Every War has to start somehow, and this one was started by two countries hating each other. According to History.com,” with the cold war intensifying worldwide, the U.S. hardened its policies against any allies of the soviet union”(6). America thought that if they didnt do anything the comunist belief would spread the whole way through southern asia and that would be very bad for america. The U.S.A also couldn't do an all out war against russia because that would lead to the world burning down in nuclear warfare. So they decided to just attack russia's little brother in Vietnam.
Ho was known for being an inspiration for North Vietnam. According to History.com Ho became the leader of the north and proceeded to conquer both north and part of the south. Then a anti-comunist got elected the leader of south vietnam. His name was Diệm (4). From what I learned this is great that he was elected as the leader because this would show that south vietnam would have a great relationship with south vietnam. This also showed that south vietnam and the U.S had one common enemy which was North Vietnam, Ho, and the Viet-congs.
The Viet-cong, the people who just wanted to bring the country back together. According to Cnn,”North Vietnam was comunist South Vietnam was not. The rebels of Vietnam, known as viet-cong. Wanted to overthrow south vietnam and re-unite Vietnam”(1). The Viet-cong seemed very deadly even front the start overthrowing and killing south vietnams leader and making america pay attention to the Vietnam and the fact that the viet-cong were trying to joint the two vietnams with communism.
Guns are the mass weapon of society and that's why they have a kill count of over 45000. According to Pritzerkermilitary.org “ the Vietnam war saw the development of two guns the Ak-47 and M16. Additionally the M60 proved a very powerful machine gun” (1). The Ak-47 was invented by a communist inventor so you would imagine that the North Vietnam and Viet-cong used this gun all the time because it was cheap and really efficient; modified versions are still being used today. The M14 was the most used gun by the US up until 1967 where they used the M16 the most by far, but it was complained about because it malfunctioned a lot causing the M16A1 to be invented. The M60 was an extremely powerful gun and it even took two people to operate including a person who held it then someone who shot it. This gun was mostly put on helicopters and boats because it could be easily accessed there.
Bombs and Navy were a big part of the Vietnam war… for america. According to Pritzerkermilitary.org America used bombs a lot more than Vietnam. America dropped over 2.5 million explosives over one city. Boats and navy are the same case because Vietnam couldn't afford a navy (1). A massive controversy in the war entirely was the use of the Napalm bomb which in fact burnt at a high temperature and pushed out gasses which was not popular because people saw this as a way of toture. The U.S also used cluster bombs which simply just became smaller explosives. Over 2.5 million of these were dropped on a vietnam city which some of them have not exploded today. The one part of the war the U.s can say they won is the navy which isn't really a big accomplishment saying Vietnam didn't have any, but the Us used a lot of aircraft carriers which really helped the U.S control certain areas.
The US really controlled the airspace with their vast superiority in ships and tanks. According to Pritzerkermilitary.org Perhaps the two most common and most effective armored vehicles to serve in the American military during that war was M-48 Patton Tank and the M=113 armored personnel carrier. They very rarely used Planes for transporting soldiers and rarely fought, but when they did America won (1). Tanks in Vietnam were the Multi-use vehicle with them being used for everything including anti-aircraft, flamethrower, mortar, and Medical Vehicles. This is one of the Vehicles that both the U.S and the Vietnam had access to with America using M-48s and M-113s and the Vietnam used a T-54. Planes and helicopters were used like Tanks were: Multiuse. They were used to drop bombs, transport soldiers, and shoot down other Vietnam planes.
Vietnam is obviously inferior, weapons wise, as i've highlighted in the earlier paragraphs but they will counter in one of the smartest ways. According to thedailybeast.com The Vietnam believed that they were vastly inferior in technology and weapons but they thought their strategies were better. Some Vietnam Were Not fighting to win battles but cause mass casualties and lower U.S. morale (1). This is very smart by Vietnam because not only are all of the U.S. soldiers dying quickly when there not but every back home is very against the war. That would be nothing but demoralizing for a American soldier to know that you should be easily winning a war and you not, but also no one likes that you and other innocent people are putting your lives on the line for theirs.
Vietnam had by far the most known war tactics of all time. According to weebly.com The Vietnamesse did a lot of Ambushing taking out a lot of American soldiers. Vietnam also stayed underground and laid traps as much as they could. There was a small setback because of how small the tunnels were but it was fine (1). The Vietnamesse are known for “being in the trees” and jumping out at American soldiers but little do people know that they moved through a tunnel system. The Said System was super helpful towards the Vietnamesse because it let them have an area to hide and had a place to go when there was danger. Also, the only time that they came out of these 75 mile long tunnels were when they needed supplies or they attacked american troops.
America very clearly had every advantage but they cant say they won. According to weebly.com The US knew of the ambushes and it looked like they used soldiers as bait to them bomb the ambushes as they were happening.”Even though the U.S. had every advantage it came down to America not having public support” The U.S had no will to win causing a war that the U.S.A can’t say the won. America had more Money, technology, and equipment but they still couldn't find and kill vietnam soldiers without having to watch the ambush happen first. America did have a avantage in every category and they did win the war in subjects like air and water, but like the sentence says you can't win a war if the soldiers know people don't like their cause and they know they can be killed anytime with an easy ambush.
The aftermath of the Vietnam not only set the Vietnam back many years but hurt the U.S military in the public eye.According to digitalhistory.uh.edu,”A Gallup Poll found that 53 percent of those surveyed believe that war was a mistake”(1). This shows that the public population, that weren't even putting their life on the line, did not believe that the war wasn’t necessary. In my opinion the war was necessary because the main reason they started in was to prevent communism from spreading and the war helped control or even stop a little bit of that happening. Also, that is 114 million people in America who didn't agree with the war, according to my math.
Another thing that happened to America was that all the protests made the U.S change how they draft soldiers. According to digitalhistory.uh.edu,”It led the Congress to replace the military draft with an all-volunteer force and the country to reduce the draft age to 18”(1). This is massive for the world and the U.S. nowadays because, if I'm not wrong, this still stands and if there was a world war 3, people wouldn't be drafted and we would have enough military force. Also, the legal age of 18 isn't right in my eyes because 18 is way too young to be able to be drafted. I feel like if you're 18 you're still a kid, you also still have so many years left to live and you shouldnt be able to lose it all in war. Maybe the draft age should be raised to 25 plus.
Lastly, The U.S. was affected, yet again, by this war greatly. According to history.com The war hurt the U.S. for a long time and made the soldiers not feel safe(4). This is honestly sad because these soldiers put their life on the line for the people and country and when they come home they get greeted with nothing but protests and people not approving of what they did. Even though they had no choice to go to war when if they don't they get sent to prison by the federal government. I can see how they did not feel safe when they were going out into the battlefield and just getting massacred and then the U.S. took advantage of it and killed the Vietnamesse. Those soldiers were sacrificed in my eyes.