Why was it so hard to leave Vietnam?

Question

how did the past make it very difficult for us to get out?

Answer 1

The military had the capability of making North Vietnam farmland for the South... plowed ground, free of land mines... no cities, no North Vietnamese, nothing, all the way to their northern border.The military had the desire to do so... and it had the manpower.

Unfortunately, a few protesters and an ignorant, complacent population convinced the policy-makers that was, for some unknown reason, imprudent. Heck, they didn't care. They weren't doing the fighting and dying. It was no skin off their noses if they forced us to lose one. They'd just blame the military. And that, my friend, is exactly what they did... and are still doing.

The military is trained to win. Defeat is not in their rules of engagement. I'm familiar with much of the rules and regulations governing the Navy, and surrender--giving up, is, to my knowledge, not covered anywhere in them. I'm presuming it's the same in all the services.

Unfortunately diplomats and politicians, who know nothing of what goes on in the military, seem to think that capitulation is a viable option. So, when they give up, the military, bound by duty is forced to do stuff utterly outside their training. They are bound by honor and duty to win. They are also bound by duty to obey the politicians and diplomats (who seldom have any honor) who order them to accept loss. Thus it's a hard thing to do.

Yeah... this "crackpot"... who spent 25 years in the Navy... who did three tours in Vietnam... who was there... KNOWS it could have been a win for the South Vietnamese... and the US. My thoughts concerning the issue are based upon observation first hand on the scene of the situation. I didn't read any history books. While those authors were still playing with blocks... before they could hold a pencil, I was making that history.

Answer 2

The hardest part for the military to swallow was that they were winning all major battles against the NVA and VC.

TET 1968 was found to be a last ditch effort by General Giap. It is similar to the Battle of the Bulge in WWII in regards to what they were trying to achieve. By 1967 the North had lost an entire generation of men. The US bombings had devastated the infrastructure enough that they were close to capitulation. They had hoped to bring about a popular uprising in the South. Instead they created a rush to join the South Vietnamese Army and fight them. The VC that came out of hiding were slaughtered by their own country men once the battle was over. Not one single military objective was achieved. The NVA/VC losses were estimated at 50,000 while total ARVN, US and Australian loss was around 6500.

Despite the devastation to the NVA and VC the US press called it a win for the North while they were running full out for Laos and Cambodia.

After the war Gen. Giap confessed that the reason they ended up winning was the result of our lack of will to finish. Jane Fonda, John Kerry and all that protested the war have been given credit for aiding them win. They even confessed that the Domino Theory was accurate. Ho did intend on spreading Communism in the region.

The final came in 1974 when the US Congress cut of funding to the South.

Answer 3

The utter delusion of our leaders, same as today.

They didn't know when they were seeing "hopeless" staring them in the face.

Even today, you'll hear some crackpot thinking we could have "won" in Vietnam, even though history has proven that the war protestors were correct.

Vietnam was not swallowed up by China and you can now go on bicycle tours there, greeting with warmth by a people who should, by all rights, hate our guts.

Answer 4

It's because the Vietnamese made it very difficult for the safe withdrawal of US troops from that country

Answer 5

U.S. leadership had, for years, believed in a policy of "containment" as being the best way to counter the growth of Communism, correctly assessing that Communist leaders encouraged local wars to establish communist control. We felt that we needed to defend, particularly, those established authorities in countries ringing both the USSR and China. No one then could know that Communism would fall of its own accord.

Answer 6

Because a bunch of "Hippies" and the U.S. Government did not want us to win. I did not want to leave until we won. And I was wounded over there. The so called news reporters did not help. A short story, No news so they came and watched us practising repelling out of helicopters. When my wife saw the news it showed us in the middle of a firefight. What a crock of sh--.

Answer 7

You catch hold of the tail of a sleeping lion. The lion wakes up. You can't either leave the tail or hang on to the tail.

Answer 8

No president wanted to be known as the one who "lost" Vietnam.

Answer 9

Politics, know president wanted to go down as the man who admited defeat. Further when ever Americans die for any reason you do not want them to die in vain. The other party (again politics) would crucify who ever let US troops die for no reason.

Answer 10

Because some of those involved actually wanted to win the war whereas the liberals, like today, wanted to lose it. You can only hang on for so long without having to give in and give up.