The Vietcong used guerrilla tactics, this comes from the Spanish meaning ‘little war’ these tactics were used against napoleon in the peninsular war (1807-1814) by Spanish soldiers, the Vietcong used these tactics fully and to the maximum by using the surrounding terrain in Vietnam which was mainly dense rainforest etc. they would fight in small platoons or in groups of two or three men, so if they came under attack and were taken captive by the Americans then the Americans would only have a few men which would not be a severe loss to the Vietcong. The Vietcong also dressed to blend in with the peasants so an American soldier could not tell the difference which led to a less chance or risk of getting caught, this was useful to the Vietcong as when they attacked small patrols of American troops they could then go to a village and act is they were just an ordinary peasant. Although the Vietcong could gain very little very territory from this tactic it was very effective and a success for the Vietcong as it was a resistance against the Americans and each death of an American was reported to the American public which quickly turned the public opinion against the war. Another tactic used by the Vietcong was ‘pungee pits’ these were bamboo spikes in pits to injure the American troops when they were least expecting to be injured or killed, not only did these spikes impale the troops but excrement was smeared on the spike to infect the wound causing it to go septic leading to the wound not healing easily and causing immense pain for the soldier, this lead to a very big decrease in the Americans troops morale.
The Ho Chi Minh trail was another long-term cause for the Americans to withdraw as this trail was supplying the Vietcong with food, drink and weapons from the other communist states (soviet union- Russia, communist china- China), the Americans couldn’t cut off this trail however much they tried as a result from this the Vietcong could carry on fighting. In comparison with this another important long-term cause why the Americans chose to withdraw was that the fact that there tactics in war didn’t change throughout the whole time they were in Vietnam, this led to there inability to defeat the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and Vietcong, the Americans only choice was to withdraw as a result of not being able to defeat the NVA and the Vietcong.
The Americans tactic were very ineffective due to the fact that they relied on the superiority of there weapons and didn’t look into what terrain they were fighting in and/or the enemy they were fighting and what the enemies tactics were. The Americans tactics consisted of very heavy bombing to the north of Vietnam, this was known as the operation ‘rolling thunder’ this was thought of by Diem and was first put into action in 1965, this caused a lot of support to be lost in Vietnam as it was the exact opposite of the ‘hearts and minds’ policy. There were only three main types if bomb used throughout the war, the first Napalm- a very dangerous substance, it sets the victim alight when it explodes leaving a sticky thick substance on them to make the burns worse also you couldn’t get it off, by the time the victim got the substance off they would have very serious buns and would suffer from phosphorus poisoning in the blood, basically it burned everything it came into contact with leaving its victims with fifth degree burns on a 70% ratio. The second Agent Orange and Agent Blue were defoliants made from a mixture of herbicides created to destroy the crops and foliage as well as trying to uncover the Vietcong and cut off their food supply, it also poisoned the water, there was about 13 million gallons of the defoliant agents sprayed over North Vietnam, another thing that the defoliant agents did when exploded was to cause chromosomal damage. Pineapple bombs were explosive bombs containing plastic/metal ball bearings and when exploding on impact would rip the surrounding area and people near the explosion apart, plastic ball bearings were preferred on these types of bomb due to they couldn’t be detected by X-ray so they couldn’t be found so not preventing them from being used. At the end of operation ‘rolling thunder’ 1971 more bombs had been dropped on North Vietnam by the U.S air force than dropped in the entire of World War 2 from every country using bombs, despite this the operation was a failure As it met none of its objectives, it was only supposed to last 8 weeks- it lasted 3 ½ years, it didn’t force the North Vietnamese government to surrender but gave them more of a reason to retaliate, it was supposed to cut off the food supplies yet it was no where close to this as the Ho Chi Minh trail was used, it was supposed to uncover the Vietcong in the dense forestry yet didn’t do this as the Vietcong used a network of underground passages and tunnels as well as the aid from the peasants, hiding in their villages, but the main reason for the failure of the operation was the fact that the bombs killed more civilians and peasants than it did Vietcong and NVA.
‘Search and Destroy’ was another tactic used by the Americans which was yet another failure and cause leading to the withdrawal, this tactic was used when General Westmoreland realised that the Vietcong could not be defeated unless the troops went into the jungles, basically the U.S troops would go into the jungle looking for the Vietcong and when they found them call for air support i.e. bombing, this didn’t work as the Vietcong were very hard to find as they were either dressed as peasants or in hiding and when they were found there simply wasn’t enough time to call as it would be a combat situation or there wasn’t enough of them to bomb.
All of these cause’s are leading to a cause believed to be one of the most serious causes to the withdrawal of the Americans troops was the morale, troop morale was very low due to the fighting and number of soldiers killed and the loss of a lot of American civilian support back in the U.S, this was a result to drug taking, the troops would take drugs like marijuana and cocaine during R n R time (rest and recreation) this was making the troops less effective in combating and also in long-term it was destroying them, amphetamines were used to keep the troops awake at night but this was also making them less effective and all the drugs were leading to depression even if it made them feel better when they actually took the drugs, most of the soldiers in Vietnam from America were conscripted and didn’t want to be there so this was another reason for drug taking. In 1971 5000 soldiers were treated for wounds from a combat situation, yet a whole 20 000 were being treated for drug abuse, this was a horrifying comparison.
The main short-term reason for the withdrawal of the U.S troops was the Tet offensive in 1968, this massively reduced the U.S public opinion of the war and made them ask ‘why are we even fighting this war?’ this was because the Tet offensive was where the Vietcong left using guerrilla tactics and made a full scale attack on the U.S embassy building in Saigon, 15 Vietcong soldiers got into the embassy building, this attack was shown on American TV and made the impression on the public of America troops not being able to defend one American building in South Vietnam, so this led to the question of ‘why are we in this war when we cant defend our own building?’. Pictures from this war of dead American and Vietnamese (north and south) soldiers were shown to the American public via TV and news papers etc. which decreased the opinion in mass proportion of the war leading to more protests etc. and the troops in Vietnam losing morale because they had no support.
Losing all this support Nixon started peace talks in Paris , these failed when Nixon was re-elected, also the pentagon papers were released and showed how the U.S government had lied about several attacks in Vietnam. To top this off the public support was completely crushed when the attacks on Cambodia and Laos took place, as these attacks were an unnecessary massacre of bordering countries which were believed to be assisting in the help of the Vietcong. As a result of this Nixon started his ‘Vietnamisation’ process in which consisted in the start of the withdrawal of the U.S troops , and giving the ARVN weapons to defend themselves more but they couldn’t fight as they had no incentive to.
To conclude there were many reasons for the withdrawal in Vietnam, the most important reasons were the Tet offensive and the inefficiency of the American troops, the causes stated throughout this essay interlink but a change to other aspects could’ve changed the outcome of the war as each cause reflected and influenced another cause, all the causes add to the next to make the outcome of the war and in each short and long-term came the result e.g. Tet offensive changed the public opinion which changed the troops morale leading to the troops in-effectiveness leading to the withdrawal of the troops. All causes linked to another cause in the war, which is why the America withdrew its troops and forces in 1973.