The US army had superior conventional weapons but they were ineffective against a country that was not industrialized and an army which employed guerrilla tactics and used the dense jungle as cover.
❖ The tactics and resolve of the Vietcong. ❖ The cultural weaknesses of the USA in Vietnam. ❖ The political and public opposition to the war in the USA. ❖ The military weaknesses of the American forces.
Essentially the South Vietnamese government was crippled by several key factors that no amount of American assistance could have overcome. Firstly, the South Vietnamese government was exceedingly corrupt[8], and as such it was unlikely that any attempt to win the South Vietnamese will could have succeeded.
Many Americans opposed the war on moral grounds, appalled by the devastation and violence of the war. Others claimed the conflict was a war against Vietnamese independence, or an intervention in a foreign civil war; others opposed it because they felt it lacked clear objectives and appeared to be unwinnable.
The Army had to fight in unfamiliar territory, was lacking in moral, were not prepared for the conditions, could not shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and were untrained to respond to guerilla warfare. This combination of disadvantages and the loss of public support led to the United States withdrawing from Vietnam.
Failure in Vietnam was rooted in a misunderstanding of the type of conflict and a failure to adapt. US commanders continually attempted to make the war fit their understanding of operations, not a true understanding of the conflict itself.
Unlike Afghanistan, which fell before all U.S. troops could be withdrawn, the South Vietnamese government remained in power for more than two years after the Jan. 27, 1973, peace accord, heralded by President Richard Nixon as “an agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.”
As the war progressed Australians were less convinced by the original rationale that China and communism posed a direct threat. Opposition to the war also grew as national servicemen were killed and wounded in the course of their service.
Those who supported the war resented the veterans for losing the war, which left Vietnam veterans feeling like outsiders to veterans of other wars. The Vietnam War divided American society. Those who served were often treated as traitors instead of heroes, and found it difficult to adjust to life back home.
Troops who arrived home by air were invited to join them, but few accepted the offer. Some returning veterans were subjected to abuse by anti-war protesters. All Australian combat troops were withdrawn from Vietnam by late 1971, although the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam remained until 1972.
The most significant material constraint on using nuclear weapons was the risk of a wider war with China. U.S. leaders worried that a U.S. invasion of North Vietnam or the use of tactical nuclear weapons there could bring China into the war.
There is no way of proving a might-have-been. Independence for Vietnam in 1945 might still have led to local conflict within Southeast Asia, but it would have prevented the wounds that the United States inflicted on itself by going to war in Vietnam. And 1945 was indeed the moment. After that it was too late.
The justifications for the Vietnam War were seriously flawed. The Central Intelligence Agency had repeatedly informed the Johnson administration that most Southeast Asian countries were not in danger of falling like dominos to communism, even if North Vietnam won. The credibility theory was also exaggerated.
The American-Vietnam War didn't go so well for either side, but now-Communist Vietnam's dense jungle and support from China and the Soviet Union gave the North Vietnamese the military power to match their will to keep fighting, a will which seemed never-ending, no matter which side you're on.
The conventional view remains that the United States lost the Vietnam War because our opponent, North Vietnam, conquered the side we backed, South Vietnam, which surrendered in April 1975.
The Vietcong were a South Vietnamese communist faction that fought against the U.S. and South Vietnamese armies during the Vietnam War. Their use of civilians in combat and guerrilla style fighting, such as spider holes and tiger traps, made them a difficult enemy for the United States military.
Ages range from 97 to 55 years old (born between 1918 and 1960). Median age is 68 years.
Unlike previous wars, when it usually took weeks for soldiers to be discharged and transported home, U.S. soldiers often returned from Vietnam within two days. Returning to the safety and comfort of home so quickly made it more difficult for them to make sense of the danger and misery they experienced in Vietnam.
Many Vietnam veterans claim that most people treated them with indifference and seemed uncomfortable listening to their stories from battle. Some people, however, saw returning soldiers as dangerous, violent symbols of an increasingly futile and terrible war—much like the individual Wowwk encountered.
And the German learned to fear Australians, because they were reckless, ruthless - and revengeful. During the Third Battle of Ypres, autumn 1917, the ANZAC's (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) met the Germans on high ground, in front of Polygon Wood.
Some 60,000 Australian defence personnel served in Vietnam over 10 years of the war. Our initial commitment of 30 military advisers in 1962 grew to include a battalion in 1965 and a task force in 1966. Australia's last combat troops came home in March 1972, about 3 years before the war ended.
In 1964, the National Service Act introduced a scheme of selective conscription in Australia, designed to create an army of 40,000 full-time soldiers. Many of them were sent on active service to the war in Vietnam. 521 Australians died during the Vietnam War and around 3000 were wounded.
At about 1505G, Maddox fired three rounds to warn off the communist [North Vietnamese] boats. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first.
According to John Kerry's testimony, Vietnamese civilians were often subjected to shocking violence. Soldiers raped, mutilated, shot at, and brutally murdered civilians. Troops also intentionally destroyed Vietnamese villages, well beyond the destruction typically wrought by war.
Vietnam is now considered to be a potential ally of the United States, especially in the geopolitical context of the territorial disputes in the South China Sea and in the containment of Chinese expansionism.