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 like search-and-destroy, Agent Orange and Napalm, and bombing were all pretty ineffective. All of the tactics made America lose Vietnamese and American support. The search-and-destroy method was ineffective because it destroyed Vietnamese homes and land making the people homeless, and the purpose wasn't even accomplished most of the time. The purpose being to find and destroy Viet Cong members, which in the searh-and-destroy tactic America rarely found anyone. There was nothing good or progressive that came out of this tactic. Also, a few America soldiers had the job of spraying Agent Orange and Napalm, which destroyed all of the farmland and forests, burned or injured citizens including children as seen in Source 42. This was ineffective as well because it turned support against America, lead to serious health problems, and destroyed an insermountable amount of land; which was vital for the citizens way of living. Lastly, bombing was ineffective because again it turned support against America, just slowed the Viet Cong and communists down, and destroyed many homes and land. The people didn't like being bombed on, it made some homeless and if their land was destroyed there was no way that they could earn money to buy food and support a family if they had one. More importantly, the bombing tactic on the Minh Trail and railroad just slowed the Viet Cong and communists down. After the bombing raid the people would go straight to work in fixing the railroad, so the supplies still came but just took longer.

2. The unpopularity of the South Vietnamese regime was also a major reason why America 'lost' the war. The United States supported Ngo Dinh Diem, who was extremely corrupt. Budhist priests would protest by lighting themselves on fire in public, as shown in Source 33. However, America kept on supporting Diem because he was greatly against communism, would kick them out without even thinking about it, and he was the only person that America knew that could possibly beat the communists. Things got so out of control and corrupt with Diem that even his own military asked permission from the CIA to kill or get rid of Diem, and America allowed it. This lead to a lot of loss of support from the South Vietnamese, and the US didn't want Vietnam to go communists so they continued to support non-communist South Vietnam and physically help too.

3. The experience of the Viet Cong and the inexperience of the American soldiers was a major factor for America losing the war. The Viet Cong were fighting on their own land while America came to Vietnam having no idea what the climate, geography, and etcetera were like; they might have had a general idea but not so much that would give them some advantage. The Viet Cong took advantage of being at their homeland and used Guerilla tactics to fight the Americans, as seen in Source 37. They would pop out of the forests and go back in and hide, Americans didn't know how to find them or just couldn't find them which made them scared and less hopeful that they could win the war.

4. Domestic opposition to the war in the U.S. made America think about why they were in the Vietnam War. When Americans saw photos of the My Lai Massacre like in Source 50 they saw how out of control things were getting in Vietnam. After the massacre people began to protest against war, and the President and government held a meeting and press conference discussing the reasons why America was in Vietnam. Many Americans saw no reason for America being in Vietnam and wanted the war to end and America to get out; the protests were effective in making the President look into the massacre and thinking about why they were in Vietnam. This lost of support made America think about leaving Vietnam and therefor losing the war because it enabled communism to take over Vietnam, which America was trying to prevent.

5. Chinese and Soviet support for the Viet Cong was a huge factor that made America lose the war. The Chinese and Soviet Union sent an immense amount of supplies to the Viet Cong, which greatly helped them to demoralize American soldiers and ultimately win the war. As shown in Source 38, the Chinese absolutely did not want America to be in Vietnam. The caption on the poster says "U.S. Imperialism, Get Out of South Viet Nam," which shows that the Chinese did not want imperialism in South Vietnam or so close to China. Also, since the Soviets wanted to spread communism and saw that Vietnam was trying to become communism they felt that they had to support Vietnam as much as possibly in order to spread their ideology. VIet Cong had a lot of support, but America barely had any. There was very little support from the UN so America was basically on her own. Since Viet Cong had two huge supports and America really didn't have any, the Viet Cong were bound to win.

6. 'But did they really lose?' Summarize the argument put forward in Source 57, and your view on it.

In Source 57 the argument in the text suggests that America had won the Vietnam war, militarily. It goes on about how America didn't lose one major consequential battle, how the fall of Saigon happened two years after America completely evacuated from Vietnam, and how it was Vietnamese civilians and military soldiers running for their lives and not America. One of the supporting points is that during the time when America was in Vietnam they didn't lose one battle; including the Tet Offensive in 1968 saying that it was a VC and NVA loss. Another supporting point was that the fall of Saigon happened two years after America had left; saying that "How could we lose a war that we had already stopped fighting?" Since America wasn't in Vietnam when Saigon fell and 'lost' America didn't lose, Vietnam did. Lastly, America didn't lose the war because it was Vietnamese civilians and soldiers running for their lives when Saigon fell not Americans. Therfore, since no Americans were running for their lives, as if retreating, they didn't lose; but since Vietnamese people were they lost.

I believe that America did lose the war to a certain extent, America lost the war politically but won militarily. America lost politically because Vietnam did succumb to communism and became a communist country, which America went to Vietnam to stop communism from spreading and stop Vietnam from becoming a communist country. However, the Vietnamese lost millions more men and civilians than America had lost. Also, as Source 57 says "American mililtary did not lose a battle of any consequence," which more plainly says that there was no battle that America lost that was significant enough to do damage of some sort. In conclusion, America lost the Vietnam War politically, but won militarily.