The tactics the Vietcong and the US used were completely different and played a big role in forcing the Americans to withdraw their troops. The Vietnamese soldiers didn’t wear uniform and looked like ordinary peasants so it was hard for the Americans to tell which of them were peasants and which were soldiers. The American soldiers who see a Vietnamese soldier fire a shot but when they chased after them they would have diapered in a crowd of innocent Vietnamese civilians. Later on in the war the Americans began Killings innocent Vietnamese because they didn’t know if they were soldiers or not. The Americans began Search and destroy missions were they would destroy anything or kill anyone suspicious. This helped lose them the support of their own country.
The Vietcong couldn’t afford a lot of weapons like the Americans, the tactics they used were known as ‘Guerrilla’ tactics. Some of the traps hey set up were very effective and the American soldiers walked straight into them. The American soldiers started becoming paranoid and thought there were traps around even when they weren’t. They began slowing own when walking through the jungle because they had to be careful not to walk into one of the Vietnamese traps. The Vietcong booby traps accounted for 11% of American deaths and 17% of wounds.
The American soldiers kept falling into the Vietcong booby traps in the jungle and found it hard to find the Vietcong soldiers in the jungle. So they decided to use chemical weapons such as Agent Orange, Agent Blue and Napalm. Agent Orange stripped away leaves and undergrowth leaving the trees bare, however it also deformed children and caused severe genetic malfunctions. The Americans were beginning to harm children and when other countries found out about it they protested against America using it so America were forced to stop. Napalm stuck to its victims causing horrific burns. It exploded in flames in the rainforests and permanently damaged the soil. These chemicals caused horrific consequences for not only the Vietnamese soldier but for the innocent civilians that it hit. The American public began seeing images of burnt and deformed children and began questioning if what they were doing was right and the America began losing the support of their public. The Americans also used flamethrowers and sent planes to drop bombs all over the country. They began search and destroy mission were they searched for the Vietnamese soldiers in villages and burnt down any villages were any supplies or equipment was found.
In March 1968 a major search and destroy mission took place, nine helicopter gun ships landed close to the Vietnamese village of My Lai. One platoon from the helicopters spent the next two hours killing, in cold blood, a large number of unarmed Vietnamese men, women and children. This was Know as the My Lai massacre. This was illegal the platoon should not have killed any innocent civilians. The news of the massacre became headline news 3 months later when it all flooded out. The American public were as horrified as the rest of the world and lost even more support in their country. The Vietnam War was affecting the American soldiers badly many did not want to fight and didn’t want to be in Vietnam. The American soldiers weren’t just killing the Vietcong soldiers but innocent people which was wrong and the soldiers and the public knew that something had to be done.
The Americans tried to cut off all supply routes to the Vietcong. However the Vietcong got many of their supplies and weapons transported along the Ho Chi Minh trail from the Soviet Union. However huge quantities of American equipment fell into enemy hand and the Vietcong re-cycled it.
In 1968 just as America thought they were winning the war, the morale of the American people was knocked and they began to feel that the war could never be won. Members of the US government now began to question whether South Vietnam was worth fighting for. The Vietcong and North Vietnamese launched a surprise attack around the time of the Vietnamese Tet festival and consequently became known as the Tet Offensive. It also forced President Johnson tom abandon hopes of becoming re-elected and in 1968 Richard Nixon was elected and promised to put an end to the war. No one wanted to be a part of the Vietnam War anymore even if they won it wouldn’t be worth all the fighting. More American men were being conscripted for war, however many tried dodging it and burnt their draft papers. The Tet offensive made everyone realise that there was no point to the war and that it needed to be ended as soon as possible. The Media and public opinion had turned against US involvement in Vietnam and the Anti-war movement began to grow in strength.
The media played a huge role in why the US withdrew its forces from Vietnam. Before the Tet offensive the media had given the Americans the impression that victory was insight. However, after this event people began to think ‘What the hell is going on’. The media decided that the war could not be won and that it had to end. The media published pictures of children that had been shot by one of their people. It turned the Americans against the war and made people at home realise what was being done in their name. This led to many protests against war throughout America. In the 1960’s many people were hippies so did not agree with war they said ‘make love, not war’. Protests were strongest amongst young people. A major protest broke out at kent State University and made the Americans stop and look at what they were doing. In May 1970 over 800 students protested at Kent State University and one of the buildings was burnt down. Guardsmen shot four students on campus and 10 wounded, this sparked off hundreds of protests across America. This made the American people step back and look at what they were doing, not only had the war caused their soldiers to kill innocent people in Vietnam but Americans were being killed in their own country for voicing their opinion. This put extra pressure on the government to find a peaceful way to end the war.
In 1969 President Nixon withdrew 25,000 troops. US troops would withdraw as and when ARVN forces could take their place. The new policy was known as Vietnamization. Vietnamization went so well that in 1970 Nixon announced plans to withdraw 150,000 troops. However those troops left in Vietnam and also those at home having to live with what they had done took refuge in alcohol and drug abuse. Ever since the start of the war this had been one way of coping with the horrific nature of the war, the loss of close friends and the prospect of imminent death. When Soldiers returned and were awarded medals of honour many of them threw them away.
In 1973 America withdrew its forces from Vietnam as both sides agreed to The Paris Peace Agreement, that stated US armed forces had to withdraw completely. Overall the war cost about 100,000,000 this caused taxes to rise and led to inflation. Since so much money was needed to pay for the war, US forces elsewhere were left short of men, money and equipment.
All these reasons contributed to the withdrawal of the American soldiers. However, I think the most important reason for this was the role of the media. The media turned the American public against the war. They published pictures of burnt children saying that this had been done in their name. If the media hadn’t covered the war then the American citizens wouldn’t have known exactly what was going on and wouldn’t have begun protesting against the war. The protests put extra pressure on the government to come to a peace settlement over Vietnam.
