filed against Google in an antitrust suit a couple months back.[8][8][8][8] More than 40 states have allegedly filed another antitrust suit against Facebook as well.[9][9][9][9]Time is of the essence I’m afraid and unless the DOJ and the states themselves can manage to rein in Big Tech in the next month or so, then I fear that under a Biden administration, this will only get worse and of course, why would Biden or Harris want to rein in Big Tech at all? I mean, the entire industry pours in huge sums of money to them and shills for them constantly and their shenanigans effect other countries abroad as well.They also have quite a liking to China as many of their employees come from either that country or India. Speaking of which, another thing to be afraid of about a Joe Biden Presidency is…9. Empowerment of China and other enemies abroad.The Democrats have had a habit of shilling for authoritarian regimes in the past, even though they’ve accused Republicans of shilling and colluding with Russia for the past four years.Turns out that the Democratic Party as well as Big Tech and Universities are practically bought and paid for by the CCP! Let’s review what we have on our list shall we?Diane Feinstein’s personal aid was a Chinese Spy.Eric Swalwell slept with a Chinese Spy known as Christine Fang.[10]Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Chinese firms.[11]Joe Biden’s latest cabinet picks, all of whom are Chinese appeasers: Antony Blinken, Avril Haines, John Kerry just to name but a few.The Confucius Institutes which arguably have bought off many universities (which are in turn very pro-Democrat) in the United States and around the globe.[12]As a bonus: Facebook’s “Hate-Speech Engineering” team includes at least half a dozen foreign nationals recruited from communist China.[13]This is just a short list of what could get MUCH worse under a Biden Administration. After all, it would appear that Joe Biden was truly the Manchurian Candidate for Xi Jinping and God forbid what the next four years will look like with China on the rise while America is pretty much a de-facto satellite of the Red Giant! And should Kamala Harris assume office not long after Biden, then the Chinese are all but guaranteed to become empowered via more appeasement and deal-making with the Chinese.Of course, there are other countries that will benefit from a Biden Presidency as well! Most notably Iran which will likely get a nuclear weapon in the near future thanks to Biden pledging to rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal..[14][14][14][14]Guess Biden doesn’t recall how the North Korean Nuclear Deal went, now does he? Then again, he’s not all there anymore and it will be aides inside the White House, including the incoming VP Kamala Harris controlling him.But this all leads to something else that I am most deeply afraid of about a Joe Biden Presidency. That being:10. A greater Cultural and Societal Shift to the Left, both in America and Globally..I have quite a lot to say about this as aside from massive amnesty to illegal aliens, empowerment of enemies abroad and a potential Kamala Harris Presidency, this very issue is what I am afraid of most of all about a Joe Biden PresidencyOver the last decade alone, I have witnessed my country go from being a country that held both Socially Conservative Values (Right) and Libertarian-Progressive values (Left) to Moderately Liberal Values (Right) and Neo-Marxist Values (Left)…From the rise of the Social Justice to Gay Marriage to Trans Rights (even for CHILDREN), Abortion on Demand and some states such as Virginia and New York having what is known as “abortion after birth”, I fear that under a Joe Biden Presidency, all of this will get so much worse.The Mainstream media bias will only increase and as much as people say in surveys such as Pew Research that they don’t trust the media, most Americans still do one way or another. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be watching or reading from the same sources they supposedly distrust..Along with Big Tech as I covered earlier in point #7, the Media as well as Academia is predominantly left-leaning with some of the most radical voices and radical ideas coming from them. They have been responsible for the cultural and societal shift to the Left via the Overton Window.Most Young people in the U.S. have for decades been more liberal than their elders, but these days they are more Left-leaning and radical than they’ve ever been before. Not too long ago, a little over a decade ago I believe it was when my people of generation were patriotic and loving of their country, not anymore…Now, thanks to the relentless and constant indoctrination by the Media, Social Media and Academia with revisionist history such as the infamous The 1619 Project (Published 2019) being taught in American schools, including the very college that I attend, Young People have become hateful and resentful of their country, believing it to be a country founded on systemic racism and oppression. Hence, it needs to be “fundamentally transformed” as Obama famously said back in 2008.Just to detail how radical of a change Young People in America have gone through, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation released a poll last year detailing just how radical of a change both Millennials and Zoomers (Gen Z) have gone through.According to the survey conducted: “Communism is viewed favorably by more than one-in-three Millennials (36%), up 8 points from 2018. 