The reasons why the US failed to win the war?
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 19-06-17 11:45
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- The reasons why the US failed to win the war?
- US unable to win the hearts and minds of the SV people
- General Giap (NV)
- Waged a people's war
- 'A total war in which every man, woman and child was mobilised whether militarily or emotionally'
- Giap's strategy
- us VC, guerilla warfare to wear down Saigon and US
- Showed respect to peasants
- Paid for food taken
- told men not to **** and pillage villages
- But very harsh on those who were working for US Saigon
- 3000 bodies in river jungle of NV
- Waged a people's war
- SV
- Mostly peasants
- Way of life not understood by Americans
- e.g. still used human excrement as fertiliser, no running water or electricity
- As result, US soldiers treated SV like sub-humans
- PAVN (SV) fought conventional set piece battles and had no way of coping with guerrilla tactics
- US found it frustrating and difficult to tell difference between pro and anti-Saigon troops
- 'If they were't pro Vietcong when we got there, they sure as hell were by the time we left'
- Most notable example of American hatred of Vietnamese (pro-Communist) was May Lao massacre
- Apparently US soldiers and officers beat and killed 347 unarmed civilians (old men, women, teenagers and babies)
- 16th March 1968
- Animals killed and crops destroyed
- This all made US even less popular and less able to win the war
- General Giap (NV)
- US high tech war made them unpopular
- e.g. "Mother bombs"
- i.e. bomb explodes mid-air, 350-600 baby bombs full of metal pellets of fibre glass explode
- More fir e power directed on SV than NV as they wanted to destroy the Ho Chi Minh trail
- The route from NV to SV over which supplies, weapons, troops were carried
- Injured were ignored by US
- 5 towns with population of 10,000 and many villages were wiped out
- Many Vietnamese were forced to live underground due to bombing
- Bombings forced peasants to move from homes in countryside to cities as crops and land destroyed
- Agent Orange
- 1962
- Used to defoliate SV jungles and make enemy visible but also killed rice crop
- No food to feed local population
- This was no way to win hearts and minds of local population
- Unsurprising Communists had largely controlled countryside
- McNamara later said US was wrong to allow US military to use this high tech war of attriition against guerrilla forces
- Led to massive casualties
- Saigon bombing and fighting led to 1/3 SV peasants coming to towns and cities
- Many peasants lived in refugee camps outside of city with poor sanitation and disease
- Saigon became centre for drugs, orphans, cripples, beggars, 56,000 registered prostitutes
- Many depended on US soldiers for handouts
- Vietnamese Dr's earned less than taxi drivers due to US tips
- e.g. "Mother bombs"
- Attitudes
- "Lots of talk, no real communication"
- SV Nun said "Vietnam was a beautiful country until you arrived"
- US officials said "We report progress to Washington because Washington demands progress"
- The Saigon Regime
- US talked of bringing democracy to SV a country that had no tradition of democratic US style politics
- SV tradition
- Hatred of foreigners
- SV corrupt govt. depended on US aid, NV recieved aid but it was visible, less dependent
- KY's govt. SV
- Corrupt and against economic and political reform
- Buddhist nun
- Temple in Hue - set fire to herself
- Her letters blaming Johnson for the repressive regime in V were circulated worldwide
- Temple in Hue - set fire to herself
- US troops confused as to why they were there
- Johnson insisted on democratic elections with observers
- President Thieu only got 37%
- US aid reached intended destinations but into pockets of friends and family
- The ARVN performed badly
- 1. Wanted to avoid losses
- Instructions attack and retreat when 3000 troops lost
- Retreated before they even lost half of that
- US view
- US tactic: "Search and destroy"; ARVN tactic: "Search and Avoid"
- Instructions attack and retreat when 3000 troops lost
- 2. Military leaders appointed for political not military reasons
- Fought amongst themselves about possible action while men died
- 3. ARVN wages low, some officers pocketed pay of deserters, sick, dead - looked like had more men in reality
- Lower graded robbed the population
- 4. ARVN association with US in eyes of V hated. US wouldn't use them.
- 1. Wanted to avoid losses
- US unable to win the hearts and minds of the SV people
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