using the sources available, why did America loose to Vietnam?

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Tom Mason 11E. _                Assignment Two

I think that the sources that support the question I will be answering in this assignment are source E and source J, source g and source l. The other factors why America lost the war in Vietnam are also that the troops were not as committed to the war effort as the VC, they didn’t see the point in going there, most of the soldiers didn’t want to be there, the US troops didn’t win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people, there was no American morale thanks to drug taking and fragging, the VC adopted guerrilla warfare tactics and the VC were given lots of weapons and missiles from the soviet union and china for use on the Americans. Also the South Vietnamese army were never a match for the VC and ARVN. It was all of these reasons why America failed to win the war in Vietnam but also it could have been because of television showing horrible pictures from the war like the My Lai massacre and these disgraceful acts that the American soldiers were committing on the peasants of Vietnam triggered anti-war movements all over America. This is why I am carrying out this assignment to see if this was the cause of the American failure in Vietnam.

One of the sources that support the question is source E. This source is a picture that shows children running down a Vietnamese road. Two particular children in this image create a huge impact which would go on to trigger and stir-up anti war movements in America. In the background of the picture there are American soldiers filming these two particular children, a boy and a girl, and the soldiers are laughing and not helping this small boy who is running with terror on his face and a small girl who is sprinting with no clothes on. The reason they are doing this is because they are some of the many napalm victims. Napalm was a jelly like substance which combined petrol and sticking agents so when it touched something it kept on burning and there was little you could do to get it off. It often burnt through to people bones while they were alive creating tremendous pain and this pain sometimes killed its victims alone. Only 25% of napalm victims survived and in this picture the girl is naked because the napalm has literally burnt her clothes off and so when this picture was broadcast on colour televisions this would have triggered a huge uproar in the united states creating anti-war movements lowering the public’s morale and would seize to back up the war and turn against it, this would then make troops going there not want to which would then in turn lower the soldiers morale. This is one of the many reasons why America failed to win the war in Vietnam.

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Another source that is useful to help me answer the question is source G. I think it is useful to back up my question because it shows how people were influenced differently by television. In source E the impact is created by the use of an image but source G the use of an interview being broadcast on televisions all over the world may of heard this and this could have influenced people’s attitudes. The interviewee talks about how what had happened at My Lai was a Nazi thing. The American soldier talks about how nobody knew about it until ...

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