Why Were the Us Troops Withdrawn From Vietnam In 1973?

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WHY WERE THE US TROOPS WITHDRAWN FROM VIETNAM IN 1973?

It can be argued that America should never have got involved in the Vietnam war in the first place, but once it was, bad military planning contributed to the US’s inevitable failure.  Military blunders, unclear tactics, increasing financial commitment and loss of US soldiers gradually increased political pressure to pull out.

The USA’s desire to prevent Vietnam becoming a Communist nation initiated their intervention when Eisenhower was President.  Under President’s Kennedy and Johnson, there was increasing military support to South Vietnam until in 1964 a Vietcong attack on a US ship in the Gulf of Ton Kin precipitated the sending in of troops.

The war was fought under political restraints which rendered it ineffective.  A reluctance to upset world opinion and provoke a negative response from China and Russia as well as a sensitivity to reactions at home, lead to a US military campaign that was muddled and tactically defective.

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In 1967 the tide of opinion in the US began to turn against American involvement in Vietnam.  As more ground troops were sent in and the death toll rose, first the newspapers and then television networks withdrew their support for the administration.  Images and stories selected specifically to shock increased domestic unrest and many large demonstrations against the war were held across the US.  Civil rights campaigners highlighted the injustice of civilian deaths in Vietnam and lead people to question the reasons for the conflict.  In the last months of 1967 key figures in the administration and even Senate ...

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