Tet Offensive Effects On America

Over the centuries there have been many wars in which many lives have been lost and a huge impact has been made upon the United States of America. The Vietnam War was a great loss for the United States and many times it is also called The Resistance War against America. This war was fought between North Vietnam which fought alongside the Soviet Union, China and other communist groups and the government of South Vietnam who fought alongside the United States and other anti-communist nations and groups. . The Viet Cong were also known as the national liberation front , the Vietcong fought while supported by the North against anti-communists in the south. These Vietcong were one of the largest groups of impact on America during this war. The U.S.
government viewed American involvement in the war as a way to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. The United States of America believed in a concept called the Domino theory which emphasized the idea that communism would spread from region to region. The 4 topics that possibly had the largest impact on the U.S. Downfall are the Vietcong, Other Nations Involvment, Torture, and the Environment / Geography. These factors had huge psychological impacts on the soldiers and allowed the United States to lose many battles and lose momentum throughout the war. Furthermore the U.S. clearly lost the war and people were angered that so many lives were wasted. Moreover for that same reason there were many movements on U.S. soil that were opposing the continuation of the war. The war was a tragic loss for all Americans and it is clearly evident that the United States of America were affected my many different events and ideologies that resulted in their indisputable loss. Following this war the U.S. was beginning to question if they should ever involve themselves in communist matters again and began to question the domino theory.
The Vietcong Tunnels had a major impact on why the United States of America lost the war and had as many casualties as they did. The Vietcong tunnels are sometimes called the tunnels of Cu Chi. The Vietcong tunnels were an huge system of tunnels that were connected under the ground of Vietnam, they are very complex and are spread across most of the land. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong to hide from the U.S. soldiers and to stash weapons food medical items and as ambush tunnels. The tunnels were often filled with explosive traps or “stake pits”. The two most common ways in dealing with these tunnels were to pour immense amounts of hot water and tar or gas down the entrance so the Vietcong soldiers would have no choice but to come out. This method was unsuccessful because of the design of the tunnels and the use of trap doors and air filtration systems.
Throughout the course of the war, the tunnels in and around the area proved to be a source of irritation for the U.S. military in Saigon. The Vietcong were so immensely involved in the area by 1965 that they were able to choose when and where the battles took place. By helping to secretly move supplies and troops, the tunnels of the Vietcong allowed North Vietnamese fighters in their area of South Vietnam to survive, help extend the war and increase American costs and casualties until they eventually withdrew and the republic of Vietnam was defeated. Clearly the Vietcong tunnels had a massive Impact on the loss of the United States.
The Tet offensive was another major cause of the downfall of the U.S.A in the Vietnam war.
In January 1968, the Viet Cong broke the truce that they would not declare war on thje Lunar Festival by beginning the largest battle of the war, the Tet Offensive, they wanted the nation to revolt. Hundreds of cities were attacked and over 85,000 units were deployed Even the U.S. embassy was attacked. This offensive became a turning point in America's involvement in the Vietnam War because it had a large impact on how the American public viewed the war. Even though there was a military failure for the north Vietnam it was a political victory and ended the career of president Lyndon B. Johnson, who didn’t want to run for president again due to the public’s opinion of him. Clearly this offensive had a major impact on the result of the war.
The true involvement of China in Vietnam began in 1962 when they had promised to give the Government of Hanoi military rifles and guns. Over Ninety thousand rifles were sent to Hanoi as a gift from China, to make matters worse the Chinese didn’t want any money back for it. . Along with the many dollars spent on smaller guns and weapons, China also gave them anti aircrafts to rejuvenate the cities that were impacted by the chemical bombings. China also put the country in abetter state as they fixed houses and railroads. China also gave financial support to Vietnam in order to purchase weapons from other
countries.
Many people say that it was China’s hand that led to the victory of the North Vietnamese. Even though North Vietnam had the Viet Cong on their side, they were still lacking military power. When China came in, it boosted the military strength of the army, and it led to the South Vietnamese surrendering. China was a main reason as well of why the U.S.A withdrew from the war because it threatened to completely annihilate any U.S. resistance against the North Vietnamese.
