Explain why the United Stateswithdrew its forces from Vietnamin 1973?

Authors Avatar

Darren Raffety

History Coursework

Vietnam

Explain why the United States withdrew its forces from Vietnam in 1973?

In this essay I will explain why the United States withdrew its forces from Vietnam and explain the main long term and short term factors that influenced the decision to withdraw its forces and cease all military operations in Vietnam.  

Vietnam was a French colony before World War Two but due to their defeat at the hands of Hitler it was issued to the Japanese, who where part of the axis partnership.  The Japanese ill-treated the Vietnamese and used them as slaves in the war effort.  A man called Ho Chi Minh lead an organised group in the uprising against their Japanese oppressors and soon forced them from Vietnam.  

Ho Chi Minh was a communist and ruled Vietnam as a communist state.  The Americans here, showed first their first signs of interest as they did not want communism to spread to other countries.  This theory of communism spreading was called the Domino Effect. America wanted to try and detain communism and used the UN to isolate China by placing trade sanction upon them which lead to them relying more and more upon the USSR for trade.  This strengthened their relationship and lead to an increase in communist movements in Asia.  

After World War Two, France were left very weak in the sense of political, economical and social since their country had been invaded and remained under axis control for years.  The French sent soldiers to Vietnam to begin to take back their old empire but Ho Chi Minh lead a group of freedom fighters to attack the French.  This is when the new forms of warfare took affect, and very successfully.  They did not organise lines of defence around key areas but left small resistance fighters who hampered communication lines and logistical support.  Some were posted in trees and sniped soldiers who were alone.  The soldiers did not know where to firing had come from and thus could not fight back.  This was later called Guerrilla Warfare but could be compared with terrorism.  

Join now!

The French were shocked at the growing cost of conflict.  The French economy could not sustain these heavy costs and the military could not sustain these heavy losses of troops.  The mayor blow came when a whole division of French paratroopers were defeated at the hands of the Vietminh.  The French pulled out of Vietnam which created more humiliation for the French.  

After the French left, the UN proposed to bring some democracy to Vietnam.  The UN split the country in to two parts, South Vietnam and North Vietnam.  This was only a temporary move to settle ...

This is a preview of the whole essay