Do You Agree With Source A? The Problems Faced By US Soldiers In Vietnam

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Do you agree with this interpretation of the problems faced by US soldiers in Vietnam?

I agree with some of Source A – the extract of Michael Bilton’s book Four hours in My Lai the American soldiers were very inexperienced and young “constantly throwing inexperienced men against experienced guerrillas”. At the beginning of the war people volunteered to go to Vietnam but as America became increasingly more involved people didn’t have a choice and were drafted into the army. The troops only had to stay for one year but a high percentage of troops died within the first 6 months, this was because being in a combat situation was new to them. Americans were not used to guerrilla war tactics, and as a result had a distinct disadvantage. In the years of peace soldiers, had to be very clever to get into the army, but during the Vietnam war they let just about anyone in, because the numbers were low.

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        I wonder why Michael Bilton wrote this book 24 years after the massacre in My Lai, I don’t understand what the point of it was. But I can have an educated guess, In this extract it seems like he is making excuses for the American army, but also taking the mick out of the higher ranking officers for having letting things slide so to speak. I don’t know what nationality he is, or even if he was alive in the Vietnam war which raises some questions such as where did he obtain his information from? And is it reliable?

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