from the perspective of the u.s. the main issues associated with the Vietnam War were one its length where the u.s. involvement starting on the 1st of November 1955 and ending on the 27th of January 1973 with resources that would have otherwise been allocated toward other sectors of the economy going to the war effort to the fact that aside from the war the United States also had to fund President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society project or in other words the u.s. had to handle massive domestic spending as well from the perspective of Vietnam there was of course massive infrastructure destruction in the north for example all of its industrial cities 93% of its provincial towns 83% of its district towns and 69% of its communes were severely affected moving on to costs it is of course pretty much impossible to obtain accurate data from Vietnam perspective and when it comes to the US according to the Congressional Research Service one in nominal term is if we convert the current US dollars so adjust for multiple years of inflation the Vietnam War was more expensive than World War one and the Korean War but less expensive than the Second World War to as a percentage of the GDP for the peak year of the war however it was less expensive than the other three previously mentioned wars