The consequences of 20 years (1954-1975) of fighting were devastating in its impact on all parties.  According to an online article entitled, “The Lessons of the Vietnam War,” American deaths totaled over 58,000; over half of these soldiers died after 1968. Over 300,000 were wounded, almost 14,000 completely disabled.  An estimated over 2 millions Vietnamese dead are mourned.  Four million people were wounded and ten million displaced from their homes.  More than five million acres of forest and croplands were laid waste by 18 million gallons of poisonous chemical herbicides.  By the war’s end there were about 21 million bomb craters in South Vietnam (1).