Why America lost the Vietnam War

There are major debates, still happening today, about why America lost the Vietnam War. The majority of the US military blamed the American civilians for the loss of the war. They were also angry with American politicians who “lost their nerve” in the face of mounting protests from the American public. Others blame the military for their failure to adopt the necessary tactics to win the war and hearts and minds of the people. Source K argues that television was an important reason why the US lost the war in Vietnam. This is true but is it the most important reason?

Source D is a poster by the North Vietnamese showing the problems faced by America fighting a guerrilla war. The poster was by the North of Vietnam and it is showing the negative side of the US and the positives for the offensive of North Vietnam. This poster shows that there were other reasons for the lost war for America including tactics used

Source E is a photograph of the effects of US bombing and it was published during the Vietnam War. I don’t think the majority of the American public would have appreciated this photo as the victims are civilian children and the military behind them are doing nothing to help them. However some Americans would have thought it was the only option for the US, as they didn’t know who were civilians and who were the Vietcong. This source is backing up he idea that the media is why the US lost the war.

Although in source F the writer is an American and would obviously be slightly biased towards the capitalist ruling of Vietnam, he is a journalist, so would therefore be writing what would make “a good story” and what the public would want. At the start of the source he comments on how the US military had such a hard job, not knowing who was the Vietcong and who was not. Yet later he goes on to say that “one does not use napalm” and similar sayings which the US had already done. Journalists in America would have mostly been on the Vietcong’s side and would have greatly influenced the people of America.

Source G is an interpretation from an American soldier. This means he was most probably biased towards the US. However this man states later “it didn’t mean slaughtering whole villages of women and children” (referring to the My Lai massacre. This and other similar sources would have also influenced the US people, as this was a primary source, someone who was actually there. He then goes on to say “…it was a Nazi thing…”. The US hated the Nazis and after being called themselves this by one of their own soldiers would have convinced the US public to support the Vietcong.

Source H is referring to the costs of the Vietnam War and the cartoon is supposed to be humorous. It is joking about the great society (American public) having to “fuel the train” for the US economy i.e. The American public were having to pay the US for a war they didn’t want. Also Johnson had promised to “feed and shelter the homeless…to provide more education and medical care” which was a lie as this money (taxes) was paying for the war. This cartoon was published in a British magazine and Britain was America’s ally at the time. Yet the cartoon is laughing at Johnson’s inadequacy, which the British public would have laughed at.

Source J is an anti-war protest at Kent State University in 1970. There were many of these protests during the 60’s, some students joined hippy communities, preaching peace, not war. These protests were caused mainly by the media coverage of the war and how the media decided to perceive it. The consequences of these protests were that they were shown by the media and created even more protests. Source J shows that the media had caused the public to intervene and the only inevitable outcome was a ceasefire, which was achieved in January 1973.

However the media isn’t the only reason why the US lost the war. There were other major factors, which inhibited the US for making the progress they desperately wanted.

The Vietnamese civilians played a vital role on the outcome of the war. The US had decided to use chemical weapons such as napalm and to bomb the civilians. However this made the Vietnamese turn to help the Vietcong. The Americans treated them as sub-human because of their different lifestyle. The civilians hid the Vietcong members and their weapons, they supplied food and drink for them and many other luxuries, which the American’s could have done without the Vietcong getting.

Another important reason for the America loss was the help of other communist countries, most notably the USSR and China. This help included weapons, clothing, travel, money and much more to try and them overcome their American counterparts.

The Vietcong were also much more used to the hard life that they faced compared to the Americans. The South Vietnamese didn’t have the resources the US or western world had, so they were used to fighting for their survival.

The American forces were also using a lot of drugs at the time of war whilst out in Vietnam. Troops spent time trying to survive until their next R and R break. This was their incentive for the war yet the Vietcong were fighting for their beliefs and their country. At one time there were four times as many casualties from drug abuse as there was from actually fighting.

Media coverage during the Vietnam War was a very important reason why the US lost the war as sources D to L show and do so very well. However there were many other important reasons why the US lost including the Vietnamese civilians, aid from other communist countries to Vietnam, Vietnam were used to the hard life but the Americans weren’t, drug abuse from the American forces, the Vietcong were looking to the long-term of the outcome of the war and the home front collapsed which was partly caused by the media support