Search and destroy make US less popular and more people turn to the Vietcong.
Because of the points above, America couldn’t win the war and the whole army‘s morale was bad as the tactics ‘Search and destroy’, were not sufficient. This tactic required soldiers to go in suspect villages, kill suspected people and destroy the place. However, if Americans got false information, then innocent lives would be killed. This happened nearly most of the time. On the other hand, this tactic was not very effective as a lot of Vietcong still survived due to lack of uniform making them hard to identify. Again the US forces morale was bad. Apart from Search and destroy, American had bombing raids. To some extent it was effective as it destroyed North Vietnam’s supply route and damaged their war effort. The US used a powerful chemical weapon called Agent Orange. It was a highly toxic weedkiller. It was used to destroy jungle that the Vietcong hid in. The Americans sprayed 82 million litres of this chemical on thousands of square kilometres of jungle. Moreover, Napalm was another widely used chemical weapon. It nearly did the same as Agent Orange, as it destroyed jungle but also it could burn through skin to bone. Civilians were harmed by this chemical. Napalm was extremely dangerous. However, if this powerful chemical harms the innocent Vietnamese, then the US’s aim would not be achieved since the US force wanted to kill the Vietcong. This created massive problem as it actually happened: ordinary civilians were killed and their homes were destroyed. However, the money was not used efficiently, as on average it cost $400,000 to kill one Vietcong troop. This is a massive figure and the US public would not be impressed if they knew their money not being used effectively. Therefore, the US government has to cover it up.
Search and destroy can actually be described as a horrible tactic. The My Lai massacre was an example for a failed ‘Search and destroy’ operation.
In March 1968, the My Lai massacre was the last attack in Vietnam. A group of American soldiers were told to carry out a mission called the ‘My Lai massacre’. It was a search and destroy mission, but this time they kill innocent lives again as they received false information. They killed 400 innocent villagers but actually none of them were Vietcong. However, the whole group claimed that of the all the dead bodies were Vietcong. Everyone in the army treated the attack as a normal and inevitable part of the war. After a year, soldiers who have knew the truth for My Lai massacre have asked the Congress to investigate this incident. The media has published photographs of the My Lai massacre and the published were shocked. This incident was a cover up for the failure of almost all the attacks. This was the clearest incident that the war has gone wrong. It was also clear that search and destroy didn’t work. The US force had received so much pressure from the public. Furthermore, the US force was absolutely fed up of the war that could never be won. They knew there was not point to struggle in this position, but, the US still could not withdraw yet.
In 1968, the Tet Offensive proved to be an important turning point in the war. This was also one of the reasons which Americans withdrew. The Vietcong (N. Vietnamese) attacked over 100 cities and other military targets. However, the Tet Offensive was still a disaster for the communists. The Vietcong wanted the South Vietnamese to join them but they didn’t. Hence they were more prepared to negotiate a peace treaty. Although one Vietcong commando unit nearly captured the US embassy, the Vietcong was weakened since they lost around 10,000 experienced fighters. After this, a few questions started to be raised in the USA: the US has 500,000 troops and was spending $20 billion a year on the war; nevertheless the Vietcong still killed a lot of US troops and their embassy in Saigon. Both sides started to realise the war was not worth going on because it could not be won militarily. On the Vietnam’s side, the South Vietnamese were not impressed by the war because they didn’t want a war to go on as it affected their stability. Literally both sides didn’t want the war to carry on. The forest areas were burned, civilians were killed, the ancient city of Hue was destroyed, and also money and resources were wasted, was this right? Most of the US citizens want peace agreement at this point.
By this point, the media collected a lot of shocking images from Vietnam of conditions in the nation. Images of crying children after the bombing raids by the US forces were shown on television and published on newspapers, which were a huge shock to all American citizens. Most citizens felt sympathetic towards the innocent little children who were harmed by the horrible napalm attack, but on the other hand they feel angry towards the US army. There were protests because the US citizen wanted to put pressure on the government to end the war and they were also furious about they US forces’ actions. The protest involves 40,000 students. Frequently, protest would even burn the American flag. There were anti-war protests all over the country. Thousands of men refused to serve in Vietnam when they were called up. So the army ended up using Black in American army. Tax payers were obviously not impressed by the war as the taxes rise, they were not happy as their money was used to ‘kill’ innocent lives indirectly.
America was unstable and devastating. Americans started to think about what they were actually doing in the war.
The media was one of the factors why the Americans withdraw from Vietnam, as the Americans did not support the US forces and they started to feel pressure from the events going on in America (protest, unstableness and the media which reflects exactly what they were really doing). The media deliberately played this trick to make most of the Americans turned against the war.
Finally, after all those striking events, President Nixon concluded that the war could not be won militarily and he decided to withdraw the US troops. He asked the officials to negotiate for peace with the communist. In the mean time, a question started to rise between the US public, which was ‘how can the US get out of Vietnam without it looking like a defeat?’ In November, 1968, Richard Nixon and his advisor Kissinger were responsible for ending the US involvement in Vietnam. Nixon wanted peace settlement. He and his advisor had made lots of effort into it.
First of all, Nixon negotiate with countries like the USSR and China, who were the suppliers, Nixon put pressure on both countries to persuade Vietnam to stop the war. Nixon played it cleverly as getting other countries to do the job rather than letting US leave making it looks like a defeat. Moreover, Kissinger, Nixon’s advisor, also tried to improve relations with North Vietnam, he had regular meeting with North Vietnam. Besides negotiate with other counties, Nixon decided to cut down the amount of troops in South Vietnam and build up South Vietnamese forces. Moreover, to make sure US didn’t appeal to be weak, Nixon increased bombing campaigns against N. Vietnam to show he was not weak and military pressure in the US. He spread the war to Laos and Cambodia and caused much public honour. This makes US looked strong and it wouldn’t seem US withdrawal was caused by the fear of Vietcong.
To summarise, there were lots of reasons responsible for the US withdrawal. Both sides manage to gain in this war but they also lost a lot. Nevertheless, the US didn’t gain a lot as it killed innocent civilians in the war. Moreover, although the US killed a lot of Vietcong, the US never manage to kill the idea of communism. Personally, I think if the US left Vietnam to decide what kind of government it wants, then all these money and lives won’t be sacrificed. Moreover, the spirit of communism would still be there even though US killed all Vietcongs.
