Why did we lose vietnam?

Question

Whose fault was it? Are people angry that all the lives lost were lost in vain? Does our most recent war have any resemblance to Vietnam?

Answer 1

guerrilla historical truth that no force can win a battle on foreign land when the people of that country adopted guerrilla tactics. another thing is Vietnamese were motivated not to become a colony to the us .but where as in case of us forces, there was no such motivation.even the soviets had to face defeat in Afghanistan. this is going to happen in Iraq also to the us forces. unless we have whole hearted co-operation from the local people, i think it is very difficult to win a war on foreign land.

Answer 2

Whose fault is any military mistake? The US military fought a local war against people who were willing to dedicate generations of their community to defeat the foreign invaders.

The question is not "Did we lose the Vietnam War?" as some of the answerers seen to think, but why did we do so. There is no more South Vietnam, and the US military withdrew from Vietnam in 1975 at a dead run. It was a rather complete defeat of our strategy and tactics.

We lied to to our own people, and faked the incident used as an excuse to go to war against the Vietnamese (the Tonkin Gulf Incident, which never happened). We dropped more bombs on Vietnam than we dropped in all of WWII. We used millions of tons of Napalm to burn the very civilians who were on our side. We committed war crimes and massacred civilians we were claiming to protect. We fought against people who were willing to wait 2 or 3 generations to have a chance to oppose us, and we failed to understand that.

All of the above is part of the public, historical, record. In the Pentagon Papers, US Military strategists analyzed their own lack of tactical capability and their need to NOT fight this kind of "unwinnable" war.

We lost because we had no strategy, we had no tactical ability to control the populace, we allowed corrupt governments to steal us blind and use our military for their own greedy purposes, and we never had a clear plan to win, to stop the warmaking of the North, to interdict the South Vietnamese (the Vietcong were almost all locals), and to provide a peaceful governing solution to the entire country.

Some of us are very angry that the lives were lost in vain, but we have hoped that the US could learn a valuable lesson about exporting our culture to people who don't want it. From the other answers here, I guess we haven't learned that yet.

We have made a lot of the same mistakes in Iraq, and worse, in Iraq we are bringing a Christian oriented democracy to a Muslim dominated culture.

Really, Basic, Strategic Mistake.

Oh, yeah. The US never lost any stand up battle with the North Vietnamese regulars, or with the Vietcong. However, that statistic is beside the point. War is not measured by who wins the battles, war is measured by who wins, period. The US did not win.

Answer 3

The reason we lost Vietnam because it was never officially a war to begin with. A war is defined as a conflict between two states. The only way we can go to war is if Congress votes to do that. That is in the Constitution. That wasn't done in Vietnam or Iraq. You could call the Vietnam the War on Communism. It's the fault of the politicians. People are still hurting from Vietnam. There are many resemblences to Vietnam except I think this one will be even worse. I hope not. It is not the job of the miltary to fight vaque "wars" such as communism, poverty, drugs, terror. It's not even government's job. Government's job is to protect our rights. It's the people's job to deal with these issues.

Answer 4

The US didn't lose Vietnam as far as being beaten on the battlefield, but beaten on public opinion. People were angry for the lives losts, the draft, and a general feeling that there was no point to the war. THe US was brought in, based on the "fear" of the domino affect, where if one country turned communistic, the rest would follow (reality we lost, but SE Aisa didn't turn 100% communistic).

As far as resemblance to the war in Iraq, there are many striking similiarities. One Vietnam was mainly a war of insurgency, whereas we were fighting against the NVA (North Vietnamesse Army) and the VC (VIet Cong), after the Tet Offensive (which pretty much nullified the NVA), it was a war against the VC, who were the equilivant of insurgents that you find in Iraq. Other examples are that we supported (heavily) the South Vietnamesse gov't, through aid and military support (very similar to our support in Iraq).

The VC knew they could never defeat the US Army on the open battlefield in anything large scale, so they resorted to hit and run, bombs, and general moral depleting activities. This style of warfare, while doesn't attack directly, erodes at the moral of the common solider, and also the US population (where the freedom to speak against the government can shift public policy). Finally the terrarin used favors the insurgents (citys in Iraq), and Jungles in Vietnam.

I could go on, but I believe this should answer your question.

Answer 5

We "lost" Viet Nam because politicians did not let the generals fight the war to win. We had Air Superiority, we had Navel superiority and we had better technology, we lost because the politicians especially in congress did not let the military do its job. Iraq is not exactly the same type of war because we are fighting Islamic fascism, not a nationalistic army but The news media nd politicians are hell bent to keep anything good from being reported and hell bent on bashing Bush. Before the November elections many Democrats in droves were saying "More troops, more troops" Now that the President is sending more troops everyone says "Oh no bad idea." The fact is no matter why we got there we are fighting terrorist, people who will kill Americans any place in the world that they get the chance. We better wake up as a nation and realize these clowns mean business, regardless of our political views they hate America, Israel, Christianity, Western Culture and the freedom we have. They intend to kill us! It is a war and we better fight to win because we will not get a second chance!

Answer 6

I am not answering your question as many specialists have done so.
It put me only to think of the book of James Michener called "the drifters".
I read it when the second golf war started: it was uncanny how like a repetition it sounds.
And then, I heard many time people comparing the two.
The terrible thing is that right now, it looks still like a repetition...
And how many Iraqi civilians have died, do you think?

Answer 7

We "Lost Vietnam" after we pulled out.

The War could have been won, but under extreme pressure we pulled out and the North invaded and conquered South Vietnam less then 24 months later.

2,000,000 people died in the following 3 years in Vietnam as the North Vietnamese exterminated their opposition en masse. More people were killed AFTER the fall of Saigon than died during the entire Vietnam War. 58,000 american soldiers died during this war and an estimated 8,000 remain listed as MIA ('Missing in Action') to this day.

Answer 8

USA picked the wrong fight, with no appreciation of the difficulty of defeating a determined guerilla army on its own ground and with local support - let alone any understanding of the terrain. It was another case of hubris combined with paranoia over "communism". Yes many people are still angry. Iraq does have similarities in the US cowboy approach, but it's different in terrain (urban) and in the involvement of religious sectarian hatreds going back hundreds of years -- all of which, on top of the festering Israel/Palestine situation, could spill into regional conflict far beyond the civil war now going. It is also different in having shown US protests about "bringing democracy" etc were b***sh*t - US etc rejected the democratic election of Hamas in Palestine, and billions of dollars have been flowed to carpet-baggers.

Answer 9

probably because the Vietnamese (the Vietcong) had the "home field advantage". They knew their territory and were under attack so they were more motivated than the Americans from 10,000 miles away, most of whom didn't even know where Vietnam was.

Answer 10

Iraq is Vietnam all over again, and we lost THAT one because we had no business being there in the first place...just like in Iraq!

Answer 11

when in war the politicians need to stay out of telling the military they can or can not do something. let the military do their job and the politicians stay out of it.