What was Vietnam War money spent on?

Answer 1

Probably the biggest expenditure was on military ordnance, e.g. bombs, naval/army artillery shells, aerial rockets, machingun ammunition (.50 caliber, 7.62mm, 5.56mm, 20mm cannon, etc.). The battleship USS New Jersey was re-activated in 1968 to shell the Vietnamese coastlines, in order to lower US aircraft losses; the battleship could carry APPROXIMATELY one thousand 16" shells. Each 16" shell weighed nearly a ton (2,000 lbs). Thus, firing one broadside from nine 16" rifles (cannons) was equal to NINE jet aircraft bombs being dropped on the enemy; WITHOUT risking the LIFE of a human pilot! If the battleship New Jersey emptied her whole basic load of 1,000 16" shells at the communists, that would equal approximately TWENTY B-52 Stratofortress's, when each B-52 was loaded with one hundred and eight 750 lb bombs. B-52's were NOT being built anymore. What we had, was all we had! We lost 30 (some say 31) B-52's in the Vietnam War. We dropped more bombs on North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia, then we did in all of WWII. That was very expensive. We expended APPROXIMATELY 3,000 rounds of small arms ammuniton (7.62mm/5.56mm; machingun and rifle) PER ENEMY casualty. Small arms ammo is like today's gasoline prices for your automobile, $100 to fill up your car for ONE tank of fuel. Ammo for a rifle/machingun is like gas for your car, they both ARE CONSUMED! At 1960's prices, the US lost approximately 2,000 jet aircraft in Vietnam, with each aircraft close to the million dollar mark. That's very near 2,000 million dollars. Plus the cost of aviation gas to fuel them up. Each bombing/strafing attack (sortie) consumed one complete tank of fuel. And their were millions of sorties flown during the war. This is just the tip of the iceburg. Salaries for the fighting men, uniforms, food, medical supplies, civilian airline contractors to fly troops back & forth, warships & fuel for them, administrative supplies, tanks, trucks, helicopters, etc. WAR IS VERY EXPENSIVE, in more ways than one.