The Vietcong used Guerrilla tactics: fighting on a small scale, taking independent, irregular actions. Much of the fighting consisted of hit and run attacks, with the guerrillas striking at government outposts and then retreating into the jungles. The Vietcong were at an advantage because they were familiar with the terrain they were fighting in. The Vietcong were skilled at creating booby traps, which were thought to have accounted for 11% of US deaths in Vietnam and 17% of wounds. When the US attacked villages they found it difficult to tell which of the Vietnamese people were Vietcong as they blended in with villagers. This led to a great lack of trust between the Vietnamese and the Americans.
After 1965, US involvement in the war escalated rapidly in response to the growing strength of the Vietcong. By 1967, US troop strength in South Vietnam had risen to 389,000 men, but despite their sophisticated weapons, the Americans could not overcome the skilful and determined fighting of the Vietcong.
A further problem during the war was that the reasons for fighting the war were different on both sides. The Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army were fighting for Nationalism. This gave them a determination that the South Vietnamese, who had little love for their own government, and the US, many of who were demoralised reluctant conscripts, lacked. As the Vietcong were Communists, the two largest, Communist countries in the world - the USSR and China, consistently supported them. There was a constant flow of weapons, money and other necessary supplies.
The Ho Chi Minh trail further helped the Vietcong. It was an elaborate network of roads and trails used by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army, and was incredibly useful as it brought troops and supplies from the North into South Vietnam. During the war, there were many attempts by the US Air Force to bomb the trail, in order to stop the supply of men and materials, but they all proved unsuccessful.
A blow to the morale of the US soldiers was that no matter how many Vietcong they killed, they just kept on coming. This was because male and female Vietnamese were constantly being trained in the North and sent down South to fight. The Vietcong also seemed far more ready than the Americans to accept losses. An added problem was that, although the Government of South Vietnam was supposed to be working with the Americans, they did little to help with the war. The Government was corrupt, and so, South Vietnamese boys were never forced to help with the fighting - the Americans were forced to fight alone.
American losses in the war (in terms of life and money) continued to rise. In November 1967, the Pentagon announced that total US casualties in Vietnam since the beginning of 1961 had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. The president estimated the cost of the war to be approximately $25 billion per year. The US soldiers already had low morale because of the vast number of casualties, but adding to this was the fact that they knew that the war and their involvement in it was not supported back in America. The increasing numbers of casualties meant that public opinion back in the US was turning against the war.
When the Vietnam War started only a small percentage of the American population opposed the war. Those who initially objected to the involvement in Vietnam fell into three broad categories: communists who wanted an NLF victory; pacifists who opposed all wars; and liberals who believed that the best way of stopping the spread of communism was by encouraging democratic, rather than authoritarian governments. The first march to Washington against the war took place in December 1964. Only 25,000 people took part but it was still the largest antiwar demonstration in American history. As war continued, more and more Americans turned against it. People were particularly upset by the use of chemical weapons such as Napalm and Agent Orange. In 1967, a group of distinguished academics under the leadership of Bertrand Russell set up the International War Crimes Tribunal. After interviewing many witnesses, they came to the conclusion that the United States was guilty of using weapons against the Vietnamese that were prohibited by international law. The United States armed forces were also found guilty of torturing captured prisoners and innocent civilians. In 1970 one antiwar protest ended in tragedy as four protestors were shot dead at the Kent State University in Ohio. In 1971 300,000 took part in a veterans’ antiwar march to Washington.
The decision to introduce conscription for the war increased the level of protest, especially amongst young men. To keep the support of the articulate and influential members of the middle class, students were not called up. However, students throughout America still protested at what they considered was an attack on people's right to decide for themselves whether they wanted to fight for their country. Between 1963 and 1973, 9,118 men were prosecuted for refusing to be drafted into the army.
In March 1968 US troops killed 347 innocent South Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. The publicity surrounding the My Lai massacre proved to be an important turning point in American public opinion. It illustrated the deterioration that was taking place in the behaviour of the US troops and undermined the moral argument about the need to save Vietnam from the "evils of communism". Vietnam was not only being destroyed in order to "save it" but it was becoming clear that those responsible for defeating communism were being severely damaged by their experiences.
In January 1968, during the Tet religious festival, the Vietcong made a surprise guerrilla attack on American bases and major South Vietnamese towns. The attack proved that the Vietcong could strike in the heart of American held territory and convinced many Americans that the war could not be won. A few weeks later President Johnson was told by his Secretary of Defence that in his opinion the US could not win the war and recommended a negotiated withdrawal. Later that month, President Johnson told the American people on national television that he was reducing the air-raids on North Vietnam and intended to seek a negotiated peace to try and get public opinion on his side.
When Richard Nixon became president in January 1969 he realised that there was no hope of a US victory in Vietnam. He also knew that his prospects of a second term in office depended on winning over public opinion by stopping US involvement in Vietnam. Soon after taking office Nixon introduced his policy of Vietnamisation. The plan was to encourage the South Vietnamese to take more responsibility for fighting the war. It was hoped that this policy would eventually enable the United States to gradually withdraw all their soldiers from Vietnam. To increase the size of the ARVN, a mobilisation law was passed that called up all men in South Vietnam aged between seventeen and forty-three into the army. In June 1969 Nixon announced the first of the US troop withdrawals. The 540,000 US troops were to be reduced by 25,000. Another 60,000 were to leave the following December. In January 1973 the US, the two Vietnams and the Vietcong agreed a ceasefire and the last US troops were withdrawn in March.
In conclusion the US withdrew from Vietnam for political reasons. Public opinion turned against the war when it became clear that both the casualties and the cost of the war were rising and that the US could not win the war. Nixon knew that the only way he could secure a second term in office was to end US involvement in the war. He tried to do this through the process of Vietnamisation but ultimately he wanted the troops out by any means.
