The second reason given is the attitudes of the South Vietnamese people. I do not believe this is a major factor in the failure of the Americans to achieve its aims in Vietnam. Of course the peasants could give information to the Americans as to the whereabouts and strength of the North Vietnamese fighters, but it would not have made much of a difference. The peasants would not do this, however, due to the way the Americans treated them. 77 million litres of Agent Orange was used during the Vietnam War, in order to destroy the jungles where the Viet Cong were thought to be. However, the Agent Orange also destroyed the South Vietnamese crops and polluted the rivers and streams, which would almost certainly have drove the peasants to the North Vietnamese communists.
The Americans also forced the South Vietnamese peasants to live in fortified villages near American Bases, which the peasants vehemently did not want to do. In these places drug abuse and prostitution was rife, further damaging the South Vietnamese peasants’ view of the American forces.
The third reason given for the American failure in Vietnam is the public opinion back in the USA. Events such as the My Lai massacre confirmed the view that something had gone wrong in the war, particularly in the eyes of the American public. America had entered the war as the moral saviours of Vietnam from the evils of communism, and yet now were massacring peasants by the hundred. Pictures were sent home of crying children burned by napalm, and citizens, whose children had been drafted into the army, saw this and gave up support for the American army. As Marshall McLuhan of the Montreal Gazette said: ‘Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room; Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America - not on the battlefields of Vietnam.” Students all over the country started massive protests, the most infamous one being at Kent State University, where National Guardsmen opened fire on the protesting students, killing four people. It looked as if the War in Vietnam was making the country unstable. The American government decided to start withdrawing due to, mainly, the fact of the extremely negative public opinion; as the American President Richard Nixon once said “If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.”
This negative public opinion effected the war and the troops because, as many of the American troops were little more than young conscripts, they had been in America seeing this negative support which damaged their morale hugely. Without the support of the public, it is much harder to fight, such as in Iraq at the moment, due to morale problems and the bad publicity.
Another extremely important reason for the Americans being unable to achieve their aims in Vietnam which is not given is the motivation and skill of the soldiers. North Vietnamese troops and the Viet Cong were extremely motivated as they were fighting for their country and for their beliefs. As Ho Chi Minh said, “The Vietnamese people deeply love independence, freedom and peace. But in the face of United States aggression they have risen up, united as one man.” The Americans, however, were fighting in an immensely unpopular war as young conscripts, not believing it what they were fighting for. The troops were comprised of many, as I have said, young conscripts who were very inexperienced in fighting any warfare, let alone the guerrilla warfare in Vietnam. The Viet Cong, however, had been using this tactic against the Japanese and French previously, and so were well practised at it. The American troops’ morale was also low as they were getting defeated by an enormously weaker foe and they were always on edge, due to the guerrilla tactics of the Viet Cong.
This morale difference was important as the North Vietnamese troops, who had high morale, refused to give up and fought ferociously. The Americans, however, had very low morale and so did not fight as hard as they could and got aggravated at the North Vietnamese tactics, which culminated in atrocities such as the My Lai massacre, when all the anger boiled over. This further reduced their morale as the public opinion worsened.
The final reason I shall talk about is that of the supplies of the two forces. Whereas the Americans had to bring everything over from America, the Viet Cong simply had to transport the equipment down the Ho Chi Minh trail. This caused considerable anguish for the Americans, and they tried on many occasions the bomb the trail so it could not be used. It says something for the South Vietnamese peasants’ attitude when 40,000 peasants worked to keep the trail open. As the trail went into Cambodia, America had to bomb their territory, which was met by further international condemnation and bad opinions. This act would also have helped the communists take control of Cambodia after the War. This supply issue further changed the morale of the two sides, as the Americans’ morale went down due to the unavailability of some equipment, the Viet Cong morale was raised, both due to the almost unlimited supplies and the American failure to stop them.
In conclusion I shall say that, although the reasons why the US failed to defeat the North Vietnamese troops and the Viet Cong are all intrinsically linked, the main cause in my opinion is the tactics used by the North Vietnamese. I believe that the three reasons listed above are not all equal, and that the attitude of the South Vietnamese peasants was relatively unimportant. There were many other reasons for the American failure to achieve its aims than those given, but, in my opinion, the main two are the tactics of the North Vietnamese and the public opinion, but also the ineptitude of the young conscripts in the American Army.As Richard Nixon said, “North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.”
