Why did the USA lose the Vietnam War?

Why did the USA lose the Vietnam War?

The Americans did not lose purely for military reasons. There were other factors as well.

Write an explanation AND cite a source which shows the importance of the following six factors:

1. US military tactics in Vietnam: During the Vietnam War the US military used a lot of ineffective tactics. These were the search & destroy tactics, the orange and napalm bombs, and finally their extensive bombing on North Vietnam. The search & destroy tactics were very very ineffective. This is because the US military had been burning down villages, and in the midst of it killing many innocent civilians mistaken for Viet Cong fighters hiding in these villages. The US had wasted their time, they found very few Viet Cong fighters and probably killed more innocent civilians rather than what they were looking for, Viet Cong. Next the orange and napalm bombs also did very little. They had not only killed innocent people, but children as well which certainly did not make the US look good to the American public when pictures leaked of children running from the Napalm bombs. (Source 42) And finally, their bombing tactics did very little to the Communists. It only slowed them down, since the Communists were able to pick up right from where they started after the bombs with a major assault attack against the US military. They had also bombed the ancient Hue (source 41) that had caused outraged amongst the American public questioning the US military and their morals during the Vietnam War.

2. The unpopularity of the South Vietnamese regime: The unpopularity of the South Vietnamese regime was another factor as to why the US lost the Vietnam War. The United States had supported Ngo Dinh Diem, who's regime was extremely corrupt. He was an extreme anti-communist who showed little respect for the Buddhist religion. Buddhist priests would protest by lightning themselves on fire in public (source 33) But America "knew of no one better." and kept supporting Diem. They needed somebody strong to help them defeat the communists. He wouldn't even hold any elections for positions of power, he would appoint members of his own family. The unpopularity of the South Vietnamese Regime was the reason for the formation of the Viet Cong. Because of the actions of these anti-communist governments, support among the ordinary peasants for the Communist- led National Front for the liberation of South Vietnam was set up, the movement is referred to as Viet Cong.

3. The experience of the Viet Cong and the inexperience of the American soldiers: The Viet Cong fighters clearly showed much more experience than the American soldiers during the Vietnam War, leading to the defeat of the US. The Viet Cong fighters had the upper hand since they were fighting in their home, they knew their land well while the America soldiers had not a clue on where they were going. The Viet Cong soldiers used their advantage well and decided to use Guerilla tactics, which was extremely effective. As seen in source Source 37, American soldiers would search and search through the jungles, but the Viet Cong was hiding in the jungle unable to be seen by the US giving them the upper hand. Viet Cong fighters had been extremely hard to find for the US soldiers because of this, leading to why the US had such a hard time defeating them.

4. Domestic opposition to the war in the U.S: During the Vietnam War the American public did not support the American soldiers being there. Many many people were opposed to the war, and therefore many anti- war protests were formed. Nasty pictures began to leak out of screaming children running fro US Napalm bombs (source 42) Along with information about the My Lai Massacre (source 50), that shocked the world. Because of this discomfort throughout the American public about their soldiers taking apart of these horrible acts, it had caused a raucous throughout the American Public demanding that the war was put to an end. The numerous amount of protests were effective in making the President think about why they were in Vietnam. This loss of support made America think about leaving Vietnam, in which they did enabling them to lose the war.

5. Chinese and Soviet support for the Viet Cong: Both the Chinese and Soviet Union had supplied Viet Cong with weapons, which was very helpful to the Viet Cong. China had been very against the US winning the Vietnam War. As shown in source 38, they didn't want America to be in Vietnam. Along with this, the Soviet Union had been supporting Viet Cong because they wanted to spread communism so they felt that they had to support Vietnam as much as possible in order to spread the communism. Clearly Viet Cong had its supporters, while the US did not. The US had the help of the South Vietnamese regime, but they were no help. They depended on the American soldiers, and therefore kind of sat bat and watched the US do all of the work. The US had been alone in the war pretty much, while Viet Cong had been supporters which is a main reason the US lost the Vietnam War.

6. 'But did they really lose?' Summarize the argument put forward in Source 57, and your view on it.:V
Source 57 makes the argument that America did not lose the Vietnam War. It makes the point that the American Military had not been defeated in Vietnam, The US had not lost the war in Vietnam- the South Vietnamese did, and the fall of Saigon. Source 57 states that American military had not been defeated because they had preformed a major military defeat for the VC and NVA. Next, the fall of Saigon had happened two years after the US military had left, therefore how could they lose a war that they had already stopped fighting? In my opinion, I believe that the Vietnam war was a loss for us. This is because we had involved ourselves in a war we were not prepared for, and that we failed at successfully defeating communism, our primary goal for being apart of the Vietnam. Since we did not achieve our goals, we did not win the war we lost. Source 57 does make a good argument as to how this isn't personally a defeat for our country. But in my perspective we wasted our time being there to get rid of communism, and we could not defeat it meaning we failed.



Add other if you think there are factors you should consider.