What went wrong during the Vietnam war and why?

Answer 1

In the Vietnam War, the USA were not able to overthrow the north Vietnamese because of their lack of guerrilla tactics and low morale. low morale happened mainly because of a lack of direction and purpose in young American troops, (21 being the average age of a soldier). The TET offensive played a key role in Americas downfall in the eye of civilian America. Images of the US embassy being taken by Viet Cong fighter were broadcast by Walter Cronkite who fed America the view that TET was a major military loss. Other iconic images such as a V.C suspect being shot in the street and napalm bombings also fuelled a political fire back in the US. Also among these, the fact that America's army was trained to fight conventional warfare also contributed to their defeat. Viet Cong fighters had an immense advantage over the US because of homeland support, guerrilla warfare, they knew the terrain, a strong sense of nationalism and their anonymity America refused to train its soldiers in unconventional warfare because of an alleged communist threat by neighbouring China. This was due to the theory Eisenhower produced claiming a "Domino Theory" explaining that if Vietnam was lost, it would create a "Domino effect", thus releasing communism onto the Free world, therefore threatening Americans and their economical, social and political beliefs. In the south, the government was unstable and had no support from the countrymen. Diem, chosen by the US mainly because he was anti french and anti communist, was 'puppeted' by the US, and didn't gain any support from his country. Ho Chi Minh (leader of Nth Vietnam) used Diem's little political control for propaganda creating the NLF or national liberation front. This party called for the union of all the people, and to overthrow the US and Diems political power. The Ho Chi Minh trail also played a very important role for the North Vietnamese. The trail stretched 400 kms long and delieved around 3 million tonnes of ammunitionand supply to the VC in South Vietnam over the course of the war. also, boobie traps, the CoChi tunnels, the MyLai massacre contributed to what went wrong for America in the Cold War.