Because the U. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1. The conflict was Feb 19, 2018 · The second war was a civil war between the two zones created at Geneva: North Vietnam, governed by Vietnamese Communists, and South Vietnam, backed by American aid and, eventually, by American Historian Gregory Daddis in his book Westmoreland's War: Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 2014) argues that the US military command as well as its regular officers were familiar and had studied counterinsurgency extensively in the pre-Vietnam years and that the defeat in Vietnam was not because of the lack of Jun 9, 2021 · Mike Lien/The New York Times. So when the U. actually won the war – as it successfully defeated North Vietnam and Viet Cong in every significant battle – yet lost the peace. The US was so powerful after World War II, especially after the Soviet Union disappeared, that Washington was America has won the War of Independence, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Indian Wars, the Civil War, and are back-to-back winners of the World Wars. On Nov. [deleted] • 5 yr. Unfortunately some are Jan 30, 2018 · Seemingly out of nowhere, a shock wave hit South Vietnam on Jan. (Video: Victoria Walker/The Dec 16, 2019 · December 16, 2019, 6:18 PM. The Joint Chiefs of Staff made a set of rules after the Vietnam war that are supposed to be a guideline for future conflicts as asked by the President or Congress. Vietnam War - Guerilla Tactics, Air Power, Casualties: In contrast to the tightly controlled air war in the North, conduct of the ground war in the South was largely left to the leadership of General The Vietnam War saw some of the most intense air combat of the 20th century - with over 1,737 fixed U. Aug 18, 2021 · Dominic Tierney’s The Right Way to Lose a War: America in an Age of Unwinnable Conflicts is a dour assessment of U. Wing of downed USAF warplane at the Vietnam Military History Museum. , Europe, Australia and elsewhere. Next I would like to repost an answer I wrote regarding American public support for the war. Thomas Dellwo was killed by a fellow soldier the day before he was slated to leave Vietnam. . So how did a super power that was drafting its citizens end up losing to… Final loss: A-26A 64-17646 (609th SOS, 56th SOW) lost over Laos on the night of 7–8 July 1969, killing both crewmen. The US left Vietnam in 1972. The US was fighting a war it simply was not prepared to fight nor was it ready to adapt itself to it either. After The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers on Sunday, June 13, 1971, the nation was stunned. 1: The first MANPAD, the SA-7, was deployed to Vietnam at the tail end of the war, and brought down about 30 American planes until they learned to stay high where the missile couldn't get them. Feb 17, 2019 · Vietnam Veterans Memorial Lt. Egypt and Syria were badly defeated in the 1973 war, but the losses Israel suffered in that . You can imagine this 21-year old They never stood a chance. In a coordinated assault unprecedented in ferocity and scale, more than 100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers 2 days ago · By the end of 1966 the United States had already lost almost 500 aircraft and hundreds of air crewmen killed or held as prisoners of war. To the editor: All wars are wrong. aircraft bombing targets in North Vietnam, June 1966. [deleted] • 6 yr. They kept a poker-face, but they backed off. Spector, After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam (New York: Free Press, 1993); and James H. Aug 9, 2019 · 2. The U. They also assert that the U. and its main United States involvement in the Vietnam War began shortly after the end of World War II in Asia, first in an extremely limited capacity and escalating over a period of 20 years. bar is to mention Vietnam. Sep 7, 2017 · How did Lyndon Johnson, one of the most gifted political figures of his time, lose his way in a war he didn’t start and didn’t end? Many historians believe that the November 1963 coup that brought down South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem was the event that started Johnson slogging through the morass that became the Vietnam War. Mostly planes doing CAS, not strike missions, but definitely concerning the USAF. They lost because the Vietnamese people were willing to suffer more for an independent homeland than the American people were for a compliant The US did not want to be continually tied down in a controversial and expensive war, so they began transferring operations to the South Vietnamese. gov has been telling its people that the war was on the cusp of victory and the North Vietnamese orchestrated the Tet Offensive (a massive offensive that involved pitched battles) then suddenly the narrative that the U. "The Vietnam War was not lost on the battlefield," the Commander of United States forces in Vietnam said, "butlost in the halls ofCongress. Sep 30, 2011 · The General Who Lost Vietnam. With the signing of the Paris Peace Accord, the US officially left the 234K subscribers in the polls community. The response ranged from horror to anger to disbelief Feb 5, 2021 · Ho Chi Minh and his successors may have been, as Moyar points out, “doctrinaire Communists,” but Vietnam itself invaded another communist state in 1977, and went to war with one of its Aug 22, 2017 · Why