Why did America lose the Vietnam war?

Question

In the beginning the U.S. was winning the war. What do you believe was the most significant factor that led to the ultimate American defeat during the Vietnam war?

Answer 1

Hippies, Republicans, and Democrats. It sure wasn't the GI.

Answer 2

The most significant factor in the US losing Vietnam was Walter Cronkite and the American press. They became invested in defeat. I don't know why, but it happened.

The most significant example is the TET offensive. The North attacked the South in a well coordinated assault all across the South. They had infiltrated throughout all of the major cities and struck a big blow in January 1968. This was the North's big attempt to knock the US out of the war. Did it knock the US out? Well, considering that the US didn't leave for over 7 more years, I would say no.

The US beat back that attack. They beat it back so convincingly, that the North was unable to mount another offensive for two years. The US military showed what they were made of. What was reported in the US press? That the TET offensive was a devastating defeat for the US. This is when the US public turned against the war.

Once Ho Chi Minh saw that Americans were being told the US couldn't win and that the US public was beginning to believe it, he knew all he had to do was hold out. It was easy to hold out, because the US ground forces would not cross into the North. So the NVA and VC had sanctuary in the North.

As the press grew more strident in their anti-war posture, so did the American people. So when Johnson gave up and Nixon took over, Nixon knew he had to get out.

You will see all kinds of things like civilian leaders picking military targets and the military being hamstrung as reasons why the US lost. But remember, the US was winning with all that happening anyway.

The reason the US lost was because the press somehow managed to turn a huge US victory during the TET offensive into a collosal defeat. Had the press reported it straight, the US public wouldn't have turned their backs on the military. And Ho Chi Minh would have had to try and negotiate a way out, instead of biding his time, waiting for American resolve to fade.

Answer 3

They would be as follows, Guerrilla warfare, politics, the inability to attack North Vietnam directly(for the most part), corrupt South Vietnamese government, war atrocities, micromanaging the war from the White House, the lying about the Gulf of Tonkin attack that got us involved in the war/conflict in the first place, the lack of the silent US majority population for showing there support of the troops, no declaration of war from Congress, non-cooperation of the South Vietnamese army, a corrupt South Vietnamese Military hierarchy, drug use in the US armed forces, the ability of the communist south or North Vietnamese to infiltrate the South Vietnamese Army, mistakes made by the French before we got involved and so on. Far to many to list!
Peace!!! Love!!! Harmony!!! Health!!!

Answer 4

The Vietnamese were fighting for their own territory and were prepared to suffer more hardship than the Americans.
They had better Generals and the troops were tougher.
As the war progressed the Americans and their allies became more corrupt which sapped the morale of the fighting men many of whom were conscripts from the American underclass who did not have rich parents to protect them from the draft : to the extent that some men killed their own officers.
As casualties mounted the American public became dissatisfied with what was merely a political war, the will to fight diminished at all levels and eventually the Americans had to run and leave their South Vietnamese allies to face the consequences.

Answer 5

There was never really any clear agenda from the beginning...
not to mention the asian people as a whole have been fighting one another for centuries and have perfected their way of fighting and we had no clue how to match it...it was not a war according to our government...it was referred to as the
Vietnam Conflict.. We were asked to help a situation...
U.S. military advisers first became involved in Vietnam in 1950, assisting French colonial forces. In 1956, these advisers assumed full responsibility for training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. not a good move

Answer 6

Please, to say this is defecating on the graves of all my fiends. As I sit here I can rub the scars I have and, think if my cousin is doing O.K. My friends are all gone now, most of them but, please don't say we lost and they all gave their lives proudly, in vain, it brings tears to my eyes to think this way.

I and five first cousins were all drafted out of high school, I was seventeen and didn't start shaving yet. By the time I went through basic training, I was eighteen years old. I went into "jump" school and then into the Army Rangers, then to 'Nam.
I was there for two tours, thinking I was doing the Vietnamese people a favor, keeping them from communist rule. I was wounded twice, lost a lot of friends.

We gave back everything we fought and died for. I'm sure there are some out there that will agree with me, they were there too.
We did what we were asked to do, some of us, many of us, died doing it because our Government asked us to.

Those that don't agree, I can ask "What have you done for your country" we didn't "lose the war" we won the battle and left.

I don't know where "Brianstorm" got his information from but, I think the lightening screwed up his head.

Answer 7

there are a number of factors:

1. lack of experience/knowledge of the Vietnamese terrain which was excellent for defensive guerrila tactics. The number of mountains, swamps and jungles were terrifying and gruelling sights. Insects carrying pathogens that the Americans weren't used to.

2. failure to shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

3. failure to clean up corruption and instability in South Vietnam coupled with incidences of inhumane US conduct to the ppl and land played into the propaganda of the North, thus ppl in the south defected to the north (vietcong)

3. The North was entirely supplied by the Soviets and the Chinese.

4. too much red tape in Washington

5. the cause for war didnt inspire men to fight wholeheartedly. the US public didnt support the war, and you need your country to be behind you 100% in order to win.

Answer 8

That was my generation's war, and I followed it intimately from beginning through to the end. I recall the first American casualty and the frantic struggle to dump the helicopters that flew the last person ell from our embassy to the carriers into the sea. And for ten years, I wore the uniform and for twenty months, I wore the blood of the injured clear to my armpits. At no point were we ever "winning" that war. In fact, winning was not the intent. The rationale was "pacification". We were to keep the commies at bay until Saigon's forces could adequately control the troublemakers both from the north and from within the South Vietnamese populace.
It was a major SNAFU from beginning to end: we had people in charge who didn't begin to understand the situation, couldn't comprehend the attitutes of the locals, and couldn't lead troops. They were trying to fight the war as they had fought the Nazis and the Japanese in WW Two...and it was a totally different war.
On top of that, you had politicians trying to use the war for personal gain and others who know no more about military strategy than they knew about life on Mars trying to direct combat operations and tactics.
Then you had totally inadequate weapons and personal battle gear - kinda sounds like the present war in Iraq, doesn't it?
Can you say FUBAR? It was that and it was, as I said, SNAFU from beginning to end. There was no single factor, other that sheer stupidity on the part of our "leaders". For that, more than fifty-nine thousand of my brothers and sisters died. Pretty shiddy, if you ask me!

Answer 9

Because it finally dawned on us that the North Vietnamese were willing to make any sacrifice to chase the foreigners out of their country. They'd been at it for over a third of a century - Japs, French, Americans in turn. There was nothing to justify the cost to us in lives and money. It's a crime that it took so long to figure that out and withdraw.

Answer 10

Politicians in Washington trying to run the war and make decisions, rather than letting the people who were over there carry on with what they were there to do. There were too many politicians worrying about making themselves look good and jockeying for position in the government who didn't know a thing about fighting or winning a war. America did not have to lose, Washington made that choice.

Answer 11

Robert S. McNamara and Henry A. Kissinger are two of the biggest reasons! Failure of LBJ and RMN to commit sufficient troops was another big factor. This was partially due to the anti-American "Peacenik" movement influenced strongly by the American Communist Party and Black Panther movement and those two Presidents running their administrations according to polls!