Vietnam Armed conflict

After and during the later part of the Vietnam War, public support of U.S. involvment in Vietnam was reduced to zero. After the war, returning veterans, whether marines, airman, or seamen, were ostracised and labelled as "baby-killers" or similar demeaning terms, because of the (mostly unintentional) killings or mistreatment of innocent civillians, mistaken to be Viet Cong or other forms of communist activists. Most, however, were the result of civillians being caught in the crossfire between the belligerents. Just to name an example, in the average "search-and-destroy"* mission carried out by the U.S. infantrymen, for every Viet Cong weapon captured, there would be a bodycount of six, of which more than half of this number would turn out to be civilians.

The other main cause of civilian casualties was the huge area effect that American chemical weapons had, the weapons being Agent Orange and napalm. These weapons were originally designed to destroy the forests in which Viet Cong operatives took cover in. However, they had many other side effects. Agent Orange was a strengthened form of pesticide, not only defoliating large areas of land and destabilising ecosystems but also causing birth defects in children of adults who had ingested it. Napalm frequently burned not only trees but also spread to villages and other structures, sometimes setting people on fire too. Lucky civilians might be able to remove their burning clothes, but most of them died.

Thus, the collateral damage could have been absorbed by the US Armed Forces instead, by modifying tactics to reduce civillian casualties, though in the process, this damage would have been "transferred" over to the US forces instead. However, if the US had been commited to reducing civillian casualties and collateral damage, it would probably have accepted this.

Of course, collateral damage is impossible to mitigate, so my solution is... Don't go to war at all.

*"Search-and destroy" was a mission profile were marines were airlifted to a suspected Viet Cong shelter (usually a village). Then, they would attack the area and attempt to capture the suspected Viet Cong weapons and operatives, often not only at the cost of their own men but also civillians in the area.