Why did the United States Withdraw From the Vietnam War?

The Vietnam war, which occurred November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975, was a major loss

The Americans had a large number of troops, the best weapons in the World and a strong economy but the Vietcong had better tactics. In the jungles, the Vietcong hid in the trees and were hard to see. The Americans weren't used to the jungle terrain of Vietnam so that made it even harder for them. Anti-war protests began as soon as the war did.

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.

military was the Vietcong’s use of guerilla warfare tactics. Guerilla warfare is defined as the use of hit-and-run tactics by small, mobile groups of irregular forces operating in territory controlled by a hostile, regular force. A lot of the Vietcong's fighting was done through ambushing, booby traps and mines, use of tunnel systems, but did include some pitched combat with the Americans when necessary. The Vietcong’s guerrilla warfare also made it really hard for the U.S. military to find the enemy, especially when they blended in as everyday Vietnamese citizens. They would use their environment to attack the Americans quickly and then dip out. Whether it was through the over two hundred mile long tunnel systems, or escaping deep into the Vietnamese forests.

According to Tim O 'Brien, the Viet Cong 's and United States ' fighting tactics were a waste of people 's lives. The Viet Cong used guerrilla warfare tactics which resulted in Americans being killed and in turn caused innocent civilians to die. The Viet Cong planted mines along the paths and in the jungles to injure American soldiers. The Viet Cong were never out in the open and had the sympathy of the Vietnamese living there. Many young Vietnamese children and women planted mines, spied, and killed American soldiers. The American soldiers could not tell the difference between the enemy and the innocent, so the soldiers indiscriminately killed everybody. The American strategy was to find the Viet Cong and kill them. The American soldiers walked from village to village in search of the Viet Cong. As they went from place to place, soldiers would

     The Vietnam War was one of the most influential wars in American History. The United States did not actually lose, but ending with a cease fire was considered a loss. When all of the troops returned they were looked upon by the American public scornfully. This caused both the troops and the American citizens to dislike the government. Many riots took place and many public displays happened. "...in response to a drive by the North Vietnamese forces into the South, President Richard M.

The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or ‘Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.

“You could never tell who was the enemy was … therefore you treated everyone with suspicion”- Thomas Giltner, US Soldier “Contested Spaces”The foreign US soldiers had no knowledge of the geography of Vietnam (jungles, mountains, rainforests, and climate) but the VC did, and used it to their advantage. The US, by engaging in massive firepower, killing many non-combatants, destroyed the US credibility in the minds of the people. The VC sympathised with the people’s hardships and this was effective as they won the people over. The VC had extensive knowledge of guerrilla warfare, it was their war, and the US fought tractional conventional warfare which did have some effected, but eventually the US ran out of will. The military operations were

The North Vietnamese soldiers were dedicated to fight for their independence and for communism. They were conscripted forces and they were aggressively faithful to their leader, Ho Chi Minh. The Viet Cong were more motivated to fight and win the war than the Americans as they were defending their own motherland. The Viet Cong were aided by the North Vietnamese leaders with military supplies and philosophy support. They also had the backing from China and the Soviet Union who were also communist

The United States played a very crucial role in the conflict that occurred in Southeast Asia between the U.S.-backed democratic South Vietnam, and Soviet-backed communist North Vietnam. Following the defeat of its French administration in 1954, North Vietnam, led by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, wanted to reunify the country with the help of its rebel allies in the south, known as the Viet Cong. Out of this chaos emerged a difficult situation for the United States, as Cold War sentiments were present within this proxy war between the two powerful nations and the third party of Vietnam. The United States wanted to support Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnam, in order to ensure his government would not fall into ruins and be taken control by the communists, but President Eisenhower was also hesitant to get his troops involved in this large scale conflict in Southeast Asia.

US policy during the war was weak and not nearly aggressive enough to beat the North Vietnamese. For example, President Johnson was unwilling to order a full scale invasion of North Vietnam. His reason for this was it passed through the territory of countries not involved in the war This was due to fears that it would also provoke China into entering the war directly. Another example would be Johnson’s refusal to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail. As a result, supplies would continue to flow uninterrupted. The reasons for not cutting off the trail were mainly political. These political reasons include not wanting to breach Laotian neutrality, especially since the North Vietnamese had no qualms about breaching, and that US

The Vietnam War lasted for two decades and started in 1945. Due to the Vietnam War, it caused the United States to lose a large amount of things by the end of the war in 1975. One thing the United States lost during the Vietnam War was their people (troops and civilians). A total of 15,058 United States troops were killed and as many as 109,527 were wounded. They also lost a lot of their money, by spending billions and billions of dollars every year paying for war they began putting their economy in dept. Another thing the United States lost in Vietnam was all of the support that their American citizens were giving them. There was lack of support for the United States because of their involvement in the Vietnam war. These American supporters

The Vietnam War is a war that was fought in the dense jungles, rice patties, in the air and in the tunnels of Vietnam. This was a long and costly war that sacrificed too many lives on both sides. American Soldiers had to learn jungle warfare and the tactics that would keep them alive in combat. This was no easy task and it took years of training and experience to understand the challenging and dangerous jungle. The Vietnamese Soldiers already knew the jungle and how to fight using the elements to their advantage. This would give them an edge on the American Soldiers because of their knowledge and experience. That wouldn’t stop the American Soldiers; they would prove they could fight effectively in the jungle and defeat the Viet Cong.

There were several reasons why the United States lost the war in Vietnam. First we were on Vietnam soil and they knew their environment well. They were supported by the South Vietnamese.They had pride and nationalism. They were also encouraged and inspired by neighboring countries that were achieving freedom. Next the U.S. used hi-tech tactics while the Vietcong's used guerrilla tactics. The guerrilla tactics were more appropriate and worked well. China and Russia supplied Vietnam with weapons while the U.S supplied their troops with weapons from America. The U.S. knew they could not use nuclear weapons yet they were over confident. The U.S. however lost a lot of public support and their morale was horrible. They failed to complete their political

Vietnam was a country divided into two by communism in the North and capitalism in the South. The Vietnam War, fought between the years 1959 and 1975, was, in essence, a struggle by nationalists in the north to unify the nation under a communist government. This was a long standing conflict between the two sides that had been occurring for years. It wasn’t until 1959 when the USA, stepped in, on the side of southern Vietnamese, to stop the spread of communism. It was a war that did not capture the hearts and minds of the American people as it was viewed as a war that the US army couldn’t win and so the government lost the peoples support for the war. This ultimately led to the withdrawal of the US army from Vietnam. Some people, like