Why was the USA unable to defeat communism in south East Asia in the years 1965-73?
Why was the USA unable to defeat communism in south East Asia in the years 1965-73? In the 1950's the United States began to send troops to Vietnam. During the following 25-years the ensuing war would create some of the strongest tensions in US history. Thousands of men and women were sent thousands of miles to fight for a questionable cause. Out of fear of the spread of communism, the USA spent millions of dollars in hopes of containing communism. But where did it all go wrong? Inasmuch effort as the Americans put in and even as they were seen as a super power, they still faced defeat in south east Asia.In this essay I will discuss reasons why the USA was unable to defeat communism in south east Asia in the years 1960-73.The USA used a wide range of tactics throughout their occupation in Vietnam. These only seemed to get more and more intense from 1965 onwards. The USA were more advanced in their weapons, they possessed vast amounts of air power as well as on the ground. However, this proved to not work at the best of their advantage. On the 7th of February 1965, Johnson approved operation rolling thunder. This operation started in an effort to demoralise the north Vietnamese people and to undermine the capacity of the government. It failed on both accounts. Operation rolling thunder dropped more bombs on Vietnam than on Germany and Japan in all of world war 2. Of some of the bombs that were dropped, not all of them exploded and this provided the north Vietnamese with explosives