Why did the USA lose the Vietnam War?

Question 1

Tactics

Answer 1

Effectiveness of VC guerrilla tactics.

Ineffectiveness of US conventional tactics.

Question 2

Experience of soldiers and morale

VC

Answer 2

• Volunteers.
• Fighting for their own country and own belief.
• Guerrilla tactics had been used before against the Japanese and the French, so the VC and NVA had lots of experience.

Question 3

Experience of soldiers and morale

US troops

Answer 3

• Average age was 19 (60% aged 17-21).
• Conscription.
• Just left school; not politically driven.
• Fighting in a foreign country.
• US army officers wanted to send their soldiers into battle in order to be promoted, whilst the ordinary soldiers were reluctant to. These tensions between the officers and the troops often lead to mutiny.
• Lots of recreational drug abuse and poor mental health.
• 500,000 incidents of desertion.
• 18% of casualties were due to non-combat factors such as murder, suicide, illness, drug abuse, etc.
• As a result, the soldiers were given a one-year term of service to keep morale up but this backfired as new recruits had very little combat experience.

Question 4

Support from land neighbours

Answer 4

• The Communists were a combined force of the NVA and Vietcong, and had support from land neighbours
• Supplies from China and the USSR.
• Access granted through Cambodia and Laos (USA wasn’t).
• Ho Chi Minh trail.

Question 5

Lost support

Answer 5

Ruthless US tactics and collateral damage (civilian massacres) lost support from within Vietnam and the US public.

Question 6

Media coverage and the lack of censorship

Answer 6

• turned the public opinion against the war
• Television was replacing newspapers as the main medium of news, so rawer, more shocking news containing graphic images was released.
• Tet Offensive coverage.
• News reporters expressed concern about the war.
• However, only a small proportion showed graphic images and the media only reflected common views at the time and didn’t necessarily create them.