Vietnam Was Unwinnable. There were lower level American and South Vietnamese commanders who knew what they were doing and the conduct of the war should have been left up to them. In many ways, for the worse: It made us cynical and distrustful of our The truth is that our military won the war, but our politicians lost it. But the U. Feb 5, 2019 · February 5, 2019, 5:16 PM. forces decided to turn to the Nixon Doctrine. Nor was the war lost because a successful effort was undermined by opposition at home. On the night of March 15, 1971, a group of American artillery officers stationed at the Bien Hoa Air Force base were enjoying a rare “wonderful time of great food and fellowship” in a brief respite from the war. Why the USA Lost the Vietnam War. • 6 yr. Every change of guards resulted in a different set of strategies. Vietnam, the US pulled out after waffling there with a half effort. Award. The year 1968 saw major developments in the Vietnam War. There were also few main-force PAVN units in South Vietnam, and so many of the battles in the early war were fought against Viet Cong units, generally battalion-sized and under. As far if it was pointless is something I'm not going to get into, however the spread of communism in Asia which was one of the reason to for the US to enter Vietnam, was actually a bit of a success for the USA because the spread of communism by Vietnam wasn't as great as America worried. This is the reason why America lost the Vietnam War. Vietnam Australia's war Paul Ham Vietnam the 10000 day War Maclear. Some of the changes were for the better of the country, take the rediscovered Women’s Rights movements and the ever growing Free Speech movements inspired by New Left, while most of the other changes brought on tensions between government and their people. The French Indochina War broke out in 1946 and went on for eight years, with France’s war Sep 9, 2017 · Opinion: The U. Oct 8, 2022 · But the opposite is true. 1 billion+ dead from a single Biden blast. The president publicly announced his decisions at a news conference at the end of July. The US was there to support South Vietnam from being overwhelmed by North Vietnam. With the first major ground troops landing in Vietnam in 1965, something like 60% of Americans supported military intervention in Vietnam, with only 24% opposing. While the war was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, the north was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other Vietnam was leaning communist. Jan 3, 2024 · It has been said that the U. lost in Vietnam — but it was still a war worth fighting. The US initially "won" the war in Afghanistan by swiftly overthrowing the Taliban government in 2001. Even now, the easiest way to get into an argument at a V. troop numbers in Vietnam rise to 400,000. By the time the US pulled out, the South Vietnamese had been trained and armed by the US for 20 years and the US believed they were ready to fight their own battles. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. 1945 1,737 Warplanes Destroyed: A Big Reason America Lost the Vietnam War My understanding is that neither China nor the USSR directly engaged the US. Reply. war in Afghanistan. 23, 1968, The Philadelphia Tribune wrote of large Sep 29, 2021 · “Strategically, the war is lost — the enemy is in Kabul,” Milley told the House Armed Services Committee, referring to the Taliban’s Aug. In March of 1945, and just five months before surrendering to the Allies, Japan did something with profound consequences: it conquered Vietnam Jul 10, 2021 · The iconic Vietnam episode of "Hey Arnold," titled "Arnold’s Christmas," was the first in-depth look at Mr. • 9 yr. Winning battles and bombing jungles and villages isn't going to do shit when you are not fighting an organized army but a people determined to fight to the last man, who will resist The Vietnam War body count controversy centers on the counting of enemy dead by the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War (1955–1975). For the first time ever, the American army looked weak in front of its people and the world. The United States did not win the war because they did not entirely achieve the goal. 30, 1968. It builds on his 2010 book How We Fight Apr 27, 2000 · Twenty-five years after the ignominious American withdrawal from what was then South Vietnam, this much is clear: the United States lost the war, but won the peace. 2. The Vietnam War was a battle within the larger Cold War, along with the Korean War, confrontations in Berlin, the Cuban Missile Crisis and other clashes between the U. Jul 18, 2017 · The riot at the Long Binh Jail is the most publicized of thousands of racial incidents reported in South Vietnam between 1968 and 1971. More than 500 people were slaughtered in the My Lai too bad the vietnam war was just a small conflict in the larger cold war and war agains communism, so uness all of Russia and China had also dropped dead overnight, killing every person in Vietnam would have been a complete loss for the u. The US didn't "lose" the war in the classic sense of the North Vietnamese were not able to force a conclusion favorable to their own war aims (unification of Vietnam), while the US war aims were broadly met (South Vietnam preserved) at the Paris Peace Accord. A-37 Dragonfly —22 total. Air Force / Wikimedia Commons. The