Why did US lose the Vietnam War?

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Table of Contents Why did the US lose the Vietnam War? ......................................................................................... 3 References ......................................................................................................................................... 6

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Outline I. Introduction II. Body A. Why B. What III. Conclusion

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Hannah Jang Mr. Bourne History 31 May 2009 Why did the US lose the Vietnam War? Vietnam War is a fierce war between North Vietnam and USAthe United States. Unlike many people thoughtexpected, the war ended was end with North Vietnams tactical victory. Therefore,
Comment [s1]: More background sentence.

such surprising results raise up questions in contemporary historians minds: why Why did US who had won many wars and possessed superior technology and weapons lose the war? US underestimated the tenancy and organization of the Vietcong. At the beginning of the war, US thought it is going to take just a few months. US army had more experiences than Vietcong did. Most of American soldiers were inexperience. The average of the American soldiers was just nineteen. The soldiers could go back home after their twelve months duty. Therefore every experienced and skilled soldier went back to America after their duty and new young immature soldiers who were not used to fighting in the jungle were put into the war to replace. American soldiers often had low morale and desertion rates were high. Westmoreland hoped that the one-year tour of duty system would keep up morale, but it really did not work. There were 503,000 incidents of desertion between 1996 and 1973. The soldiers started to take drugs and many of them were addicted to drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin. In 1972, no less than twenty thousand men were treated in hospital for drug abuse.
Comment [s2]: The introduction is short and worded too concisely.

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The main two reasons why they took drugs were they did not know what they are fighting for and felt guilty and became frustrated because they could not tell Vietcong supporter from ordinary villagers and found difficulties. At first, many American supported and volunteered to join the war, however by 1970, when it became clear that the USA could not win the war, peace movement such as hippies started to oppose against the war. Also the economy rates decreased, because of the long-term war. In the village of My Lai, in March 1968, 300 villagers, mainly women and children were massacred mercilessly by the American soldiers. Furthermore, Operation Rolling Thunder - the American bombing campaign over North Vietnam - which was supposed to last eight week, it lasted three and a half years. As the American troops cruelty and the use of horrific weapons such as napalm and Agent Orange-a chemical defoliant which was used to prevent Vietcong fighter from hiding in the jungle by destroying the jungles-in Vietnam went into headlines all over the world, and they became the focus of criticism. President Nixon had lost eager of fighting the Vietnam War after being accused because of Watergate Affair in 1974 and started to withdraw the American troops from Vietnam. He was accused by trying to set a war-snooper to find out the Democratic Partys election strategies in 1972. After this incident, many American turned hostile against the government. The South Vietnamese army was weak and unorganized. They often had disagreements. In addition, The South Vietnamese government was corrupt and became more unpopular with their majority of its own people. Several Buddhist monks set fire to themselves as a form of protest. This

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definitely did not help the US in Vietnam. Vietcong had high morale because they believed passionately in their cause. Vietcong carried out effective guerrilla tactics. They knew that in largescale battles, they could not beat the USA who were well-equipped and had powerful weapon, because they did not have any weapons such as missiles and tanks or supporters until after 1973. Therefore they had to adopted guerrilla tactics that does not require a large number of soldiers or weapons instead. One of famous guerrilla tactics is The Tet Offensive in 1968. On 31 January 1968 seventy thousand Vietcong attacked on 100 town and cities in South Vietnam. The Americans and South Vietnamese were taken by surprise because half of South Vietnam Army (ARVN) was on leave for the Tet holiday. Eventually, it had been a failure for the Vietcong, but their strategy was well planned and if Vietcong had better weapons, they could strike a blow to Americans and ARVN. Unlike Vietcong, the USs warfare tactics were not that effective. In 1963, President Johnson began a bombing campaign of North Vietnam. However, US bombing killed many civilians and made North Vietnam more determined. In addition, Operation Rolling Thunder-the American bombing campaign over North Vietnam- only had little effect, because North Vietnam had only few factories to destroy and it was mostly countryside. Vietcong also used their natural resources wisely. They used booby traps, which were mainly made of bamboo. These were cheap and easy to make, and very effective. Sharpened bamboo stakes, hidden in shallow pits under sticks and leaves, could easily pierce the sole of a boot. Sometime the spikes were smeared with human or animal excrement so the wound would be infected. Eleven per

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cent of deaths was caused by booby traps and fifty-one per cent of Americans killed by small arms fire such as pistols, rifles and machine-guns which are basic military equipment. In my opinion, the main reason why the US lost the war in Vietnam is USs wrong tactics. US had better weapons than Vietcong and if the tactics were more effective, US could have won the war easily.

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References "Vietnam War." About.com 20th Century History. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2012. <http://history1900s.about.com/od/vietnamwar/a/vietnamwar.htm>.