In your opinion, did the USA lose the Vietnam war?

Question

Was USA the looser of the Vietnam war?

Answer 1

We certainly were - I was there. USMC Chu Lai, Vietnam
1965-1966.
And I thought that maybe we'd learned back then that:

1. You can't "export democracy."

2. You can't win when 95% (or more) of the population there either very much dislikes your being there or simply hates you

and

3. There is an unlimited supply of whackos (or patriots or "insurgents - call them what you will) ready, willing and able to die to get you out of there.

But apparently, we learned nothing - or at least, the planners of the current Iraq "strategy" learned nothing.

I also spent over 20 years in the Middle East

Answer 2

Maybe not. It depends upon what you mean by "defeat".

There actually has been some scholarship to suggest that the US did NOT lose the Vietnam war. One of the more interesting theories goes like this...

There were actually three "Vietnam Wars".

The first one was lost by the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

The second one was won by the Americans. 1963-1973.

The third one was lost by South Vietnam. 1973-1975.

This theory suggests that the American objective in South Vietnam was NOT to take North Vietnam, but to contain communism in the North and keep it out of the South. The thing is, while the US was in South Vietnam, that mission WAS accomplished. It wasn't until the American forces left in 1973 and turned the area over to South Vietnamese government that America's containment policy failed. So... in that sense... the US did "win" the war as long as America was willing to fight it.

Secondly, many have pointed out that the US was never defeated in any large-scale conflict with the Vietcong or the ARNV. Even the Tet Offensive ended with the communist forces being repelled.

Thirdly, it has been suggested that America's ten year war in South Vietnam gave other countries in the area (Thailand, Laos, etc.) time to stabilize after de-colonization. So... in that sense, if containment of communism was the true objective, you could say that it was a sort of "victory" for the US.

Lastly, Vietnam is rapidly becoming an important trading partner with the US. Hmmmm......

The thing everybody remembers is the helicopters at the embassy and 55,000 American deaths. I would hate to have to explain it to any of the brave men who fought there and disagree, but you could say that Vietnam wasn't quite the "total defeat" that is is often thought of in American culture.

Answer 3

The morons were being pollitically correct by calling it a police action cause all the hippies were scared of war ( popular opinion) and definately opposed to it cause they were on so many drugs they couldn't see clearly. Back then the cold war between the ussr and warsaw pac nations and the free world was serious, especially after Russia parked nukes in Cuba. In the end, its still debatable as to win or loss. It was worth fighting due to the fact that north vietnam set sights on south vietnam, and if we hadnt, we would have looked weak and with communist china, korea, cuba, and the ussr watching, the next logical step would possibly have been war or invasion of japan, which would have brought us into another war anyway. China was poor then but had manpower and expansionist dreams, and japan was the technological asian power on the cusp of an international, technological and financial entrance into the worlds economy. Looking at all the possibilities, I'd say we won.

Answer 4

The US goverment lost the Vietnam War. Many people forget that the linebacker operations brought Charlie to the negotiation table. These operations show what could have been acomplished if the government hadn't tried to restrict the military to heavily due to political policies.

There were times when air patrols would see Vietnamese missile sites being built, but could be court marshalled for doing something until destroying them was approved; by that time they could shoot back.

And bye the way, remeber that footage of South Vietnamese citizens attempting to pack into American helicopters...
goes to show you what they thought of the commies, even some Viet Cong soldiers have said in interviews that they'd never have fought if they new what they were defending (communism) most thought they were stopping an aggressor.

Answer 5

Yes we lost the Vietnam War

But not for the reasons many think

We did win nearly every battle.
We did not lose because the North Vietnamese were better soldiers
We did not lose because our soldiers could not fight well

We lost because of the mealy mouthed liberal media and politicians hamstrung our military and prevented them from winning.

We lost because people back home would not support our soldiers and called them Murderers, rapists, babykillers

We lost because a bunch of idiots with no clue about the real world, said we could not win and then made sure they were right by destroying and sobotaging everything we did to win.

Sound Familiar?

It should

Same thing is happening today in Iraq.

The Liberal Media and Politicians like Murtha are intentionally undermining our effort to win the war on terror. they are doing this for their own political gain and could care less about the realities of fighting terrorists.

They could also care less about your safety and freedom.

Answer 6

the USA went in to prevent the Communists taking the South the Communists took the South the USA failed

any Failure is a Loss so yes the USA lost in Vietnam

Answer 7

Uh, yes. I'm not sure how you can argue that we won. Our entire purpose was to protect South Vietnam from becoming a Communist state (when, in fact, they wanted to become one), and we were there for over 6 years and had thousands of our soldiers die to basically protect our own self-interests. When we finally left, South Vietnam was almost immediately taken over by North Vietnam, and to this day the entire country is a Communist state.

Answer 8

Actually, the big losers were the Vietnamese people, who died by the hundreds of thousands in reeducation camps after Saigon fell in 1975.

The United States was never military defeated, if that's what you mean. The United States pulled out in 1973, two years before the NVA overran the South. However, it was a terrible political defeat.

Answer 9

Of Course, we lost 50.000 fine Young Americans for no reason what so ever.a quarter million wounded, many disabled,we didn't have a purpose in that war.except to prove to the commies that we would sacrifice our Young.& that we had the capibility to kill milions of ennocents in the bombing the feds did on that country.never will that type war happen again in my life time or their will be a revolution.The people or realizeing the evil of the federal Government.we should NOT be a waring murderious country.
this guy. Digory .a few questions above me is an idiot.
man to man he would get his ares kicked, he is a wimp.
because people protested that war,? that changed things? that didnt change any of the policys of nixon,Nixon was a terrible man, and president.they shot and killed american college students for gods sake for protesting,nixon is like this idiot saying we have no right to protest. he is wierd and retarded to think americans have no right to protest, they didnt care what the protesters thought, some protesters didnt change anything,in regards to wageing that war.

Answer 10

Yes, we left the public did not want the war that Kennedy and Johnson handed off to Nixon and the public grew tired of it even though we won every battle and killed several million people.