America's Defeat In The Vietnam War

The mismatched battle between between a global superpower and a poor third world country ended with a result that no one could have imagined, the loss of the United States and victory of communist forces in Vietnam. America was unsuccessful in the Vietnam War due to the inappropriate war tactics used, the fact that America was fighting in unknown land and terrain, as well as America’s lack of motivation and will.

To begin, one of the main causes to America’s defeat in the vietnam war were the military tactics used to fight the battle.
Westmoreland, the U.S army general who lead the battle, had a vision of using a ‘search and destroy’ tactic to win the war. This tactic was highly unsuited for the war for several reasons, one of them being that the
This was a communist objective that was meant to surprise the American and South Vietnamese armies by creating a series of surprise attacks in cities of South Vietnam without any notice with the hopes to catch the American and Southern Vietnamese armies off guard. America was not expecting any offences from the Viet Cong any time soon so the offensive came as a huge surprise to them. Westmoreland had even stated that the end of the war was in sight since the enemy had become too weak to launch anymore major offensives. The Tet offensive was a turning point in the war and changed perspectives of many Americans, “[...] Tet indicated that the war in Vietnam would become more serious and require greater sacrifices of lives and wealth” this threw the U.S army off guard. Even though the American army was not heavily impacted with losses, the psychological damage that was created and the panic that struck the United States was quite significant. Although the attack had failed, the Vietcong still managed to penetrate to the core of American power in South Vietnam and deplete the confidence of the American