Why Did America Lose The War? Popularity & Organisation Of The Communists

Question 1

Determination:

Answer 1

-VC soldiers withstood horrific conditions/limited food and water/illness (skin conditions & malaria)/ little clothing/ basic weapons (turned US coke cans into grenades & bombs)
-Also ruthless (murdered a Vietnamese woman who married a GI by cutting off her head and leaving it on his military base)

Question 2

Ho chi minh trail:

Answer 2

-Linked North and South through Laos and Cambodia
-10% died on the trail mostly because of disease like malaria and accidents
-Americans struggled to hit it (about 0.23% of bombs hit the trail)
-50,000 women employed to repair the trail when damaged
-soldiers and supplies moved down the trail

Question 3

Battle of Ia Drang:

Answer 3

-November 1965 thanksgiving
-34 day battle between US and PAVN (N. Vietnamese army) and VC
-PAVN lost 3000 soldiers, VC lost 300
-Results in attrition but VC control battle and control removal of bodies which makes attrition less effective.

Question 4

Ingenuity:

Answer 4

-Underground tunnel network (Cuchi tunnels 200 miles in length enabled surprise attacks and move supplies around)
-adapted US weapons (mines on tops of trees to bring down helicopters)
-booby traps caused 11% deaths and 17% of wounds (Punji stick a sharpened bamboo stick hidden in a hole - US soldier falls through and foot impaled)