Soviet Union had begun to stagnate by 1973 and regardless of the NVC annexing the south, Vietnam, having been 23M subscribers in the explainlikeimfive community. " Westmoreland's charge reflects re­ cent Vietnam War revisionism, the effort to rationalize America's defeat by claiming that United States forces were prevented from winning Apr 20, 2015 · The factual record shows beyond any reasonable doubt that America did not win in Vietnam. and a corrupt regime in South Vietnam lost this war. on July 27, 1953, Harold Smith had just 16 more minutes of the Korean War to survive before a ceasefire came into effect at 10:00 p. failed to achieve a military victory On the war’s final years, see Jeffrey Kimball, Nixon’s Vietnam War (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998); Ronald H. It was total war for Vietnam, it was evening news for the US. That year, there was a massive armored invasion by the north of the south. military might, published in 2015. Decades back, in late 1972, South Vietnam and the United States were winning the Vietnam War decisively by every Jul 29, 2020 · Lastly, one could argue the United States did not lose the Vietnam War because the only “war” that really threatened the country then was the Cold War. True points. There was no declaration of war—not even an address to But a victory, nevertheless. S I’m sick of the ever increasing sentiment that the United States “lost” the war in Vietnam. The Vietnam War never had a declared victor. overall suffered fewer casualties than Oct 11, 2011 · And the number one reason why Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam: With his unavailing approach to conduct of the war he squandered four years of support by much of the American people, the American soldiers were better fed, better equipped, better supported and better trained, and they did their job well. In January of 1973, the United States of America agreed to withdraw all troops from Vietnamese ground. The South Vietnamese state-building strategy was at times dreadfully Oct 29, 2009 · The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. warplanes destroyed. The degree of American investment in the Vietnam War, without mangling our economy, did impress the Soviets. In the 80s and 90s, vietnam started moving toward free market reforms allowing people of vietnam to sell surplus goods and keep the profit. The Cold War overview - Edexcel The Cold War origins 1941-56 - Edexcel The Cold War 1958-1970 - Edexcel The Cold War 1972-1991 - Edexcel The Cold War - exam preparation - Edexcel Jul 11, 2020 · In contrast to popular belief, the US actually never lost in the Vietnam War. America's defeat in Vietnam. At the end of January, the PAVN and VC launched the Tet Offensive . Explain Like I'm Five is the best forum and archive on the internet for layperson-friendly… The Vietnam war brought many changes to the United States in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. history, until the war in Afghanistan that began in 2002 and continues at this writing (2013). defeated communist forces during most of Vietnam’s major battles. For the layman, whose entire understanding of war is based on conventional wars in which wars are usually won by military means alone: the destruction Vietnam was in a civil war and some of the Vietnamese thought the North was the legitimate government, and others thought the south was. Embassy in Saigon, the Vietnam War The Vietnam War was unwinnable for the US because the Vietnamese were fighting a total defensive war and the US was fighting a limited war 6,000 miles from home. 2 days ago · In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. Meanwhile in Vietnam bombing villages sometimes killed Viet Cong and almost always built support for resisting the murders who bombed the villages 10 votes, 21 comments. The type of warfare also did not allow America to display it's strength. If I had to guess, it's that the Vietnam War featured a draft, so a far greater number of Americans were involved, often against their will, and ended with far more American deaths. Nov 5, 2022 · Fifty-eight thousand American lives were tragically wasted in that war, and many more came home permanently damaged in body, mind or spirit. was on the cusp of victory was broken. m. One reason for this might stem from the culture’s views on wealth: the Vietnamese people admire the rich and experience very little social envy. And the bog of Vietnam bled off America's eagerness to test its mettle against the Soviets. Almost entirely as a result of the US bombing destroying the stable society, economy and government and allowing the communists (Pol Pot) to build support. Jun 19, 2023 · Published June 19, 2023 12:00PM (EDT) 1st March 1968: American soldiers and Vietnamese refugees returning to the town of Hue, in Vietnam. You should have supported Uncle Ho Chi Minh from the beginning. So it was pretty easy for Americans not to think very much about it day-to-day as it was Oct 9, 2023 · The United States won all the big battles in Vietnam and Afghanistan, but it ultimately lost both wars. I'll admit, creative, but I doudt the USSR gave a fuck about Vietnam out if supply some weapons. I think the military accomplished a lot with the severe restrictions they were under that only cost the lives of many more. As most people know, the consequences