70% of Millennials say that they are likely to vote for a Socialist”. Meanwhile only 57% of Millennials believe that the Declaration of Independence better guarantees freedom and equality” over the Communist Manifesto…[15][15][15][15]There were a couple of other surveys that showed that Millennials and Gen Z would rather live in either a Communist or a Fascist country over a Democratic one such as the United States. This is how radicalized the American Youth have become. And I don’t even need to explain much about Social Conservatism among my generation or religiosity for that matter. After all, both Religion and Social Conservatism are practically on life-support among the American Youth, if not dead already..[16][16][16][16]This graph[17][17][17][17]below says it all:Image courtesy of NBC NewsAnother one from Gallup[18][18][18][18]Image courtesy of news.gallup.comThis all boils down to two questions:Will the incoming President Joe Biden and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris do ANYTHING to stop this? Will they try to steer the tide away from rising anti-Americanism among the Youth to a return to patriotism like they used to have?The answer to that is a resounding NO! Why? Because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both work for a Party that has become increasingly Neo-Marxist and seeks to fundamentally alter the society and culture at large as it has been for the last decade now!Of course, it’s not like this has been a recent phenomenon as the Progressive Movement at large has been trying to do this for the last 130 years now (more about that in a future answer), but it will most certainly accelerate at a VERY rapid pace under a Joe Biden Presidency, hence this is what I am afraid most of all about his presidency and what I will truly fear under a Kamala Harris Presidency should that happen.Moreover, it’s not like the Left under Biden and Harris is simply going to stop with America. They will partner with the Left around the world as they always have and pressure countries that are still socially/culturally conservative and religious into capitulation, so they too will soon become just like the United States (or rather, their version of America).As a matter of fact, the incoming administration already has developed some of their plans for what they want for the world on the cultural front. One of which is a “PLAN TO ADVANCE LGBTQ+ EQUALITY IN AMERICA AND AROUND THE WORLD”Yes! That’s correct! Straight from their own website too: The Biden Plan to Advance LGBTQ+ Equality in America and Around the World | Joe Biden for President: Official Campaign WebsiteWhat’s sad is that not only will this was all made possible not just by the Left’s relentlessness and playing the long game, but the Conservative Movement and the Right in general and their inability to truly push back against ANY of this. Culturally, conservatives have always been... conservative. They’d rather not fight. They play defense, if they play anything at all.As a Conservative pundit famously said: “The fatal flaw of conservatism is its baffling inability to defend itself. It is a sight to behold.”At this point in time, I fear that its too late for Conservatives to fight back now, because if any of the big things that I have listed here come to fruition under a Biden/Harris administration, then the GOP is done for and no other political party will be able to challenge the Democrats either.It’s a sad sight to behold indeed, speaking as a Social Conservative who has longed for America to return to what it used to be just a little over a decade ago. How we will be able to win again is simply beyond me..So in conclusion, I have laid down all that I, a Conservative and many other Conservatives are afraid of about a Joe Biden Presidency. It’s going to be a nightmare for four or possibly eight years and I honestly am not willing to put up with it. Not this time around that is.As I have mentioned before on Quora (may it be in comments or a post), I intend I'm planning on moving to either Ukraine or Poland next year to teach English after I graduate from college.Of course, I am wary of the latter as based off of what I’ve been hearing about it lately, that country may fall to the Progressivism in a few years from now, thus I don't want to move from one country that has already a secular, progressive controlled populace with a Youth that’s predominantly left as I mentioned above to one that is on the precipice of sharing the same fate as my country in this respect. Thus, Ukraine seems to be a better option at this point in time.Regardless, I’m just not willing to wait out another four to eight years of potential Progressive dominance in the United States. Hence, I’ll be overseas in the meantime. 😁Footnotes[1] Immigration's Impact on Republican Political Prospects, 1980 to 2012[1] Immigration's Impact on Republican Political Prospects, 1980 to 2012[1] Immigration's Impact on Republican Political Prospects, 1980 to 2012[1] Immigration's Impact on Republican Political Prospects, 1980 to 2012[2] The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the U.S. Electorate[2] The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the U.S. Electorate[2] The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the U.S. Electorate[2] The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the U.S. Electorate[3] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)[3] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)[3] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)[3] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)[4] Overview of the Healthcare Systems in the Nordic Countries[4] Overview of the Healthcare Systems in the Nordic Countries[4] Overview of the Healthcare Systems in the Nordic Countries[4] Overview of the Healthcare