Militarily we almost won Vietnam, the French almost won it before we became involved. The second biggest problem with Vietnam was Johnson, he tried to micro manage the war. That is impossible to do from 10,000 miles away, the times are almost the exact opposite for one, and Johnson was obviously not a born military leader. Our greatest weapon over the North Vietnamese was our Air Force, and we did not use it like we should have, we should have been bombing Northern Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian factories and military positions constantly, rolling thunder lasted what, 1 month? And then Johnson ended that too. We have Generals and Admirals for a reason, they should have been running the war, not Johnson, especially considering he was more of an economic and social equality president, not a person for whom the military was his greatest concern.

I have a VietNamese friend whose family had to leave Saigon in 1973 because the commies were killing, raping, seizing lands and oing what they're good at.
they left the country at night, left everything they had and used a small boat to cross the shark-stormed sea. they stayed three weeks there, then ended up in e refugee boat people camp in Malaysia, where his mother had to sell her wedding ring in order to get six eggs for the kids.
they finally got to get a permit for the US and my buddy now is happy and patriotic.

US should have won the war in Nam for the good of the Vietnamese people themselves. In my opinion, it lost it because of the home protestors. People gets cowardly antiwar when the war is being dragging on for longer than foreseen, not because they believe the war is wrong in itself, as they say.

US "lost" in Vietnam purely because of Anti-VietnamWar opinion inside USA.

If USA really wanted, it could not have been "defeated".

There was actuall not a "defeat", just a "retreat", they didn't want to play the war game more.

Even today, if USA with full support of the people, then it can win any war (non-nuke war) against any country.

But war is not a pure military thing, it is a combination of all factors.

Yep! I agree with Frog! Peoples opinion inside are the most important, if people don't have will, war is as it good as lost!

Well, there are probably many reasons why the Americans did not prevail in Vietnam.

The basic truth is that the Americans were fighting a determined, capable enemy, who were on their home turf, and who were able to keep themselves well supplied and use tactics which made it hard for the Americans to bring their air power to bear. This meant that for much of the time it was infantry soldier against infantry soldier: and when it comes down to that, always bet on the home team (as we British learned in the Revolutionary War).

What is also true is that the Americans won almost every pitched battle they fought - the Viet Cong (FLN) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces suffered huge casualties during the war. But because the FLN was able to command widespread active and passive support from the local population in the disputed areas, it meant the Americans struggled to hold the ground they had won and there were always more recruits for the locals' cause. Again, another echo of the Revolutionary War.

Most important of all, though, was that the Americans were fighting a bigger war, of which Vietnam was only a part. Bombing the North would have brought China into the war alongside the NVA, whereas putting in too many reinforcements would have depleted the divisions facing the Russians in Europe. The home front was divided, in part due to resistance to the war itself, but also because of the awakening Civil Rights movements, and its Women's Rights counterpart. American attention was often elsewhere, whereas for the Vietnamese, it never was.

Still, from an American perspective, the sacrifice of so many in Vietnam was not useless. After Vietnam, there were no further significant Communist insurgencies in the region - the "dominos" that started falling with Korea came to a stop. China and Russia never engaged American forces openly. Japan and Germany stayed pro-Western. Not long after the Vietnam war finished, America moved into a long period of increasing wealth and improved social justice, which has not yet ended despite a few bumps in the road.

There are many reasons why the Americans should be proud of the way their forces fought in Vietnam, and the freedoms that were won because of it. Much of the good things in todays world were shaped in places like Ia Drang or Dong Ha - and the men who fought there were heroes indeed.

very good post Kirruth very well thought out . Good job!

Originally Posted by Mark Conley

very good post Kirruth very well thought out . Good job!

Thanks I've been thinking about the topic alot recently.

I believe we "lost" the conflict because of how resourceful and prepared the enemy was.

The VC relied mostly on Guerrilla warfare, something the US had only dabbed on in the previous wars.

By the time we arrived in 'nam, the VC had worked their way into South Vietnam and made themselves fit in, making it that much harder for the US soldiers to do their job correctly.

My uncle was a radio-man in Vietnam, and he has told me that VC's would often pretend to be Southies, even killing some of their own men to gain Americans' trust, then they'd kill a number of US soldiers in their sleep before finally being caught.


All I can say is that I'm glad we discovered the strength of Kevlar before Vietnam, otherwise, I wouldn't have an awesome great-uncle.

I liked your post Kirruth. Made me think

I think America lost Vietnam because the North Vietnamese fighters, fough a different way to what America expected.

They fought from tunnels and holes in the ground and used hit-and-run tactics and they knew the area because it was where they had lived.

Not all North Vietnamese were like this of course the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) fought head on battles, but they usually atacked in mass, with Militia support and the strong points the Americans were trying their best to hold on to were lost

Of course Vietnam was an unpopular war and became more unpopular with the amount of casualties being taken.