There are many reasons why the United States withdrew their forces from Vietnam in 1973

The morale amongst the US soldiers was low- due to the fact that the war was going badly this made the soldiers have bad morale as they were very worried about being killed and not being able to go back home. Also many soldiers were drafted/conscripted for a year. If you were white, wealthy and well educated you were less likely to have to fight.

This meant that if you were either black, Hispanics or poor you would have no choice but to fight which made these soldiers very unhappy. So many of them tried to survive rather then risk their lives to win the war.

The conditions that the troops were in also affected their morale such as:

/ the bad weather, which made everything cold and wet.

2/ the animals and insects for example snakes.

3/ sleeping conditions, which weren't very good and uncomfortable, which didn't allow the soldiers to have much sleep (when they eventually could)

War was unpopular in the US

Local support was lost through search and destroy missions and attacks

The Mai Lai massacre was when the US troops murdered 500 villagers and raped women and children. Because the massacre was reported the US people were confused as to why this was happening so began to think that Vietnam was a bad thing and stop supporting it. This was due to the media as they revealed pictures of the war which the US thought were horrific and made them see their troops in a bad light.

Tet offensive showed the US people that the Vietcong were not a beaten enemy- the Tet offensive was a big risk for the Vietcong as this was when they had to fight the way the Americans did they were also not as well equipped as the Americans. The Vietcong managed to sneak into the main areas controlled by the south government and fight. This was a shock for the government as the Vietcong were fighting in places that were supposed to be protected by the south and the Americans. This shown the US that the Vietcong were not a beaten enemy.

South Vietnamese did not want support from the USA. USA failed to win the 'hearts and the minds'-because of all the attacks that the American troops done the south Vietnamese didn't want their support as they didn't like the way they were fighting. Because of the way the American troops were fighting (killing innocent people) it was said that they failed to win the hearts and the minds.

High profile draft dodging- because the war was going so badly and many people were dying no one wanted to go over to Vietnam so they did everything they could to dodge being made to go over.

Social problems

The cost of the war was $20bn a year-because the war was costing the US a lot of money it was affecting the lives of the Americans as they had no money for the basic things they needed. At this time there was the civil rights in America this had to be cut also due to the cost of the war.

War unpopular with the world

The Americans were heavily bombing which lead to civilian deaths and the media got hold of pictures which were shown to the rest of the world and the rest of the they were shocked and completely against the way the Americans were fighting. Not only were the Americans bombing civilians but they were also using defoliants and this led to horrific burns on children again the world didn't think that this was right or acceptable and began to dislike the war.

All of these long term factors meant that there was a need for America to withdraw. It was Nixon and the need for him to win the election in 1972. The long term effects had created a political environment where to stay in power Nixon had to pull troops out by the next election.

When Nixon was elected in 1968 he had promised to end the war, he had promised 'peace with honour'. Nixon realised that the next election was in 1972 so he knew that in order to be elected again he needed to make sure he pulled out the Americans from Vietnam. So the US began looking for peace since the Paris talks in 1968. The US began to have secret talks with the North Vietnamese and ignored the south so that he could have a better chance of getting peace. In 1969 Ho Chi Minh died. This was good news for Nixon as it was said that Ho Chi Minh would have never signed the peace treaty. To bring the war to an end Nixon treid to invade Laos and Cambodia to stop the Vietcong being supplied but this only made the Vietcong a lot less likely to agree to any negotiations so Nixon realised he had to think of a new plan. To make sure that the peace treaty was signed Nixon used heavy bombing to force the North Vietnamese into signing it. Luckily for Nixon his chief negotiator, Henry kissing had negotiated a peace settlement by October 1972 which was just in time for the election.

To conclude the reason that the US withdrew their forces from Vietnam in 1973 was because the war was going badly which was because of the low morale which lead to the death of innocent people and the war was then unpopular in the US. This then made a lot of political pressure for Nixon and he realised that in order for him to be elected in the next election he needed to pull troops out of Vietnam by the November election (1972). Nixon was successful as he was re-elected and he managed to make peace and pull out the American troops from Vietnam in 1973.