The U.S. struggles against the Communist in Vietnam

Stage 2: Thinking it through

Step 3: in each row of column 3, draw some scales to show which way the balance falls for this quality. Did the USA or the Viet Cong have the advantage? The USA

Now think about the overall picture - how the strengths and weaknesses work together.

1a) Were the armies finely balanced or was the balance strongly weighted to one side or the other?
The US with the help of the South Vietnamese greatly outnumbered the Viet Cong forces of 170,000 soldiers.

1b) Which quality was most important in determining who won the war? Was one feature so important that being ahead in that area meant that other advantages or disadvantages did not matter?

Whichever side remained majorly popular amongst the Vietnamese won the war because once the war was over the people would choose a leader who represented a particular form of government, such as a Democracy or Communism. They would choose whichever leader they liked better thus making it a win or loss for Communism. Yes one feature was so important that being ahead in that area meant that other advantages or disadvantages did not matter. This feature was the fact that the Viet Cong used guerilla warfare. Guerilla tactics always kept the US soldiers in constant fear of being ambushed or booby trapped. After an attack the Viet Cong would simply blend in with the local population or go back to their complex tunnel system in the jungles. This made it difficult for US soldiers to pursue and capture them.

Stage 3: Explaining your conclusions
The failure of the U.S. army to beat the Communist in Vietnam was the result of its own weaknesses and Viet Cong strengths.

2. Now write up your answer. Use this structure:
a. The U.S. weaknesses were: limited knowledge of the area, guerilla tactics used against them, search and destroy made them unpopular amongst peasants, continuous replacement of experienced soldiers with unexperienced soldiers

b. At the same time, the Communist strengths were: well supplied the Viet Cong, guerilla tactics, well developed knowledge of area, courteous and respectful of Vietnamese people (gain support)

c. The U.S. forces did have some successes. For example: heavily outnumbered and outgunned Viet Cong, search and destroy, chemical weapons, bombing

d. However, there were some major failures as well. Examples of these were: the My Lai massacre, backlash from bombings (loss of American support), backlash from search and destroy (loss of support from Vietnamese peasants)

e. The Viet Cong had some major successes, such as: Tet Offensive (Enormous amounts of artillery and airpower were used by US), guerilla tactics

f. However, they also suffered defeats, for example: Tet Offensive (Viet Cong lost around 10,000 experienced fighters and were badly weakened by it)

g. If I had to identify one major American weakness, it would be [not knowing how to respond to the Viet Cong's guerilla warfare] because: all responses to the Viet Cong's attacks ended up having some sort of backlash which did not help the Americans cause in gaining support in fighting against Communism. The American used guerilla tactics to a degree but could not use them properly because they could not blend in with the population. Next the Americans used search and destroy but frequently innocent villages were mistaken for Viet Cong strongholds, civilian casualties were high, and these tactics made US and South Vietnamese forces very unpopular with peasants. Bombing were also used but they only slowed down the Communists not defeat them. The final straw was the My Lai massacre which was supposed to be a search and destroy mission that claimed to kill 200 Viet Cong soldiers but in reality it killed 300 to 400 civilians and discovered only 3 weapons.

h. The key Viet Cong strength was [the use of guerilla tactics] because: they surprised Americans who had little knowledge of the area. The US soldiers were always in fear of ambushes or booby traps. The Viet Cong blended in well with the local population and could easily escape into their tunnels in the jungle. The Viet Cong's use of guerilla tactics forced the Americans to use bombs, chemical weapons, and search and destroy. All three of these tactics helped to lose American and Vietnamese support for the US cause in Vietnam.