Soviet support remained unsympathetic through the 1950s and early 1960s. The USSR gave North Vietnam informational support however didn’t give much military support as China did. However Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev preferred to not venture too deep into Vietnamese matters. The new Soviet leader, Aleksei Kosygin, was enthusiastic to join up with the North Vietnam and defeat the anti- communist forces in the area and around the globe. In November 1964 Kosygin sent a public message of support to the National Liberation Front and announced that he would be visiting North Vietnam in the New Year. The Soviet leader arrived in February 1965, when he met with NVA commanders. They signed a defense treaty that would provide North Vietnam with financial support and military support. Therefore the Soviet union had a large impact on why the U.S. lost the war.
To put more pressure in Vietnam, the relationship between the USSR and China deteriorated through the 1960s. The Sino-Soviet split successfully forced Hanoi to choose between Beijing and Moscow. In November 1968, the USSR and North Vietnam signed a new set of military and economic agreements. The Soviet union was contributing much more to the North Vietnamese cause. Therefore China then took back all of its troops and support. Over 3000 soviet soldiers fought on Vietnam soil and shot down many U.S. planes. Therefore the involvement of both the Soviet Union and China had a huge impact on the result of the war.
Between July 1967 and August 1968 19 POW’s were separated from the main war and were tortured and interrogated by a group of Cubans.
Many of them, had knowledge of the U.S. and were supporting the communist forces. They weren’t fighting for the North Vietnamese but were very anti- United States and disliked their policies. One of the US POWs subjected to this treatment died of the torture. US intelligence learned of this event as soon as US POWs returned in Operation Homecoming, spring 1973. American POWs called the term "Cuban Program" to describe a program in which a small group of interrogators brutally beat and tortured 19 Americans. Many of the soldiers were subjected to hours of constant beating, many of the troops remembered that they were kicked in the face hours upon hours until they lost the ability to scream from pain. This cause soldiers to lose all moral to fight in the war an instilled fear in their hearts. The Phoenix Program was an intelligence operation made to gather information and evidence on the Vietcong troops in the surrounding area. The Alcatraz Gang was a group of 11 POW that were locked in small prison cells and subjected to large times of interrogation and torture. The Hue Massacre is the name given to the many executions and mass killings taken out by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army during their capture, occupation and later withdrawal from the city of Hue during the Tet Offensive. Many people were tortured and killed and it also brought
down the U.S. Moral in the war.
One of the worst difficulties was the enemy was mixed with the civilian population. Wars like WWII were easier for the United States when the enemy was wearing uniforms and it was easy to see who to shoot. The guerrilla warfare of Vietnam made it much harder since the solders could not clearly see who was friendly and who was an enemy. Furthermore the Vietcong were also able to place many deadly traps in the Jungle and have them concealed in the thick vegetation. This caused many casualties and deaths for the enemy and was something that made fighting the Vietcong much harder for the U.S.A because of the risk of getting trapped in one of the deadly traps.
The Vietcong would mostly use the jungle environment of Vietnam to their advantage. They would hide behind trees and low in hedges, then when a group of American soldiers would start walking, they would just shoot at them randomly. The American soldiers were completely surprised by this particular tactic at the beginning of the war because it was very unexpected , but as the war progressed, they started to expect more of these surprise attacks. For this to work, however, they needed common civilians support so that they could hide the Vietcong when they were retreating. Since they had no uniform they could blend in with the civilians. This meant that the Americans did not know who their enemy was because after they had struck they just blended back into the population. Landmines were used by placing bombs on the ground that would be activated by a soldier stepping on it. Booby traps were non-explosive traps that were used to harm the enemy. They often consisted of a layer of ground that could be penetrated so that when the foot of an enemy soldier lands on it, it goes right through to the stakes or spikes beneath. Sometimes the spikes were poison-tipped to cause an infection. Trip wires were either explosive or not explosive. Sometimes they were used to trigger a poison tipped arrow into firing at the enemy, or sometimes they were used to trigger a grenade into exploding or a spiked ball to fall onto the enemy. This would be very fatal and would cause immediate death and made every waking moment for the United States troops more frightening and threatening. They could be used to cause a chain reaction of explosives as well. This topic had the most psychological impact on America and some say that the environment and forests were more deadly than the actual battlefield. The Environment had many U.S. soldiers fearing death with every step they took they had many nightmares and moral was very down. Their efforts were wasted as none of the American public supported the war and wanted the brutal destruction of American lives to stop. The geography and Environment may be the topic that contributed to most of this public disapproval as it was the area that had the most deaths. Therefore it is clearly evident that the environment and landscape of Vietnam had a huge impact on the downfall of the U.S.A.