This is a great post:

It certainly worked out that way, but I don't know whether it was planned or an unintentional consequence of our "Saving the world from collectivism"

The US workers were in a fantastic situation after WWII:

They made up ~5% of the world's workforce, and they worked in a country that had >50% of the world's investment capital and >50% of the world's industrial infrastructure.

Then we devoted the majority of our resources to "Defeating Communism"

Defeating Communism meant the American boys would be competing on almost equal footing with workers in Vietnam and China.

If the blue-collar American boys had any sense, they would have been fighting to keep Vietnam Communist.

if the North Vietnamese boys had any sense, they would have been fighting to make Vietnam Capitalist.

They were all pawns fighting and dying to achieve goals that worked against their own interests.