Everone was watching the supposedly "soft and degenerate" Americans and despite the enemy's best efforts (here and abroad), we held out for nearly ten years of difficult and cruel warfare.
South Vietnam was lost but The National Liberation war never occurred again - there were proxie wars, like the use of Cubans in Angola and there was a disastrous direct intervention by the Soviets in Afghanistan, but no more National Liberation wars. We proved ourselves too tough and too determined and when the two sides took neasure of each other in the string of confrontations, concessions, and discussions that finally ended the Cold War, it was the measure of those American combatants that stayed in the eyes of our adversaries.
The successes of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in Vietnam were the real reason for the defeat of communism. Allies knew from our example that we would bleed for their freedom, long after conventional wisdom would have had us quit. In the end, more people wanted us as allies and friends than our adversaries. We proved ourselves as a nation and as a people and those men and women lsited on that black wall in Washington are a large part of the reason nearly all of the world enjoys the freedom instead of communist dictatorship.
Besides, we're not done yet: the more time we spend in Vietnam and the more links we establish, the more we can push that dinosaur government of theirs to free their own people. We still have work to do.
Thank you for stopping by.