Why did the USA lose the Vietnam War?

The USA lost the Vietnam War because of its own weakness, both at home and in the armed forces, because of the strength of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong guerrillas, and because of the weakness of the South Vietnamese government that the USA was supporting. Also, in the wider context of the Cold War, the USA lost the Vietnam War because they, unlike the Vietnamese, were a divided people, and, in the words of Sergio Ortega, “The people, united, shall never be conquered”.

One fundamental reason why the USA lost the war was the Viet Cong's use of guerrilla tactics. This meant that it was the Viet Cong who chose the situation for each battle. They decided where the battle would take place, and only attacked when they had a certain chance of success. They also had the support of the Vietnamese people, who provided them with food, shelter, and intelligence. Whatever the strength of the US Army, it could be defeated by only attacking it in easily manageable portions. This is exactly what the Viet Cong did. It is not surprising that they won, based on this cause alone. However, coupled with the US generals' ineptness at fighting a guerrilla war, and the freedom the press had to broadcast the complete failure of the US army to win engagements, it secured the outcome of the war.

Another reason for the USA losing the War was the superiority of the Communist ideology put into practice over the extreme Capitalist ideology of the USA's command. Communism meant utilising all the people, not just the best of the people. So all the Vietnamese people were used – some fought, and some grew rice for the soldiers. The people were also indoctrinated daily with the Communist ideology, which gave them massive morale. This is in stark comparison to the USA's Commanders. They went in to a war, having already decided that they were better than the Vietnamese, as they had better technology, more chemicals and more money, therefore they were bound to win. This extreme Capitalist view meant that the generals had no plan to win the war – they refused to admit that they were losing, they refused to admit that they were being ambushed, and they refused to admit that their tactics were wrong. This extreme ideology also meant that the needs of the individual troops were not met. These two effects together led to an extremely weak US Army. They had no morale – the aim of the war was only held by the elite, not by the troops, so the troops had to reason to fight. The generals were also unwilling to change their tactics. So, given the circumstances of a guerrilla war, the Viet Cong Communist ideology was certain to defeat the extreme Capitalist ideology of the USA's commanders.

Furthermore, the USA lost the war because the people at the home were divided. There were demonstrations, especially in university campuses, such as at Kent State University, where police opened fire on the protesting crowds and killed several people. This only served to widen the gap between the authorities and the people. These protests eventually caused the War to be a key issue in the 1968 US election, which Nixon won by postponing the end to the war in a secret deal with the South Vietnamese government. Once he had been elected, he introduced the 'Nixon Doctrine', which turned the War over to the south Vietnamese, who lost in Operation Ho Chi Minh, in 1975. These divisions also affected the morale of the troops – they did not believe in the war, so they did not want to fight.

Also, the USA lost the war because the US Press was free to go where they wanted, and broadcast what they wanted. This meant that a lot of revealing, shocking footage was transmitted back home – pictures of the atrocities that they were committing in Vietnam. This was different to in North Vietnam, where the press was strictly censored, and Ho Chi Minh used it to make the people support the war. So, the free press in the USA fed the protest movement and led to them losing the War, while the controlled press in North Vietnam fed support for the War, and led to them winning the war.

Finally, the USA lost the war because of the weakness of their army. The recruits were far too young – they had no maturity. Also, they were conscripted from the same age group, so the soldiers had no-one to look up to for support apart from the commanding officers, who were extremely unpopular as they were the ones who gave the orders to go and creep through a forest and get ambushed. This, and the lack of a proper campaign plan, led to extremely low morale among the troops. It is not surprising, then, that the USA lost the war, if the troops did not want to fight. This low morale also caused horrific behaviour, which was transmitted home via the free press to feed the protest movement.

In conclusion, the most important cause of the outcome of the Vietnam War was the ideological basis for the War. This is because the Communist ideology of the Vietnamese caused the Guerrilla tactics, while the extreme Capitalist ideology of the US Command caused the stubborn generals, the divided people, the support of a corrupt government and the low morale of the troops. The ideological differences typical of the Cold War fed almost every other cause of the outcome of the War, and were not fed by any other cause of the War, so they were the most important cause of the War.