America did not have the ability to win the war. The Vietcong used guerrilla tactics which involved setting traps and ambushing their opponents. The Americans were not trained to fight against guerrilla warfare and were not trained to fight in the jungles of Vietnam. The Vietcong were very determined to win the war. The morale amongst American soldiers was low because they did not want to fight and the war effort wasn’t fully supported by the American civilians.
Once the Americans realised they were unable to win the war and that they were sending innocent men to their deaths for no reason they realised the war wasn’t worth it, this would have put pressure on the American government to withdraw their forces.
People turned against the war because of what they saw on TV, heard on the radio and read in newspapers. The media told of the suffering caused by the war, showed photo’s of victims that were injured by the American bombs and told stories of what it was like in Vietnam, this made people realise that the war was not good and increased the peace movement. When people heard about events such as the My Lai massacre they turned against the war and the President even more and turned to the peace movement. The peace movement put pressure on the government to withdraw its troops and it put even more pressure on them when Vietnam veterans joined the peace protests. The government could not fight a war without the cooperation of the American people and this put pressure on them to withdraw troops.
Nixon was against the war and so when he took over as president he started to think about the withdrawal as troops. Nixon had to maintain popularity with the people so he had to do everything he said he’d do when he was voted president.
The war was funded by the taxes paid by American Civilians, this money should have been used to pay for services for the American people but because the money was spent on the war instead more and more people began to complain and then joined the peace movement, placing more pressure on the American government and on President Nixon.
By the term Vietnamization Nixon meant the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam whilst keeping up the Puppet regime. Peace talks occurred at Christmas 1972 and in January 1973. The peace talk in 1972 was a failure but the peace talk of 1973 ended in the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.
I think the withdrawal of American troops happened because of a combination of: the inability of the Americans to win the war, the pressure the peace movement applied on the government and President and the political situation of the US. The peace movement put pressure on the President and Nixon knew he couldn’t run the war without the support of the American people. The Tet offensive made Nixon realise that his troops weren’t trained to fight against guerrilla tactics and that they were unable to win the war. Nixon also couldn’t just keep on sending in troops to fight when most of them died. Support was lost when the President used tax money to fund the war instead of providing or improving services. The US could not afford to run the war and so after the peace talks America had to withdraw troops from Vietnam.