I have to wonder if the standard narrative of Vietnam (evil government constantly lies and callously kills Vietnamese civillians) was kinda due to leftist bias by most historians (like pretty much all other academia) and the leftist/SJW/Hate America movement was def born of the anti-war protests.
There are some revisionist historians who think Vietnam helped tamp down the other communist movements in Southeast Asia so while Vietnam was lost it let the other anti-communist regimes stay afloat when they were the most vulnerable.
One book that I found interesting Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam. If the US government had withdrawn but still given money and weapons to South Vietnam in the last stages of the war they may have been able to hang on. Once the anti-war sentiment got so bad and the US just withdrew troops and all support to the South Vietnamese that was pulling the chair from under them which opened the narrow window of opportunity (when S.Vietnam was most vulnerable) for North Vietnam to do a (conventional) invasion and take over S.Vietnam.
The way the US withdrew was the worst of both worlds for S.Vietnam, they were dependent on US cash and troops and superior firepower then it was taken away and their whole defense was dependant on that.
Fun fact: South Korea provided a large number of troops for the Vietnam War at US behest, South Korea government got a ton of money for that (the korean soldiers who actually fought didn't get the money) which they used to industralize (in addition to reperation money from Japan). That is what allowed S.Korea to boost their economy and lead to the rise of Samsung and Hyundai and those other korean companies.
There are some revisionist historians who think Vietnam helped tamp down the other communist movements in Southeast Asia so while Vietnam was lost it let the other anti-communist regimes stay afloat when they were the most vulnerable.
One book that I found interesting Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam. If the US government had withdrawn but still given money and weapons to South Vietnam in the last stages of the war they may have been able to hang on. Once the anti-war sentiment got so bad and the US just withdrew troops and all support to the South Vietnamese that was pulling the chair from under them which opened the narrow window of opportunity (when S.Vietnam was most vulnerable) for North Vietnam to do a (conventional) invasion and take over S.Vietnam.
The way the US withdrew was the worst of both worlds for S.Vietnam, they were dependent on US cash and troops and superior firepower then it was taken away and their whole defense was dependant on that.
Fun fact: South Korea provided a large number of troops for the Vietnam War at US behest, South Korea government got a ton of money for that (the korean soldiers who actually fought didn't get the money) which they used to industralize (in addition to reperation money from Japan). That is what allowed S.Korea to boost their economy and lead to the rise of Samsung and Hyundai and those other korean companies.