The Tet offence turned out to be disastrous for North Vietnam as they hoped that the Vietnamese in South Vietnam would help them to get rid of the Americans. This did not happen and the Vietcong were struck hard when they lost 30,000 men. The consequences of the Tet offence were huge for American troops as the media got hold of footage of the Tet offence, which they broadcast in USA. The footage they showed portrayed American troops to be losing the war. Before the Tet offence took place, the American Public thought America was winning the war. So when they saw the footage of the Tet Offence their opinions changed. One of the consequences of the Tet Offence was that Public Opinion started to change.
Because of the coverage of the Tet offence which was shown by the media, people in America started to believe that they were losing the war and many people then wanted American troops to leave Vietnam. I know that the Public opinion changed after the Tet Offence and to support my statement I have a quote.” Giap had achieved one of his most important battles…but the American people had been painfully aware of the war and its cost in lives.” This is a quote from the Complete Military History of the Vietnam War by Douglas Welsh, Brompton Books, 1990.
When the media got hold of pictures of the Vietnamese civilians being tortured, they stirred up more trouble in US; people realized what was being done in their name. Source O, which I have found in a history book entitled Vietnam, shows a photo of Vietnamese civilians, being terrorized. They were suspected of being Vietcong. By looking at this source I can see the terror these civilians and can imagine what the American public felt when seeing these images.
Another example of the media getting involved with the war would be the brutal “My Lai Massacre”, which took place in March 1968. The Americans went into the village of My Lai to wipe out and they certainly did do that. By reading Source F, in a Vietnam history book; I know that the American were determined on seeking out the Vietcong. “Everyone who went into the village had in mind to kill. We considered them either VC or helping the VC.” This source is quoted in Time magazine, 5 December 1969. Soon after this horrendous massacre , the media got hold of pictures showing what had happened. These pictures were broadcasted in America and more people were shocked at what was happening.
At this time the US government was forced to draft young men into the army. This was because of causalities from the Tet Offence. Draft really means that the government forced young men in the USA into the army. So the draft was another consequence of the Tet offence. By looking at source C in my history book entitled Vietnam, I can see that the young men were not willing to join the army. Source C shows young men burning their call up papers.
The draft then started up protests in the USA. Many people in the USA now believed the war to be pointless and did not want any more people to sacrifice their lives. The media had a huge impact on the American public. This led to riots and demonstrations. Students in many American colleges and universities started to protest on campus.
As the number of casualties in the war increased, the number of demonstrations also increased. They got bigger and bigger. In 1971 there was a massive demonstration which took place with a huge crowd of 300,000 people. This demonstration was known as the Veterans March. It was a really big protest involving lots of people.
As the protests went on, pressure started to mount on President Johnson. The American Public simply wanted him to remove the army from Vietnam. But he was worried about the upcoming elections. He didn’t want to make a bad move. The pressure certainly was getting to him when Anti-war slogans were directed to him. “Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?” this was a popular antiwar slogan. So the Tet also had a consequence of putting pressure on the President Johnson.
The pressure did get too much for President Johnson, which meant that he decided not to stand for re-elections. However there was someone who was keen to take over from his place. This person was Richard Nixon. Nixon knew that if he was to fulfil his own agenda, then he had to gain support from the people in USA. This meant he had to withdraw American troops from Vietnam.
Nixon Starts Peace talks with Russia and China. Russia and China were not getting on at this time and Nixon used this information to his own advantage. Détente took place which was the fact that the US were helping to improve relations between China and Russia. China, alongside Russia became communist in 1949, and with China and Russia not getting on, there was a big chance of China going anti-communist.
Soon after the peace talks had started, Vietnamization occurred by orders of President Nixon. In June 1969, Nixon told of his decision to withdraw 25,000 US troops from Vietnam. This then meant that South Vietnam would have to help it self to victory but the US would supply weapons, arms and equipment.
In Conclusion I can now say that there are two main reasons as to why American troops were pulled out of Vietnam. Firstly there is the Tet Offence which had a huge impact on the war. This was because it many consequences. When the media got hold of footage of the event, public opinion changed. People started to believe that America was losing the war when in reality they were winning.
This led to many people protesting and leading riots, to get American troops out of Vietnam. The President at the time was Johnson who was getting pressurized into withdrawing US forces from Vietnam. Johnson decided not to stand for re-elections and therefore, he left the door open for Richard Nixon. This was the new president who had his own agenda and decided to withdraw troops from Vietnam. He also started peace talks between leading nations.
The second main reason as to why American troops were pulled out of Vietnam would be the Media. The media played such an important role in the war. If it wasn’t for the media, public opinion would not have changed and Riots and demonstrations would not have taken place. The media also helped pressurize President Johnson into not standing for re-elections. Which meant Nixon became the new president, who then removed all troops from Vietnam. So therefore I believe that the Media and the Tet offensive were two big factors which had a huge impact on the war.