Systems in the Nordic Countries[5] Minneapolis City Council Unanimously Votes To Replace Police With Community-Led Model[5] Minneapolis City Council Unanimously Votes To Replace Police With Community-Led Model[5] Minneapolis City Council Unanimously Votes To Replace Police With Community-Led Model[5] Minneapolis City Council Unanimously Votes To Replace Police With Community-Led Model[6] Biden to impose mask mandate on day one of presidency by executive order[6] Biden to impose mask mandate on day one of presidency by executive order[6] Biden to impose mask mandate on day one of presidency by executive order[6] Biden to impose mask mandate on day one of presidency by executive order[7] SPECIAL REPORT: The Stealing of the Presidency, 2020[7] SPECIAL REPORT: The Stealing of the Presidency, 2020[7] SPECIAL REPORT: The Stealing of the Presidency, 2020[7] SPECIAL REPORT: The Stealing of the Presidency, 2020[8] Justice Department Sues Monopolist Google For Violating Antitrust Laws[8] Justice Department Sues Monopolist Google For Violating Antitrust Laws[8] Justice Department Sues Monopolist Google For Violating Antitrust Laws[8] Justice Department Sues Monopolist Google For Violating Antitrust Laws[9] U.S. states plan to sue Facebook next week: sources[9] U.S. states plan to sue Facebook next week: sources[9] U.S. states plan to sue Facebook next week: sources[9] U.S. states plan to sue Facebook next week: sources[10] Here’s What We Know About Rep. Swalwell’s Connection To A Suspected Chinese Spy[11] Emails reveal how Hunter Biden tried to cash in big on behalf of family with Chinese firm[12] Confucius Institutes: The growth of China's controversial cultural branch[13] Meet your (Chinese) Facebook censors[14] Biden Wants to Rejoin Iran Nuclear Deal, but It Won’t Be Easy[14] Biden Wants to Rejoin Iran Nuclear Deal, but It Won’t Be Easy[14] Biden Wants to Rejoin Iran Nuclear Deal, but It Won’t Be Easy[14] Biden Wants to Rejoin Iran Nuclear Deal, but It Won’t Be Easy[15] 2019 Annual Poll | Victims of Communism[15] 2019 Annual Poll | Victims of Communism[15] 2019 Annual Poll | Victims of Communism[15] 2019 Annual Poll | Victims of Communism[16] In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace[16] In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace[16] In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace[16] In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace[17] Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most [17] Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most [17] Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most [17] Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most [18] American Pride Hits New Low; Few Proud of Political System[18] American Pride Hits New Low; Few Proud of Political System[18] American Pride Hits New Low; Few Proud of Political System[18] American Pride Hits New Low; Few Proud of Political System

Q. Can someone give me a basic overview of the Vietnam War?A. Very good answer on Quora. Updated Aug 11, 2014Vietnam War Timeline (interactive timeline)AnonymousDisclaimer: I am a Vietnamese nationalist.First Indochina War (Background)19th century: France colonized Vietnam, controlled its Royal Court.Vietnamese resistance to French colonialism1930: Ho Chi Minh started Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) and enlisted communism bloc support, forming Viet Minh in 1940s, an unifying alliance (Party members and non-members farmers, workers, intellectuals in Vietnam) fighting against France colonization.1945: Followed the ending of WWII, Vietnam’s people overthrew France and Japan (for a time in WWII Japan took over and formed the State of Vietnam with Bao Dai as King) and became independent. But France returned shortly afterward.France gained control of Indochina—Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, in the late 1800's, Japan occupied Indochina during most of World War II (1939-1945).1954: After decisive fall of Dien Bien Phu, Geneva Agreements was signed, which stated that Viet Minh and State of Vietnam would respectively regroup its forces at the north and south of Vietnam, partitioning at 17th parallel, ceasing fire and Vietnam would hold election within 2 years to find her leaders.Dien Bien Phu surrenderHowever, Party from Southern State of Vietnam (Royal Court)'s Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem, an anti-communist officer who was previously deemed by France regimes as incompetent but appointed by King Bao Dai because of his political popularity in American with religion (Catholic) support, did not sign the Accord.Second Indochina War - American WarNov 1955: Ngo Dinh Diem overthrew Bảo Đại and through fraud election formed Republic of Vietnam in the south with him as President, noting that South delegates had never signed Geneva Accord. This government is supported by U.S. with intention of stopping communism from spreading, opposing North Vietnam government, known as Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and NLF (National Liberation Front) a southern league backed by North Vietnam, starting what would be known as Vietnam War with U.S. involvement, most notably in this time is Strategic Hamlet Program in 1961 - 1965.President Ngo Dinh Diem1963: U.S. is tired of Ngo Dinh Diem failure in many governing policies, led to a coup d'état by Duong Van Minh, a general at the time, followed by several coups. But despite political instability, U.S. policies about Vietnam changed with Lyndon president, with Gulf of Tonkin incident and eventually led to direct involvement of U.S. soldiers.American Combat troopsAir Cav1968: NLF and North Vietnam launched