Jin Kazama: Here are some various opinions on why (and whether) the US lost the war in Vietnam: The United States pulled out of the Vietnam war. We did not lose it. Technically, we were not at war, we were advisors but the Congressional approval to fight in Vietnam was not given. If anyone lost it was the people of Laos and Cambodia who came under Communist rule after the war.Lack of interest. No one was that interested in stopping the Communists aggression in the Far East. And as the war went on, the cost in blood and treasure seemed extreme and fruitless. So we didnt lose, we just withdrew. When the draft was ended, it made the war more tolerable, but then high profile stories of war crimes and napalming made the war unpopular.The only reason the US lost was because we withdrew from there. The US won every battle but the North Vietnamese were willing to sacrifice many more lives than the US.They lost because the politicians did not let the military do their job. They made decisions that should have been made by generals. Politicians should not make tactical decisions.The people of South Vietnam did not want to fight that war and the US didnt want to fight the war for them without their help.Failures by the US - 1) The US troops completely underestimated the VC, who were skilled jungle fighters, and also had mass peasant support. 2) The American tactic search and destroy increased VC support. As one soldier said If they werent VC before we got there, they sure as hell were by the time we left. 3) The supply line (Ho Chi Minh Trail) was never shut down by the Americans thus allowing the VC to send and receive supplies. 4) American public support waned after the atrocities of My Lai and disasters of the Tet offensive came to light, and American body bags continued to arrive home. Protesting became rife and the public voice became hard for the government to ignore. 5) Guerrilla warfare was brutal, and morale became increasingly low from about 1969. 6) The VCs great defensive system the Cu Chi tunnel was not shut down , allowing the VC to take cover during the Air War which could potentially have been very successful for the Americans. 7) The Media played a massive role in the war, before media intervention many Americans had felt alienated from a war that was so far from home. The media changed this, changing at the same time the general publics view on war.There are several reasons as to why we didnt win the war. There is truth in most of the answers given. True, we alienated a lot of the Vietnamese because of atrocities, but we werent the ones that were going into villages and disemboweling the leaders or raping their women or taking a machete to babies. The VC did that. Yes, there were some unfortunate incidents like My Lai, but that is one incident compared to thousands of atrocities that the enemy soldiers did. Second, the US military was extremely handicapped by both the war planners and the US media. In order to make bombing runs, we had to contact a war planner back in the States to get permission to make a bombing run. Then we were not allowed to bomb anything close to a civilian area no matter how strategically important it was, because we were humane enough to not want to injure more North Vietnamese civilians. Were the North Vietnamese that concerned about not hurting anyone? Absolutely not. They had no compassion whatsoever. They placed no value whatsoever on human life. Sometimes when they would attack to try to overrun our bases, the first wave of soldiers purpose was to die on top the barbed wire perimeter so that their fellow comrades could walk over their bodies and enter the compound. They were so fanatical they would fight until the last man was dead. As far as the Vietcong being a skilled fighting force that is a crock. They were poor, not very well trained, deluded people who were virtually eliminated after they made a massive attempt in 1968 to take over the country. They were temporarily successful but once the US military got to work, end of story. We literally slaughtered them. Then there is the US media who were probably the biggest traitors to the US cause and have a lot of our young men and womens blood on their hands. It seems so strange that when we would announce to the media that we were going to make a bombing run to a certain location that when the bombers would get there that the enemy soldiers would be gone. And the media also helped to stir up the anti-war movement back home thus being an ally of our own enemy. Right before we decided to pull out of the war we had the North close to surrendering. But you wont hear that from the news media. We had killed close to a million enemy soldiers.The US did not lose the war. The Paris accords were signed and all but 1,500 US troops were gone from Vietnam when Saigon fell. The reason Saigon fell was also the fact that the South Vietnamese Army was not willing to stand and fight for their own country.America didnt lose the war in terms of politics. The Paris Agreement states that the US won as troops were still in Vietnam at the time. In terms of casualties and deaths, however, it was pretty equal going.US efforts to hold and occupy ground were dismal failures; as emphasized by the failures at Dak To and throughout the Central Highlands in 1967, in the A Shau Valley throughout the War and at Khe San after May 1968, to hold ground against opposition. US forces, while moderately effective in some limited tactical actions to take ground or occupy an area of operations, were invariably outmaneuvered strategically and forced to withdraw when continued action proved the occupation had been pointless. Once the ground was ceded back to the enemy, it was immediately re-occupied. No US command ever held an area of operation 18 months after a major action had been fought there.The US was not fighting a total war, and usually did not remain in any areas with its forces other than those logistically important. It was never a goal of the US to occupy South Vietnam. In some cases this meant retaking the same areas from the enemy more than once. North Vietnamese generals recognized the fighting power of the US forces, but knew that the morale of US troops would go lower the longer the war went on, just as the US as a whole would tire of the war. Nixon Ends The War and Congress Blocks the Funds Nixon had been elected on a promise to Vietnamize the war, meaning more fighting would be turned over to the South Vietnamese army, and to start bringing home American troops. When the President ordered US troops into Cambodia and ordered more bombings, the result was a tremendous uproar at home with more marches and demonstrations. Congress reacted to the antiwar feeling and repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave the President the authority to send troops and fight the war in Vietnam. The United States did not lose the Vietnam War, although some may argue that by pulling out of South Vietnam we did just that. In 1972, North Vietnam finally realized that the war was a stalemate. The two sides met and arranged a cease fire. In January of 1973, the Paris Accords went into effect. The US agreed to withdraw all its troops from Vietnam in 60 days. Congress had stopped funding the war effort. The North Vietnamese government agreed to release all prisoners, which they never did. Free elections were to be held in Vietnam. The President of South Vietnam considered the agreement between North Vietnam and the US as a sell-out. But it allowed President Nixon to save face and bring the soldiers home. By 1975, after US troops had been pulled out of South Vietnam, the ARVN (Army of the Republic of South Vietnam) collapsed and the North Vietnamese moved into Saigon, ending the war and finalizing the takeover of the South by the North. Our purpose in the war is debated to this day.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 23:24:38 +0000
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