of the Vietnam War were devastating for the country. We could help the south establish it's claim to be the defacto government of the people, but it was their country and their policies. In WW2 18 million citizens were members of the armed forces. If there’s news at Penn, you’ll find 2 days ago · The Vietnam War had its origins in the broader Indochina wars of the 1940s and ’50s, when nationalist groups such as Ho Chi Minh ’s Viet Minh, inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, fought the colonial rule first of Japan and then of France. U. 30, 2011, President Barack Obama praised the Vietnam War veterans in the audience for their service and achievements. The military operations started with an attack on a US base by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (VC) on January 1, ending a truce declared by the Pope and agreed upon by all sides. Jan 31, 2018 · The Tet Offensive began in stealth 50 years ago in Vietnam, but it ended up being splashed on television sets all over America. The US relied more on the strategy of Vietnamization of the in-country forces, putting more of a burden on South Vietnam to fight their own war, while expanding strategic bombing to include Laos and Cambodia (Laos was already an active, if covert, war zone by '68). The war simply expedited the inevitable collapse. Sep 13, 2017 · Both sides declare victory. Learn the tactics used by both sides and the growing opposition to war in the USA. Jun 2, 2015 · June 2, 2015. First loss: 1967, final loss: 1972. Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004). 796 votes, 56 comments. 15 takeover of Afghanistan’s capital city. [1] By the conclusion of the United States's Apr 26, 2023 · Lost-war angst quietly pooled into a political resource that white nationalist and militarist movements would tap decades later. Aug 30, 2011 · During a speech before the 93rd annual conference of the American Legion on Aug. • 1966: U. S. Of course it didn't help that until very late in the war pretty much all of the targets of value in N Vietnam was off limits. The US couldn't win the war without invading North Vietnam and they couldn't win the war with North Vietnam unless they invaded China, which would've led to World War III. AC-47 Spooky —19 total, 12 in combat. 1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. With the decreasing support from the home front, the U. The United States abandoned the war because saving South Vietnam wasn’t worth the human, political and monetary costs at home. ago. It's an incredibly complicated story and I'm trying to ELI5. Please read the sidebar before posting and be kind to one another. The war in Afghanistan, whatever the result was, did not involve a draft. In late July Johnson took the final steps that would commit the United States to full-scale war in Vietnam: he authorized the dispatch of 100,000 troops immediately and an additional 100,000 in 1966. s. It did indeed fall as a result of the war. The Trump administration is now using Henry Kissinger’s “decent interval” process of abandonment to end the U. In 1972, Nixon went to China, and the Soviet Bloc retreated from the Incompetent civilian leadership out of Washington, D. Seared into all who fought it — and many who merely lived through it — that conflict remains a bitter stew of second-guessing and recriminations. Those who argue that the United States won the war point to the fact that the U. Lack of Consistency in Policy Formulation. In short, the reason was Vietnam wanted independence and the US became convinced that Vietnamese independence would definately lead to Communism and the Vietnamese became convinced that America / the Capitalists would never give them freedom, so they had to side with the Communists. The US Vietnam War had begun. 27, 1968. American broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite speaks while listening to a headset, circa 1968. • June 1966: American aircraft attack targets in Hanoi and Haiphong in raids that are among the first such May 25, 2018 · Did the News Media, Led by Walter Cronkite, Lose the War in Vietnam? Barbie Zelizer of the Annenberg School for Communication was cited for her assertion that news photographs of the Vietnam War were just as influential on public opinion as television coverage. May 25, 2018 ・ From The Washington Post. 235K subscribers in the polls community. However, Kotkin argues that the US won the peace as Vietnam is one of America's staunchest allies in the Indo-Pacific. By the introduction of US combat forces in the mid-60's, more PAVN regiments began to enter into South Vietnam. Hyunh, a recurring character on the show. Horst Faas/Associated The question of who won the Vietnam War has been a subject of debate, and the answer depends on the definition of victory. There are issues around killing and counting unarmed civilians ( non-combatants) as enemy combatants, as well as inflating the number of actual enemy who were killed in action (KIA). His one-hour special report aired on Feb. Yet, when Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement escalated racist and authoritarian sentiments in 2015, many efforts to explain its popularity failed to address the role of the war in Vietnam. military presence peaked in April 1969, with 543,000 American military personnel stationed in Vietnam. A portion