In the end, the Americans relied purely on military methods and firepower to win the war in Vietnam, seeing as they struggled to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Vietnamese. The US became frustrated when it came to fighting battles because they couldn’t tell VC supporters from ordinary villagers. This led to massacres such as My Lai and increased the hatred of the peasants. On 16th March 1968 Lt Calley’s platoon slaughtered the majority of the village, committing the worst reported atrocity of the war. Reportedly 347 men, women, children and babies were all murdered, some of the women had been raped first. The massacre at My Lai is linked to the public opinion of the US people at the time of the Vietnam War and the increasing dissatisfaction of the war back home in America. Many people defended Calley and his men and believed Calley did not deserve his ‘life imprisonment’ he was originally sentenced in 1971 because he was fighting for his country. However the majority of the nation claimed that My Lai highlighted how gruesome and rotten the war was and that My Lai was one of the many other massacres that nobody knew about. The Americans were used to seeing themselves as the ‘good guys’ however people now started to wonder how true this was if their soldiers were responsible for massacres such as My Lai.
My Lai was not the only event which brought people to become part of a national movement against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive is also linked to the public opinion in the US as it also had a huge impact on public opinion back home in the USA. On January 31st 1968, 70 000 VC soldiers launched a massive attack on 100 towns and cities across South Vietnam- it was launched during Vietnamese new year also known as the ‘Tet holiday’. Although the Tet offensive was a disaster for the VC (45,000 NLF dying) and in military terms a huge success for the USA - the offensive caused disarray back home in America. The news film of the Tet offensive had a dramatic effect. Especially moving was the filming of VC guerillas fighting in the grounds of the US embassy. This symbolized America’s failure to keep order and stability in Vietnam. It highlighted the fact that if the US troops could not hold their own embassy then they had no hope in defending anything else but most of all highlighted the fact that the US forces were fighting a losing battle against a determined enemy. Walter Cronkite, America’s most respected TV journalist saw the news film, ‘What the hells going on, I thought we were winning this war?’ he said. Cronkite’s opinion reflected the majority of the nations after the Tet news film were released.
As the war went on more and more stories of war atrocities broke out into the media. And by 1967 there was a public up rise against President Johnson or ‘War Criminal’ as many anti-war placards named him. Forms of protest included draft card burning where men who were drafted or conscripted into the army burnt there draft cards they received through the post by draft boards. Many universities formed large scale protests and revolts against America’s consistency to fight the war in Vietnam.
In 1971 more revelations about the war strengthened the growing opposition movement which the US government were finding hard to ignore. The US public was gradually starting to pull its nation from the war in Vietnam- ‘Vietnamization’ were the first signs of America withdrawing.
The use of American tactics is directly linked to public opinion as it was the tactics used by the US which led to such up rises of the public. Many of the American’s tactics was the main reason behind its countries growing revolt against them. ‘Operation Phoenix’ for example, the purpose of this was to identify and arrest VC suspects in areas controlled by the South Vietnamese government. The operation was a success; many VC leaders were claiming vital communist bases were destroyed. But at the time details of the methods used by the Americans to make ‘Operation Phoenix’ success only strengthened the case for those who opposed the US. The US used many other tactics in order to try and win the war. The bombing of Cambodia achieved very little in military terms as all the US air force was bombing was jungle and farming terrain and destroying few military targets, despite dropping 8m tons worth of bombs. It also caused the Northern forces to boycott all peace talks- the bombing of Cambodia was one of many poor tactics used by the USA military which contributed to the Southern forces to operate ineffectively which against the enemy finally resulting in America withdrawing from the war. As the guerilla soldiers could not be forced into battle, then the jungle environment of which contained the enemy became targets and the US used defoliants to attack these areas. Chemicals were used to kill off vegetation so that VC couldn’t use the jungle as cover. Another example of USA’s poor use of tactics was Westlemore’s ‘search and destroy’ theory which. Searching and destroying the enemy was one thing, but most often the enemy could not be found- frustrated and frightened US troops would therefore settle on searching villagers and destroying those instead (most villagers didn’t even play a role in supporting the VC) these attacks were known as ‘Zippo’ raids.
‘Zippo’ raids were often associated with American troop’s morale during the war- ‘frightened and frustrated’. The morale of the US troops seemed to be good in the early stages of the war. This was mainly because most of the men were full time, career soldiers and had volunteered. As the war went on however more and more of the troops were conscripted or drafted into the army and they didn’t want to be there. The fact that American troops used drugs and sometimes ‘fragged’ their own officers’ also suggested low morale in the war. There was also racial tension between black and white troops. The communist forces had far better morale as they believed in what they were fighting for and were prepared to die for that cause, unlike the majority of the US army which counted down the days until there participation in the war was no longer optional. Many would argue that this is a main reason why the US had to withdraw its troops from Vietnam as it got to a point where the soldiers no longer had any spirit left within them to fight efficiently (as most of them were pumped with drugs such as marijuana).
The US troops morale is directly linked to the Guerilla tactics used by the VC as the US troops were often frightened that they were about to get ambushed or fall into ‘booby traps’. The Guerilla tactics played a big part in Americas withdrawal as the Americans found their enemies tactics hard to cope with, especially ploys such as sabotage, ‘hit and run’, skirmishes etc. The Guerilla tactics were far more effective than the US tactics as they suited the jungle terrain/environment far better than any US tactics used.
The guerilla tactics used are linked to the cost of the as a combination of superior VC tactics and poor US decision making led to the Vietnam War costing the United States a lot of money. Financially, the cost of the war was easy to add up. Its social cast was proven more difficult to judge. Many Americans shared Pravda’s view what the war was unjust. Those who had protested against the war became more confident on challenging the US government’s policies- this was a major blow to the US government as it felt as it now no longer had the support of the majority of the US public. The war was costing America $20 billion a year and eventually Nixon would have to withdraw his troops as the country was feeding to much money into a war which couldn’t be won.
The withdrawal of the US troops on Vietnam was due to many different reasons, each reasons being linked some how to one another some more, some reasons were more significant to others. I think that that the Tet offensive really sparked off the public and their up rise, I believe the public was the Americans biggest rivals and they their up rise was the main reason for their country’s withdrawal. However each reason listed however minor had some impact on Nixon finally withdrawing his troops from fighting a some what pointless, unjust war.