Tet offensive in 3 phases, succeeding in phase 1 and 2 of taking over key cities but failed after counterattacks of Republic of Vietnam and U.S. troops. However, this offensive did wake U.S. of Soviet-supported North Vietnam military capability and the risky state of U.S. army in the country, and changed its strategies to Vietnamize the war (1969 - 1972) in Nixon presidency, withdrew U.S. troops and enlisted local people for the war with military advisers from U.S.Losing popular support1972: After performing bombing Operation Linebacker II but could not make North Vietnam changed its stand in Paris Peace Accords, U.S. is forced to sign the Accords, effectively ending U.S. direct involvement in Vietnam, leaving only arm and economic support to Southern Republic of Vietnam.Operation Linebacker II1975: North Vietnam and NLF launched Nguyen Hue campaign, took over Saigon and unified the country, finally ended the Vietnam War in military perspective. However, U.S. put strong embargoes on Vietnam, isolated its economy.Personnel push a UH-1 Iroquois off the deck of USS Kirk at the close of the Vietnam War.Final evacuation1995: U.S. and Vietnam finally normalized their economic and diplomatic relationships.Reviews:On the surface, people saw Vietnam War as a civil one, except for 1963 - 1972, when U.S. troops did appear in Vietnam, but in effect, the war raged on from 1954 - 1975 (and economically afterward).Internationally, people recognized Vietnam War as a proxy of Cold War between Soviet bloc (North Vietnam supported) and U.S. (South Vietnam supported).Lasting effect:Agent Orange: a chemical used by U.S. in the war, causing gene deformation lasting several generations for both Vietnam and U.S. veterans.Vietnam Syndrome: a state of detachment from military intervention in other countries after the failure of Vietnam War in U.S.Refugees: 1 million sought refuge in U.S. and Canada.Vietnam War History - Vietnam War - HISTORY.comARTICLEVIDEOSPICTURESSPEECHESINTERACTIVESVietnamWhether they volunteered or were drafted, 1 out of 10 soldiers were injured or killed during Vietnam.The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The war began in 1954 (though conflict in the region stretched back to the mid-1940s), after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and continued against the backdrop of an intense Cold War between two global superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War; more than half were Vietnamese civilians. By 1969, at the peak of U.S. involvement in the war, more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the Vietnam conflict. Growing opposition to the war in the United States led to bitter divisions among Americans, both before and after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. In 1975, communist forces seized control of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.Nixon Addresses VideoOn the heels of a major nationwide protest against the Vietnam War in October 1969, President Richard Nixon delivers a speech on November 3, laying out his plans for ending the war through diplomatic negotiations and asking for the support of the "great silent majority" of Americans.Tank Platoon Leader VideoA curious daughter, Stacy Houston, views the films of her Vietnam veteran father, Skip Weber, and his tank platoon for the very first time.ROOTS OF THE VIETNAM WARDuring World War II, Japan invaded and occupied Vietnam, a nation on the eastern edge of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia that had been under French administration since the late 19th century. Inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, Ho Chi Minh formed the Viet Minh, or the League for the Independence of Vietnam, to fight both Japan and the French colonial administration. Japan withdrew its forces in 1945, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bảo Đại in control of an independent Vietnam. Ho’s Viet Minh forces rose up immediately, seizing the northern city of Hanoi and declaring a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) with Ho as president.Did You Know?According to a survey by the Veterans Administration, some 500,000 of the 3 million troops who served in Vietnam suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and rates of divorce, suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction were markedly higher among veterans.Seeking to regain control of the region, France backed Bao and set up the state of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in July 1949, with Saigon as its capital. Armed conflict continued until a decisive battle at Điện Biên Phủ in May 1954 ended in French defeat by Viet Minh forces. The subsequent treaty negotiations at Geneva split Vietnam along the latitude known as the 17th parallel (with Ho in control in the North and Bao in the South) and called for nationwide elections for reunification to be held in 1956. In 1955, however, the strongly anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diempushed Bao aside to become president of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN).VIETNAM WAR: U.S. INTERVENTION BEGINSWith the Cold War intensifying, the United States hardened its policies against any allies of the Soviet Union, and by 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged his firm support to Diem and South Vietnam. With training and equipment from American military and police, Diem’s security forces cracked down on Viet Minh sympathizers in the south, whom he derisively called Viet Cong (or Vietnamese Communist), arresting some 100,000 people, many of whom were tortured and executed. By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents