Why was the USA Unsuccessful in the Vietnam War?

President Eisenhower and his secretary of state took an anti-communist line in south Vietnam because the Truman Doctrine didn’t want people of south Vietnam to vote for a communist take over and also felt that the south Vietnamese government was their best chance to prevent a communist take over the us was involved before because they supplied weapons and financial support as well as military advice. The domino theory was the fear that if one country turned to communism then neighbouring countries i.e. Laos, Thailand and Cambodia would follow. The US support overthrew Bao Dai in South Vietnam in 1955 because they were afraid he was damaging their cause and would ruin the election because he was unpopular. The new government of Ngo Dinh Diem became so unpopular because he was a catholic, he appointed Catholics to top positions and he put down the Buddhists (he didn’t allow them to practice their religion) because he wanted the catholic religion to be the main religion, this is when Buddhist monks started covering themselves with petrol and burning themselves in the streets. Ngo Dinh Diem was willing to introduce strategic hamlets into south Vietnam because the fear was that communist activity was concentrated in certain areas “ pockets” so Diem moved people about to try and break up the resistance. The national liberation front (N.L.F) were the communists operating in south Vietnam, they were allies of the north Vietnamese (V.C - Viet cong) and were against the south Vietnamese government and U.S.A. So the NLF and VC worked together. It was mostly peasants that made up the NLF who wanted to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and unite Vietnam.

The events in Laos worried the U.S.A because there was also communist activity. Laos was a neighbouring country to Vietnam and the rebels in Laos were supplying weapons to the communist guerrillas in Vietnam. The Viet Cong gueillas in South Vietnam were. The Viet Cong guerrillas in South Vietnam were getting their support from North Vietnam, the U.S.S.R., china and Laos’s rebels. Kennedy sent an increasing number of advisors to help Diem because Diem was very unpopular. He was making bad decisions (i.e. the Buddhists and the hamlets). The decisions he made were very unpopular so America sent advisors into help him defeat rebels. He was publicly embarrassing for the U.S.A. America was particularly keen to take a tough stand in Vietnam after their failure in Cuba because in Cuba the Americans were forced to back down over Cuba they were forced to back down over Cuba after the bay of pigs. The Americans had to prove they could stand up to communism. Kennedy agreed to a CIA plan to remove Diem from power because he was unpopular, he was doing more bad than good. The Viet Cong were powerful in South Vietnam because Diem was unpopular and therefore driving people in to the arms of communism.

The significance of the gulf of Tonkin incidence was that it allowed LBJ to get the backing of congress to send troops into Vietnam. The significance of the Ho Chi Minh trail to the South Vietnamese guerrillas was that it allowed guerrillas into South Vietnam to have a continuous supply of weapons coming down from the north. The peasants suffered badly in south Vietnam in the war because of “search and destroy” the Americans would enter, search for NLF and VC, they would then burn down villages. They suffered carpet-bombing, napalm, and Agent Orange that caused deformities, cluster bombs that exploded and released lots of mini bombs. The impact of the Tet offensive was enormous on the U.S.A public opinion. Before the U.S.A public had backed the war and after the Tet offensive the U.S.A public began to question the war and turn against it. The role the battle of Khe Sanh played in changing U.S public opinion was that it showed young inexperienced fighters didn’t even know about the war, up uptill then the Americans thought they were winning. Johnson called a halt to bombing in 1968 because Parisa peacr talks had opened between the Americans and north Vietnamese. The north Vietnamese in the north cencored their news about the war. They only showed news of victories with the Americans on the run. The government of north Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh persuaded the population of north Vietnam to support the war effort because the Americans had no right to be in Vietnam they wanted to unite the two halfs into one country. The north Vietnamese troops were very respectful of the local peasants and treated them well so it was easy to gain support seeing as the Americans were very brutal.

Nixon rejected the trueman doctrine because once he went to china, America had built a newer friendlier relatioship with Russia. They agreed to disagree (détente). Vietnamisation was the policy where U.S troops would gradually withdraw from Vietnam leaving the fighting to the A.R.V.N which was the south Vietnamese army. The Americans invaded Cambodia in 1970, they wanted a base. However they had to withdraw after just six weeks as the U.S received lots of critism from the world. In 1971 america invaded Laos with the same aim- to have a base and they stayed in Laos for two years. Nixon’s behaviour in 1970 and 1971 upset the U.S. public opinion because he critisised the young anti-war demonstrators in America he called them “bums”. He wasn’t very sympathetic about the kent state shooting when four died. Linebacker 1 and linebacker 11 were massive bombing campagns, more bombs were droped in linebaker 1 and 11 than in the rest of the whole Vietnam war. The U.S didn’t realy withdraw from vietname with honour because they fought for years and years and hadn’t achieved anything. So people new America was withdrawing because they couldn’t beat the viet cong. The Vietnam war damaged U.S standing in the eyes of its own people and the rest of the world because it was overrub by the V.C communists. The country was reunited as it still is today. It brought home to Americans that they couldn’t win every war they were involved in. as for the world, it damaged U.S reputationas a country that stood for what was right and is fair. The view shown in U.S films depends on which one you’re watching, however nearly all of themshows the war from thre U.S point of view. Some films glamourise the war where as some films are realistic. The group of people who don’t have an opportunity to tel their side of the war are the Vietnamese peasants.