The U.S. struggles against the Communist in Vietnam

1. Now think about the overall picture - how the strengths and weaknesses work together.

a) Were the armies finely balanced or was the balance strongly weighted to one side or the other? The U.S. army and the Veit Cong were unfairly balanced because the Viet Cong had many more advantages than the U.S. had.

b) Which quality was most important in determining who won the war? Was one feature so important that being ahead in that area meant that other advantages or disadvantages did not matter? The Advantage of the Veit Cong and their tactics were crutial to winning the war because it made them almost impossible to defeat.

2. Now write up your answer. Use this structure:
a. The U.S. weaknesses were:
They didn't have the support of local population. Also the enemy knew where the American bases were and where to strike.
b. At the same time, the Communist strengths were:
Their tactics of Gurilla Warfare. They were able to blend in with ordinary civilians so the Americans never knew how close they were to their enemy. They were fighting on their home turf and had the advantage.
c. The U.S. forces did have some successes. For example:
The uses of the tactics of using chemical weapons, air raids, and search and destroy missions were effective in fighting the Veit Cong Forces but these tactics angered the Vietnemese population.
d. However, there were some major failures as well. Examples of these were:
The tactics used by the U.S. army angered the civilian population making them not want to help the Americans. They also had their bases while heavily fortified were in known positions and were able to attacked where easily.
e. The Viet Cong had some major successes, such as:
They were able to blend in with the civilian population and this let them attack the Americans at will and not have to reveil themselves till they attack. Their tactics of Gurrilla Warfare also terified the American soliders and lowered their moral. Also they wouldn't give up and would rather die than surrender.
f. However, they also suffered defeats, for example:
The Tet offensive failed miserably.
g. If I had to identify one major American weakness, it would be the tactics they had to use to fight the Viet Cong angered the civilian population because: this made the civilian population not want to help the Americans rout out the Viet Cong resistance Fighters and this also made them lose the support of the people and drove the people to help the Viet Cong.

h. The key Viet Cong strength was their Gurilla Tactics because: This form of attack made it nearly impossible for the U.S. army to fight the Viet Cong on their own terms they had to wait for the Viet Cong attack them.