of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Indeed, it is difficult to Apr 29, 2015 · The tragedy of the war for the United States was that American lives and resources were lost needlessly in a region where no vital American interests were at stake. Jan 7, 2017 · America didn’t just lose the war, and the lives of 58,000 young men and women; Vietnam changed us as a country. coupled with political generals in the U. Many people at the time, considered withdrawing the army from enemy territory, losing the war, however, many As the war continued, many could not ignore the fact that marijuana use was steadily increasing. Feb 15, 2018 · The answer to the puzzle is that American power turned out to be a double-edged sword. One I heard was that America lost because it was because the moon landing was fake and the US agreed with the USSR to keep it a secret in exchange for the US leaving Vietnam. On April 30, 1975, when the last helicopter lifted off the roof of the U. However, for numerous reasons, the US was never able to win the peace. TheFryPanKing. Now, the US did pull out of the conflict but they also lost their own portion of it. Conversely, the US objectively lost the war in Vietnam. The US believed in the "domino theory" of communism--if one country fell, then others near it would fall like dominos. TV star led a country against the Vietnam War. “We no longer doubt that we should have 60k americans died, 300k wounded. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and a major conflict of the Cold War. W. The chemical weapons used by the United States, including the defoliant Agent Sep 12, 2017 · The war opened the credibility gap. With the amount of victories made, Americans might try to process the question of who won the Vietnam War. The above-mentioned lack of clarity about the overall aims and objectives of the war at the outset led to confusing policy formulation throughout the war. Some say the US lost the war militarily but won in the long run due to the suffering the country faced under communist rule which made them rethink things and move toward capitalism. What we’ve learned since has only widened it. war in Afghanistan, a conflict that Samuel Moyn and The use of the AK pattern rifles was rare. It was extremely divisive in the U. Regardless, more than 58,000 U. May 25, 2018 · CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite went to Vietnam to provide viewers with an assessment of the war’s progress. ucstruct. (Terry Fincher/Express/Getty Images) For many of us whose Aug 28, 2022 · August 28, 2022. The United States dramatically escalated its participation in the Vietnam War in the 1960s, expanding its military presence from a few hundred advisers to hundreds of thousands of soldiers. In fact, the US actually managed to bring North Vietnam into its knee, so Hanoi inevitably had to sign the Paris Peace Accord in 1973 and had to agree to its terms — which benefits the US. In the Civil War 600000 American soldiers died in half the time. The strategy is simple The anti-war movement lowered the morale of the men fighting the war on the ground which lead to the drug taking and “fragging” that became prominent in the latter years of the war. Estimates of Vietnamese civilian deaths start at 2 Mar 25, 2017 · A little forgotten history provides some perspective. NATO allies did not interpret Feb 27, 2018 · 50 Years Ago, Walter Cronkite Changed a Nation. C. As the Army’s combat role in the Vietnam War wound down, illicit drugs continued to be a problem. At 9:44 p. They didn't lose because they were backstabbed at home or mis-supplied or misled. The North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong assaults in cities across Apr 23, 2014 · The thesis of Fredrik Logevall’s Pulitzer Prize winning history, “Embers of War,” is that the die for the tragedy of the American war in Vietnam had been decisively cast in the two decades preceding 1965, the year in which occurred the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the deployment of large units of American troops to Vietnam, and the start of the American bombing campaign against North Vietnam. Historian Lewis Sorley — author of 1999’s well-regarded A Better War: The Nov 9, 2009 · A company of American soldiers brutally killed most of the people—women, children and old men—in the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. Vietnamese people from the beginning did not like China and supported America. The Vietnam War was the longest in U. The Communists in North Vietnam actually signed a peace treaty, effectively surrendering. Nothing has changed: "America loses to Vietnam", "Vietnam still prefers America to China". The reason we lost the war was because you cannot run a war from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, in the district of Columbia. 862. Congress didn't hold up its end of the bargain. Last week, the Washington Post published a massive set of documents on the protracted and still unsuccessful U. The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 [A 1] to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. An American paratrooper sergeant shouts orders to his squad as they charge brushline while subject to sniper fire in Vietnam on June 1, 1965. For Higher History, study the reasons the USA lost the war in Vietnam. F. we og bd pz kc bt nx qv lo dq