Vietcong troops relied heavily on small arms to defeat a seemingly overwhelming American force and in particular booby traps. In total 11% of US casualties were lost to enemy booby traps. Such traps consisted of basic resources like bamboo sharpened and placed in a pit to capture any unsuspecting US soldiers by surprise and wound them to the point of being unable to fight but not quite dead. This was a highly successful tactic deployed by the Vietcong to wound a massive majority of the enemy to weigh them down and exhaust their resources as opposed to killing them which would give the Americans an easier job. A wounded soldier needs far more care and attention than a dead one. The American army tried everything to expose the ‘ghostly’ Vietcong, including spraying tons of Agent Orange exfoliate on; S.Vietnam and dropping more bombs than were ever dropped on Germany in WW11.
The US troops faced fierce opposition who had far clearer aims and were way more devoted to their cause, and whom they essentially could not see. Of the 2,600,000 US troops that served in Vietnam 58,000 died, 53,000 were wounded, 200,000 suffered stress disorder and 100,000-committed suicide. They could not kill every Vietcong member because any peasant could become one.
However the physical difficulties that America ran into in Vietnam only prolonged the war. They could have escalated further and further but one of the biggest problems they met was social. The Vietcong in the south were able to fight the US forces so successfully because the USA never had the full support of the people. No matter how economically strong you are, you cannot force your beliefs on a country’s people, no matter how strong you are. The amount of freedom the international press were granted in Vietnam was huge and a first. Images that shocked the public worldwide were broadcast and no less than in America it’s self. They stuck a nerve with the American people and protest marches became common. Young people left the country and burnt their draft cards to avoid the call up the fight. Eventually this became a real burden on the US government, a burden that played a massive part in the eventual withdrawal of American soldiers. However when Nixon decided to invade Cambodia in 1970 protests increased. Most famously in Kent state where Ohio National Guard shot 4 students. This embarrassed the USA in front of the world and was massively humiliating. The world was shocked by the state, internally of America who were shooting themselves in the foot, as it helped no one more then the Vietcong. All of this just aided their enemy. Contributing and exerting pressures onto presidents Johnson and Nixon eventually playing vital roles in the end of their policies.
Essentially though America lacked any real direction in Vietnam. Something that there enemy’s the North Vietnamese and their allies the NLF took full advantage of and fought an overwhelming American force very successfully in between 1965 and 1973. The Americans claimed to be fighting for the freedom and liberty of every man in a struggle against communism. However this was a hopelessly large subject for even the biggest super-power to accept. Their aims were also too vague and troops out there did not for the most part didn’t really know whom they were fighting let alone what for. They were not as passionate about the cause as their opposition and the rotation system of employing troops in Vietnam meant that no platoon ever built a strong bond or team feeling did not help.
Other factors you could say played parts in the NLF’s victory were that vast amounts of US soldiers were poorly trained for the atmosphere and conditions that they would be fighting in. Which stemmed from extremely poor intelligence on the Americans part. They rushed into something blindly relying on their pride, prestige and honour to guide them without learning from any of the other countries that also fell at the hands of the Vietcong., such as the French. These factors led to an initially seemingly overwhelming Us army being over run in the long run by a small and seemingly weak NLF force using guerrilla tactics with a strong and clear aim.