By 1966, the Americans began a series of Search and Destroy Missions in order to hunt down the Vietcong. The problem was that, by doing this, they began to loose the trust of, and alienated the Vietnamese civilians. As a way of compensating for this, the Americans used the 'Pacification' policy, which was designed to win the hearts and minds of the people of South Vietnam. This policy involved the US giving free dishwashers, washing machines, fridges, etc... to the Vietnamese, but these items were completely useless to them, as they had no electricity. The Pacification policy was a complete failure.
Most US soldiers were draftees (which meant their military service was compulsory). They were inexperienced and increasingly unwilling to fight. Their tours of duty were for one year, and for many soldiers their main concern was getting back home rather than winning the war. The US soldiers were struggling to cope with the psychological strain of fighting against an enemy who was difficult to find and destroy, and who seemed to just disappear into the jungle. This lack of motivation was hugely in contrast to the Vietcong who were desperate to win the war and tried to do anything. A further blow to the already low morale of the US soldiers was that, no matter how many Vietcong they killed, they just kept on coming. This was because male and female Vietnamese were constantly being trained in the North and sent down to the South to fight. The Vietcong also seemed far readier than the Americans to accept losses.
America had a large air army and tried to use it throughout the Vietnam War. However the air attacks made very little impact in the first six months which meant a big part of America’s army was going to waste. America realised this and changed their tactics. This ‘saturation’ bombing did not work due to anti air weapons used by the Vietcong and only increased enemy morale.
This enemy morale was, according to some historians one of the most important reasons why America couldn’t win and had to pull out of the war. The North Vietnamese and Vietcong were determined to keep fighting; they were not going to give in. They saw the Americans as invaders who were preventing their county from being united again. If the Vietcong had defeated the French, they saw no reason why they could not force the Americans to withdraw. An example of this is the way they repaired supply lines to towns and villages. Men, women and children helped the war effort in the north by working quickly to repair essential supply routes damaged by the American bombing campaign. In the south, peasants hid supplies or in some cases led American soldiers to Vietcong booby traps.
The American tactics during the war were an important part of them losing the war. This included the inappropriate technology they were using. The chemical warfare was an example of this. They tried to alter Vietnam’s geography by using napalm to urn leaves and trees, weed killer to kill foliage and so on. What they had not realised is that some chemicals such as Agent Orange contained toxins which made some of the Americans, as well as the Vietnamese develop cancer. As this was found out protests were made about the use of these chemicals, decreasing the support for the war. Also Vietnam is not a small country, and though 25,000 square kilometres were covered in defoliants, this was only a small fraction of Vietnam.
The My Lai massacre a search and destroy mission which involved killing many innocent men, women and children. This killing led to the American public being horrified when they heard about it.
The Tet offensive was a surprise attack by the Vietcong during the Tet festival, the one time in the year when America thought they would not attack. Though many Vietnamese leaders thought that they did not achieve their objectives and considered it a failure, the west considered it a victory for the North Vietnamese. The U.S army had very little people killed, just two percent. The Vietcong had caused damage in another area though, in the U.S homeland where many people’s perceptions of the war had changed. The media coverage in America had decided that ‘at best it was a war that could not be won and at worst a defeat’. Even the politicians thought that the war was unwinnable due to the biased coverage of the Tet. The huge opinion shifts show that the Tet is either a key part in the view that America must pull out of Vietnam or that this was the straw that broke the camels back. The Tet at the very least forced LB Johnson out of Presidency and Nixon became the new leader, who promised he would end the war.
The protests by American draftees and other people who were against the war is another reason many say is an important role in America pulling out of Vietnam. Troubles started when America started to call up large numbers of men to fight the war. Some were so strongly in opposition of fighting that they tore up their draft papers. As the war intensified and the death toll mounted up they resented the war even further. Protests began against the war and slogans were made. The demonstrations got much press and became larger and larger. Some slogans and songs were directed at Lyndon b. Johnson who was showing the increased pressure on him due to these campaigns.
Another reason why the protests sparked off was the role of the media. As explained above in the Tet, much of the media coverage focused on how many Americans had died or scandals like the My Lai massacre, which was uncovered almost 2 years after it happened anyway. There was hardly any report on how the Vietnam had huge losses or the Vietcong’s failures. They were showing it as ‘a peasant nation bravely resisting the might of the Americans’. As you can imagine the public could only see what the media gave them and soon opinion polls dropped in support of the war.
In conclusion I think that the main reason for the withdrawal of America from Vietnam is the role of the media and public opinion. As shown in the essay, many of the points mentioned led to the public starting to turn against the war. This in turn put pressure on the President to start peace talks with Vietnam. The media had the largest part in changing the public’s opinion though. In cases such as the Tet offensive where what seemed like a victory for America into one for the Vietcong. It was things like this that changed the American public.
