Do you agree with this interpretation of the problems faced by united states soldiers in vietnam? use the source and knowledge from your studies to explain your answer

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 STUDY SOURCE ‘A’. DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS INTERPRETATION OF THE PROBLEMS FACED BY UNITED STATES SOLDIERS IN VIETNAM? USE THE SOURCE AND KNOWLEDGE FROM YOUR STUDIES TO EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.

 According to source ‘A’ the problems faced by US troops in Vietnam are; that new recruits were not very intelligent at all. This is true because I know that after the official, trained US army had arrived in Vietnam, the US was forced to conscript/draft. If you were not well educated, you stood a greater chance of being drafted so therefore a lot of new recruits in Vietnam were not very intelligent. This meant that they couldn’t cope with working the equipment, artillery, etc.

Source ‘A’ also states that as the recruits were gaining experience they were being sent home because their 12 month tour of duty was ending. This was a major problem for the morale of the troops, as well as having a less experienced army. Once somebody had fully settled in and made friends they were being sent home and replaced by new inexperienced soldiers, nicknamed ‘cherries’. We can also verify this from the death rate of the soldiers. This shows that in the last three month’s of duty they only stood a 6% chance of death (on average), whereas in the first three months this number was much higher.

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I do agree with the problems stated in the source as for the reasons above. However, there are many problems that are not listed in source ‘A’. One of which was the morale of both sides in this war. Most of the US soldiers in Vietnam were drafted and so would not want to be there; they did not choose to go. Therefore the low morale of these men would not be very high, and so the US army in general would not be very enthusiastic about fighting. The morale of the Vietcong in comparison was very high. They were ...

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