Source E is a map that would appear in a test book and would be used for educational reasons. This is a secondary source, as it would have been produced after the war to show people what happened in 1964 at the Gulf of Tonkin. This source is generally accurate even though it was produced by the Americans; the only thing I’m unsure about is the American ships been destroyed or attacked in international waters. As this was a claim that Lyndon Johnson made; he said that the Vietcong had attacked his ships so he attacked Vietnam, Johnston had said that he wanted a more aggressive war against south Vietnam as there hadn’t been that much, he also said this famous phrase ‘If you let a bully come into your front garden one day, the next day he’ll be up on your porch, and the day after that he’ll rape your wife in your own bed.’ To do this he sent planes and troops across this was called operation rolling thunder. However when they done this they needed to be careful as they were flying their planes over Laos, Thailand and China; dropping the bombs if any bomb hit one of there countries or damaged them then that country would turn communist and fight against the Americans. The source would be useful but it could be biased, it is also trustworthy and reliable because the author of the textbook would have researched it. Even though it is reliable it still has limitations because it only shows one side because it doesn’t mention anything about the Vietcong army and also their reaction to ‘operation rolling thunder’.
Source F is a section from a book called ‘the Bloody Game,’ the source would be biased and over exaggerated because the book was designed to sell and also to make the Vietcong sound like hero’s. This means that it would be less reliable but some would still be trustworthy, as it would have the basic facts that had been researched by author. When I looked at the source I can assume that it was wrote by an eye witness that fought on the Vietcong side at some point but then wrote down in this book years later, this would mean the book would not be on the side of the Americans. The aim of this book was to criticize the Americans for even trying to go and win the war after the other two countries had failed to do so. The source is mostly accurate but some things such as ‘any hit within half a kilometre would collapse the walls of a bunker’ were a slight lie and used as propaganda. The limitations of this source are that it was only wrote from one point of view so you cannot take much from it and also because of the title it would make you think that it was worse than it was. The description shows that when the Americans were bombing Vietnam they were starting to get desperate and were still loosing the war despite having the most superior bomber plane at the time; they had started to use saturation bombing instead of trying to plot certain places to bomb this was because the Vietcong were everywhere as they were just acting like a normal Vietnamese peasant. The relates to the statement in the question because it shows that even though the Americans had more technology and were more superior with bombs than the Vietcong they still had no sight of victory.
Source G is a description of a chemical warfare attack by the Americans, using Napalm, which was their first chemical weapon; this had similar effects as weed killer because it burnt everything in its path. This source was produced in a British newspaper so would be biased towards the Vietcong because Britain supported America throughout the war; not only did they do this but they didn’t want the domino theory to take place either. When dropping the chemicals, America was loosing the faith of their own country’s citizens because it was killing innocent peasants; the main reason for them to use this weapon was because it caused deforestation. They thought that this would have made it easier for them to fight the Vietcong because they would be able to see their enemy, they also thought it would help to win the war. However the Vietcong had an underground tunnel that had been there for 20 years so it didn’t make it any harder for them to hide from the Americans. You couldn’t totally rely on this source because it had was designed to be sold in a newspaper; even though the source is fact based it would still not be completely truthful because it was only aimed at those who could read and were educated at the time. Also if it were totally truthful people would probably not buy it because it would be boring and not very interesting. This source also shows that the statement in the question was true because they had invented chemical warfare and the Vietcong only had basic weapons.
Source H is a diagram of the tunnel system that had been there for at least 20 years before America started to fight the Vietcong, this was because they had used them to fight against both France and Japan; the Vietcong could live in these tunnels for around 3 months at a time; the source is from a text book which would be reliable and useful as it would have been researched. The source only gives a basic outline of the tunnels with a little bit of detail; the tunnels would have been miles longer. This makes it have limits because you cannot tell what they were totally like or the reality of them. The source was produced after the war so that you could get an insight of what they were like; if the Americans found the entrances to the tunnels the Vietcong had booby traps and mines set up to stop them from getting in and attacking but they didn’t normally get to the entrances because they were disguised and the American soldiers would get attacked be booby traps or blew up before they got their. When the Vietcong were amending the tunnels they would only use a pick and a basket which were basic weapons that were normally made out of reused materials, this shows that the Americans were more technologically superior than the Vietcong.
