Why was the Vietnam War impossible to win?

The US army had superior conventional weapons but they were ineffective against a country that was not industrialized and an army which employed guerrilla tactics and used the dense jungle as cover.

Why was it difficult to win the Vietnam War?

There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the Americans were an invading force, and the Vietnamese were fighting on their own soil. Second, the Americans were not willing to make an all-out commitment to win.

Why was the Vietnam War unsuccessful?

Despite the decades of resolve, billions and billions of dollars, nearly 60,000 American lives and many more injuries, the United States failed to achieve its objectives. One factor that influenced the failure of the United States in Vietnam was lack of public support.

What are 3 reasons the US was unable to win the Vietnam War?

❖ The cultural weaknesses of the USA in Vietnam. ❖ The political and public opposition to the war in the USA. ❖ The military weaknesses of the American forces.

Why didn't the US win in Vietnam?

The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North.

How US Could Have Won Vietnam

Who did the Viet Cong fear the most?

Yes...the Koreans. In the early 50s, in defence of their own country, the Koreans were undertrained, ill equipped, etc. You did not want to count on them at all. But in Vietnam, if it moved in the jungle, they killed it.

Has America ever lost a war?

However, the US was unable to get any significant victory in its wars abroad. America fought five major wars after 1945 including Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan in addition to some minor wars in Somalia, Yemen, and Libya. Except for the Gulf War in 1991, America lost all other wars.

Why was the Vietnam War so difficult to fight for American soldiers?

A reason why the Vietnam War was hard for the Americans to fight was because North Vietnam was absolutely determined not to give up on the war effort. The Americans and South Vietnamese armies were fighting a war of attrition, they were focusing on killing as many enemy soldiers as they possibly could.

Why were soldiers from Vietnam treated poorly?

A chilly reception. Some people who opposed American involvement in the Vietnam War treated U.S. soldiers and veterans poorly. They tended to blame American troops for the tragic situation in Vietnam, instead of blaming the government leaders who had sent them there.

Could the US have won the Vietnam War?

In an utterly banal sense, the United States could have won the Vietnam War by invading the North, seizing its urban centers, putting the whole of the country under the control of the Saigon government and waging a destructive counterinsurgency campaign for an unspecified number of years.

What if America won the Vietnam War?

So if the US had won, the Cold War would probably have ended a little sooner and the dawn of that unilateral superpower controlling things would have come quicker. In Southeast Asia, everything would be radically different – including a faster and more thorough confrontation between the USA and China.

Has Vietnam ever lost a war?

More importantly, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam fought a border war with the People's Republic of China in early 1979 and while both sides claimed victory, it was Vietnam that lost territory—more than the U.S. lost in 1973. In other words, it is hard to put Vietnam in the undefeated category.

Why were Vietnam vets called baby killers?

Etymology. The Vietnam War veteran usage stems from the My Lai massacre, in which several civilians, including infants, were massacred.

How traumatizing was the Vietnam War?

Approximately 30% of men and 27% of women had PTSD at some point in their life following Vietnam. These findings obtained approximately a decade after the end of the Vietnam War, found that for many veterans, their PTSD had become a chronic (that is, persistent and long-lasting) condition.

Why didn t people like Vietnam vets?

“Some protestors simply did not make a clear distinction between the war and those who fought it, and they regarded American soldiers as ready and willing killers or ignorant dupes,” according to Christian G. Appy in his book “Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam.”

Why were the Vietcong so successful?

They were extremely successful because they had very good and vital knowledge of the forests and jungles and were able to protect their supplies from damage by using the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Did the US save China in ww2?

China had been at war with Japan since 1937 and continued the fight until the Japanese surrender in 1945. The United States advised and supported China's ground war, while basing only a few of its own units in China for operations against Japanese forces in the region and Japan itself.

Why did Americans fail to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese?

The most (in)famous use of a “hearts and minds” campaign by the United States came during Vietnam, and it failed as utterly as any other. Crucial factors were the disorganized nature of the war, local support for the Viet-Cong, and the difficulty in telling apart friend and foe.

Has Russia ever lost a war?

Russia has been defeated in war on several occasions in the modern era.

Has the US ever surrendered a war?

Troops surrender in Bataan, Philippines, in largest-ever U.S. surrender. On April 9, 1942, Major General Edward P. King Jr.

What was the deadliest American war?

The American Civil War is the conflict with the largest number of American military fatalities in history. In fact, the Civil War's death toll is comparable to all other major wars combined, the deadliest of which were the World Wars, which have a combined death toll of more than 520,000 American fatalities.

Did children fight for Viet Cong?

Against this background, children as young as 13 and 14 were involved in the armed struggle, learning guerrilla warfare tactics and killing both American and South Vietnamese soldiers. Some were trained to be informants.

What did the Viet Cong do to civilians?

By 1969, nearly 250 civilians were being murdered or kidnapped each week. VC/PAVN terror squads committed over 36,000 murders and almost 58,000 kidnappings from 1967 to 1972 according to a U.S. Department of Defense estimate in 1973.

What was the deadliest job in Vietnam?

Overall, the U.S. military used nearly 12,000 helicopters in Vietnam, of which more than 5,000 were destroyed. To be a helicopter pilot or crew member was among the most dangerous jobs in the war.