Well, the support back home in America was going down and the troops fighting in Vietnam were all very tired after a long war. So I think that is the main reason why the Americas retreated.

WD let me say this, there was no retreat by the American military. The withdrawal of US troops began in 1971 and it still took until April 30, 1975 for the communists to defeat the South Vietnamese.
FYI zander, when I was there in 1970 there wasn't a Vietcong to be found anyhere. Honestly, I don't know where this nonsense comes from, what in the name of truth have you folks been fed in the name of information?
I'd be among the first to agree that the pols didn't handle this very well and that the vociferous protestors were lead by the nose by commusnist agitators and media propagandists. But don't try to tell me that the US military was defeated or retreated, it just didn't happen.


Here are some facts about the American military in Vietnam for your consideration. The United Sates military in Vietnam was the best-educated, best-trained, best-disciplined, and most successful force ever fielded in the history of American arms. Here are a few relevant comparisons:

• During the Civil War at the Battle of Bull Run the entire Union Army panicked and fled the battlefield. Nothing even remotely resembling that debacle ever occurred in Vietnam.
• In WWII at the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, the Germans overran elements of the US Army. In the course of that battle, Hitler's General Rommel (The Desert Fox) inflicted 3,100 US casualties, took 3,700 US prisoners, and captured or destroyed 198 American tanks. In Vietnam no US Military units were overrun and no US Military infantry units or tank outfits were captured.
• WW II again. In the Philippines, Army Generals Jonathan Wainwright and Edward King surrendered themselves and their troops to the Japanese. In Vietnam no US generals or US military units ever surrendered.
• Before the Normandy invasion, "D" Day, 1944, the US Army (in WW II the US Army included the Army Air Corps which today has become the US Air Force) in England filled its own jails with American soldiers who refused to fight and then had to rent jail space from the British to handle the overflow. The US Army in Vietnam never had to rent jail space from the Vietnamese to incarcerate American soldiers who refused to fight.

History of the War

Stats

Thanks for the info Dtop! Now I understand better!

I don't disagree with you DTop. The American millitary performed excellently in every single major engagement of the war. They won every battle and routed the entire vietcong army to the point where they never could field a single batallion again... even when the N.Vietnamese attacked in 1972 and 1975.

The US Millitary didn't "retreat" like running away from the battleifield but they did give up. Not by their own choice. But the liberal Americans and their politicians ordered the millitary to give up and go home. To use my sports analogy again, the fighting men where in the enemy's red zone and the coach threw in the towel and forfited the game because he didn't want to see them play smashmouth football anymore.

haha, nice one Whispering Death!

Originally Posted by Whispering Death

I don't disagree with you DTop. The American millitary performed excellently in every single major engagement of the war. They won every battle and routed the entire vietcong army to the point where they never could field a single batallion again... even when the N.Vietnamese attacked in 1972 and 1975.

The US Millitary didn't "retreat" like running away from the battleifield but they did give up. Not by their own choice. But the liberal Americans and their politicians ordered the millitary to give up and go home. To use my sports analogy again, the fighting men where in the enemy's red zone and the coach threw in the towel and forfited the game because he didn't want to see them play smashmouth football anymore.

By coach do you mean the General of U.S. Army Military Assistance Command in Veitnam, who was Gen. Abrams who commanded the 37th TB in WWII, served as Corps Chief of Staff in Korea.

I think a better work than reateated is withdrawal.

Oh yes, I heard that the US army gave the South Vietnamese Army their equipments when they withdraw. is it true?

Originally Posted by zander_0633

Oh yes, I heard that the US army gave the South Vietnamese Army their equipments when they withdraw. is it true?

Yes it is. We actually would drive tanks and truck into the ocean and off of ships.

ok, ic. BUt the Americans left the BAttlefront woth a heavy heart right?

Originally Posted by zander_0633

ok, ic. BUt the Americans left the BAttlefront woth a heavy heart right?

Yes. It's alot like our current conflict, on the homefront people protested the war, while the soldiers fought and died. Even though Veitnam was a mistake, it had a purpose. The U.S. was trying to defeat Communism.