Abstract
The Vietnamese people call the Vietnam war the "American War" because it was preceded by a war against the French. The Vietnam War has had tremendous consequences for both the United States and Vietnam. Today, the consequences of the Vietnam war are particularly visible in Vietnam's undeveloped infrastructure, its thousands of victims of chemical warfare, and its hundreds of thousands of missing and wounded. Each war is distinctive from another, but some break records by their extreme features. The United States and its allies exploded 15 million tons of ammunitions from 1964 to 1972. This represents twice the amount that was employed in all of Europe and Asia during World War II. The number of wounded and dead greatly varies in a war, but in a nation of 18 million people in 1970, nearly 3 million Vietnamese were killed, and 4 million others injured, according to Vietnamese assessments. During the era of direct US participation (1961-72), over 55,000 American armymen and women died in the mission. It was the longest war the United States had ever fought, and according to some historians, the first one the US lost. Undertaking a study on war crimes in the Vietnam War, is not an easy task, and so far this issue is at the heart of passionate debates, particularly in the United States. Evoking the moral and legal aspects of war, namely the morality and legality of particular cruel acts that are perpetrated during wartime, causes even more discussions and controversies. Should the United States be accountable for their war crimes in the Vietnam War? Can there be law during wartime ?
