ABSTRACT
During the 1960s the United States found itself more and more deeply involved in the Vietnamese civil war. Initially, during the 1950s, the situation in that country looked as though it could be straightened out and the communists deposed by a combination of US military aid to the anti-communist elements with only a few American advisers sent in to coordinate things. It was never envisaged that the US would get involved in a major war. But, as we know, successive administrations became involved in a major war and found themselves more and more deeply committed to win and get out. The increasingly frantic search for that victory to save American honour, and which they had eventually to forsake in 1975, had cost the US billions of dollars and the lives of hundreds of thousands of their own young men killed in futile action. Even during the 1960s, the American government was already into deficit spending to finance the war. It printed more US dollars to compensate. The dollar was taken off the gold standard and decreased in value.