Source I is useful as it is from a text book and it has been made to tell people about the Ho Chi Minh trail; it would also be reliable because it was by a historian and they would have researched it. They had been building the trail throughout the war in order to carry weapons but towards the end of the war they had been allowed to build the trails through neighbouring countries Laos and Cambodia; this was because the Americans had bombed them already so they turned communist. This then made it harder for the Americans to destroy the trails because they didn’t have any idea of where they were; another reason why it was so difficult was because they kept changing the direction and location that they were building it, also if one did get found and destroyed they had over 40,000 Vietnamese peasants rebuilding them; they done this because they where all finding out what the Americans were doing and this made them hate them and wanted to help their own country win the war, this shows that the Vietcong found it very easy to get people to join their army. This source is very trustworthy but also has its limitations because from it you cannot tell how long it was or where it was, also how long they had been building it for. The trail also helped the Vietcong to get new weapons from China such as rocket launchers which made them more technologically superior but America where still more skilled in the air.
Source J is trustworthy because it is a description by an American soldier who had just lost the war and he knew exactly what had happened; however he could have over exaggerated things to make the Vietcong sound bad, this would be make it a little less reliable, it would also be biased because it is the Americans talking about the Vietcong. As it is a secondary source we can only assume that the person who wrote it was an eyewitness. It would still be reliable because it was from a history book by Heinemann who published many history books, the description was correct because it is talking about how the Vietcong couldn’t be told apart, this was true because the Vietcong army didn’t wear a uniform and dressed as a normal Vietnamese peasant; also both men and woman found in the war, they also trained up young children. A quote from the source that is the most useful and truthful is ‘the enemy was all around you’ this is because a member of the Vietcong could be someone you least expect, for example a pregnant woman could be part of the army but wouldn’t really fight. You cant rely on the source to much because it has limits such as it was by a marine solider so would have been over exaggerated, and he would have said the stuff was worse than it was because he wanted to make them sound bad.
The film ‘platoon’ was a good piece of information because you can see what it was like in the jungle during the Vietnam War; however you couldn’t really tell exactly what it was like on the film because it was made in Hollywood, it was designed to sell and entertain people. If it had all been fact then it would have been just like a documentary and not many people would have watched it. The film would have also been over exaggerated and biased, the film has limitations because it only focuses on one side throughout the war and only shows how they fought and felt. Not the enemy. The film is not very reliable some of it has been twisted. This film relates to the statement as in a few of the scenes you could see the Americans using better technology than the Vietcong because all the Vietcong did was reuse the Americans old weapons when they left them or got killed.
The Vietcong army had weapons but they weren’t as technologically superior as the Americans, this didn’t really affect them that much because they knew the land better than the Americans. Another thing that helped them is that they had more men and better tactics. The tactics they used were things such as guerrilla warfare, which included them, planting mines and setting up booby traps on village doors so that when the American soldiers went to investigate inside the house they got killed, this also included ‘melting away.’ Other things they used were the Ho Chi Minh trail, the tunnel systems that had been there for over 20 years and had been successful in all their other wars; not wearing a uniform so that the American soldiers couldn’t tell them apart and then when they killed the innocent Vietnamese peasants they lost faith from the American citizens. Using there tactics made the American soldiers constantly paranoid because they had to be watching everyone around them at all times because they didn’t know who was a soldier and who wasn’t. They also used simple things such as allowing both men and women to fight in the war which also made it harder for the Americans; the Vietcong trained up young children to fight but they mainly demined the bombs that the Americans left and then reused them to make guns and grenades. Their overall tactic was ‘hanging onto the belts’ of the Americans which meant that they stayed so close to the Americans that they could not use air or artillery backup with killing their own men in the process.
The American army were very different to the Vietcong because they were very technologically superior and also Hi-tech; not only did they have the basic artillery but they had the latest planes which where the B-52 bombers and they had helicopters. Onto of this they had chemical warfare that they made called Napalm; Defoliants named Agent Orange and agent blue, these killed innocent peasants and failed to stop the Vietcong guerrillas. The Vietnamese peasants they captured they made them leave Vietcong controlled areas and live in defended strategic hamlets in loyal areas. ARVN sent American troops out on patrol, which were then supported by air and artillery when they got attacked. The Americans called the Vietcong ‘Charlie’ and ARVN sent out search and destroy patrols for them; however these patrols were clearly visible and the Vietcong found it easy to ambush them, this then led to the Americans burning whole villages known as ‘Zippo raids’ and they then carried out the unprovoked My Lai massacre in 1968.
Overall I agree with the statement because America were more advanced on the ground and in the air with technology than the Vietcong because the Vietcong never had any major bombs, planes, helicopters or chemical warfare; they only really had basic weapons, tunnels and trails to supply weapons. The Vietcong where also more military superior than America because they had both men and woman fighting in the war; they also had started to train children to plant bombs and mines; demine the American bombs and mines, then reuse them to make new weapons for the Vietcong to use. Even though the Americans were more technologic than the Vietcong they failed to win the Vietcong army because the American soldiers had no knowledge of the area that they where fighting in and they also failed to use their weapons effectively.
