Vietnam war

History Essay

Give a descriptive analysis of why America was not successful in Vietnam.

     America was not successful in Vietnam due to many factors. Over the period of their physical engagement in Vietnam (1959 – 1973), America committed numerous mistakes and faced many problems, which led them to “strategically withdraw” from the war.

America’s first problem was the Vietnamese determination. Viet Cong were organized and well trained by other communist countries. Their supply line was formed by a tunnel network and was able to move manpower and materials from the North to the South. According to the United States National Security Agency 's official history of the war, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was "one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century". Viet Minh also used those tunnels to attack the Americans and quickly disappear. Viet Minh were anonymous and looked like any other south vietnamese which allowed them to carry multiple surprise attacks against the Americans.

Another mistake the U.S.A made was choosing inefficient war tactics. Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the U.S.  against North Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968. The Operation destroyed some of South Vietnam’s landscape and injured or/and killed many civilians. Search and Destroy mission had many flaws. As the war became more agressive there was no real distinction between S&D and "Clear and Hold". Also, during each Search and Destroy mission, U.S. patrols were required to search South Vietnamese homes for the Viet Cong which exposed themselves to ambush. This led to many atrocities such as zippo raids to burn down villages and unprovoked massacres such as My Lai in 1968. Those made the jobs of winning hearts and minds of local people become harder and made the Americans less popular.

Thirdly, America weapons of war during the Vietnam war earned them lots of  criticism. The U.S.A used disproportionate and way too advanced weapons during the Vietnam war. Some of those weapons were very deadly such as agent orange whom is a herbicide the U.S.A dropped over Vietnam to make the Viet Congs leave their hidings. Many civilians got cancer from a high exposure to Agent Orange and massive parts of the Vietnamese landscapes were destroyed by it. Another hideous weapon the Americans use dis napalm. The US dropped almost 400,000 tons of napalm bombs in the decade between 1963 and 1973. Of the Vietnamese people who were on the receiving end, 60% suffered fifth-degree burns, meaning that the burn went down to the bone.

Another issue for the U.S government were the Medias. The Vietnam war was televised and for the first time the American Public was shocked to see the horrors of the war. This led to huge protest all over the U.S and the Vietnam war became very unpopular. Those protest led to the deaths of a few american students, which will outrage the American public and see them having a word for the first time in the foreign policies.

Soldiers mental health was also an issue during the Vietnam war. Armed servicemen of the Vietnam war used drugs more heavily than any previous generation of enlisted U.S. troops. From heroin to amphetamines to marijuana, drugs were so commonplace among the troops that, in 1970, liaison to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Egil Krogh told President Richard Nixon “you don’t have a drug problem in Vietnam; you have a condition. Problems are things we can get right on and solve.". There was also a problem of social class in the army, since you could pay your way out of the draft. Drugs and social classes problems made the moral of the U.S army even worse.

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