of Diem’s repressive regime began fighting back with attacks on government officials and other targets, and by 1959 they had begun engaging South Vietnamese Army forces in firefights.In December 1960, Diem’s opponents within South Vietnam–both communist and non-communist–formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize resistance to the regime. Though the NLF claimed to be autonomous and that most of its members were non-Communist, many in Washington assumed it was a puppet of Hanoi. A team sent by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to report on conditions in South Vietnam advised a build-up of American military, economic and technical aid in order to help confront the Viet Cong threat. Working under the “Domino theory” which held that if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, many would follow, Kennedy increased U.S. aid, though he stopped short of committing to a large-scale military intervention. By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops, compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s.VIETNAM WAR ESCALATESA coup by some of his own generals succeeded in toppling and killing Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, in November 1963, three weeks before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The ensuing political instability in South Vietnam persuaded Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to further increase U.S. military and economic support. The following August, after DRV torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Johnson broad war-making powers, and U.S. planes began regular bombing raids, codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder, the following February.In March 1965, Johnson made the decision–with solid support from the American public–to send U.S. combat forces into battle in Vietnam. By June, 82,000 combat troops were stationed in Vietnam, and General William Westmoreland was calling for 175,000 more by the end of 1965 to shore up the struggling South Vietnamese army. Despite the concerns of some of his advisers about this escalation, and about the entire war effort as well as a growing anti-war movement in the U.S., Johnson authorized the immediate dispatch of 100,000 troops at the end of July 1965 and another 100,000 in 1966. In addition to the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand also committed troops to fight in South Vietnam (albeit on a much smaller scale).Crockett, Gib. “Whittling him down.” Cartoon. Washington Star Syndicate. 27 April 1965.STRATEGY OF ATTRITION IN VIETNAMIn contrast to the air attacks on North Vietnam, the U.S.-South Vietnamese war effort in the south was fought on the ground, largely under the command of General William Westmoreland, in coordination with the government of General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in Saigon. In general, U.S. military forces in the region pursued a policy of attrition, aiming to kill as many enemy troops as possible rather than trying to secure territory. By 1966, large areas of South Vietnam had been designated as “Free-fire zone” from which all innocent civilians were supposed to have evacuated and only enemy remained. Heavy bombing by B-52 aircraft or shelling made these zones uninhabitable, as refugees poured into camps in designated safe areas near Saigon and other cities. Even as the body count (at times exaggerated by U.S. and South Vietnamese authorities) mounted steadily, DRV and Viet Cong troops refused to stop fighting, encouraged by the fact that they could easily reoccupy lost territory. Meanwhile, supported by aid from China and the Soviet Union, North Vietnam strengthened its air defenses.By November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was approaching 500,000, and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. As the war stretched on, some soldiers came to mistrust their government’s reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washington’s claims that the war was being won. The later years of the war saw increased physical and psychological deterioration among American soldiers, including drug use, mutinies and attacks by soldiers against officers and noncommissioned officers.Bombarded by horrific images of the war on their televisions, Americans on the home front turned against the war as well: In October 1967, some 35,000 demonstrators staged a mass antiwar protest outside the Pentagon. Opponents of the war argued that civilians, not enemy combatants, were the primary victims and that the United States was supporting a corrupt dictatorship in Saigon.Anti Vietnam war marchers advancing towards the Pentagon building on 21st October 1967.IMPACT OF THE TET OFFENSIVE ON VIETNAM WARBy the end of 1967, Hanoi’s communist leadership was growing impatient as well, and sought to strike a decisive blow aimed at forcing the better-supplied United States to give up hopes of success. On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 DRV forces under General Võ Nguyên Giáp launched the Tet Offensive (named for the lunar new year), a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. Though taken by surprise, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to strike back quickly, and the communists were unable to hold any of the targets for more than a day or two. Reports of the attacks stunned the U.S. public, however, especially after news broke that Westmoreland had requested an additional 200,000 troops. With his approval ratings dropping in an election year, Johnson called a halt to bombing in much of North Vietnam in March (though bombings continued in the south) and promised to dedicate the rest of his term to seeking peace rather than reelection.CBS Anchor Walter Cronkite Opposed the war not because it was wrong, but because it was un-winnableJohnson’s new tack, laid out in a March 1968 speech, met with a positive response from Hanoi, and peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam opened in Paris that May. Despite the later inclusion of the South Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front (the political arm of the Viet Cong) the dialogue soon reached an impasse, and after an election campaign marred by violence, Republican Richard M. Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey to win the White House.VIETNAM WAR ENDS: FROM VIETNAMIZATION TO WITHDRAWALNixon sought to deflate the antiwar movement by appealing to a “silent majority” of Americans who he believed supported the war effort. In an attempt to limit the volume of American casualties, he announced a program of withdrawing troops, increasing aerial and artillery bombardment and giving South Vietnamese control over ground operations. In addition to this policy, which he called “Vietnamization,” Nixon continued public peace talks in Paris, adding higher-level secret talks conducted by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger beginning in the spring of 1968. The North Vietnamese continued to insist on complete U.S. withdrawal as a condition of peace, however, and the next few years would bring even more carnage, including the horrifying revelation that U.S. soldiers had massacred more than 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai in March 1968.Anti-war protests continued to build as the conflict wore on. In 1968 and 1969, there were hundreds of anti-war marches and gatherings throughout the country. On November 15, 1969, the largest anti-war protest in American history took place in Washington, D.C., as over 250,000 Americans gathered peacefully, calling for withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. The anti-war movement, which was particularly strong on college campuses, divided Americans bitterly. For some young people, the war symbolized a form of unchecked authority they had come to resent. For other Americans, opposing the government was considered unpatriotic and treasonous.As the first U.S. troops were withdrawn, those who remained became increasingly angry and frustrated, exacerbating problems with morale and leadership. Tens of thousands of soldiers received dishonorable discharges for desertion, and about 500,000 American men from 1965-73 became “draft dodgers” with many fleeing to Canada to evade conscription. Nixon ended draft calls in 1972, and instituted an all-volunteer army the following year.In 1970, a joint U.S-South Vietnamese operation invaded Cambodia, hoping to wipe out DRV supply bases there. The South Vietnamese then led their own invasion of Laos, which was pushed back by North Vietnam. The invasion of these countries, in violation of international law, sparked a new wave of protests on college campuses across America, including two at Kent State in Ohio and Jackson State in Mississippi during which National Guardsmen and police killed a total of six student protesters.By the end of June 1972, however, after another failed offensive into South Vietnam, Hanoi was finally willing to compromise. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representatives drafted a peace agreement by early fall, but leaders in Saigon rejected it, and in December Nixon authorized a number of bombing raids against targets in Hanoi and Haiphong. Known as the Christmas Bombings, the raids drew international condemnation.LEGACY OF THE VIETNAM WARIn January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations. War between North and South Vietnam continued, however, until April 30, 1975, when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City (Ho himself died in 1969).The long conflict had affected an immense majority of the country’s population; in eight years of warfare, an estimated 2 million Vietnamese died, while 3 million were wounded and another 12 million became refugees. War had decimated the country’s infrastructure and economy, and reconstruction proceeded slowly. In 1976, Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, though sporadic violence continued over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. Under a broad free market policy put in place in 1986, the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and an influx of foreign capital. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U.S. were resumed in the 1990s.In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in 1973. The nation spent more than $120 billion on the conflict in Vietnam from 1965-73; this massive spending led to widespread inflation, exacerbated by a worldwide oil crisis in 1973 and skyrocketing fuel prices. Psychologically, the effects ran even deeper. The war had pierced the myth of American invincibility, and had bitterly divided the nation. Many returning veterans faced negative reactions from both opponents of the war (who viewed them as having killed innocent civilians) and its supporters (who saw them as having lost the war), along with physical damage including the effects of exposure to the harmful chemical herbicide Agent Orange, millions of gallons of which had been dumped by U.S. planes on the dense forests of Vietnam. In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington, D.C. On it were inscribed the names of 57,939 American armed forces killed or missing during the war; later additions brought that total to 58,200.Vietnam Veterans Memorial