This is for sure a very interesting question because it was the first lose in USA history. So why did it happen?
There might be several reasons why finally the USA lost the Vietnam War.
First, and in my opinion one of the most important, is the well known fact that it is always easier to defend your country because of strong motivation, than to attack a foreign nation. In this case the motivation of the Vietnamese army was much stronger than the USA soldiers mostly because of the fact that in the case of losing the enemy will control their country.
Another thing was that USA soldiers were foreigners. Hardly any of them knew anything about Vietnam and none of them were able to speak Vietnamese. They were fighting in unknown terrain and most of them were not trained for defending against guerilla warfare. The case was also about the climate which the American army wasn't prepared for. Such heat, humidity and new conditions made them fight worse.
But they didn't really care about preparation before coming because they planned to stay in Vietnam just for a while. The war lasted longer than expected, making the American people tired and homesick, which had a big influence on their level of involvement. They didn't really have strong drive, they just stayed there because of coercion. So with time they started to take drugs which were very common and easily available. They stopped caring about the war, which had crippling effects.
They also lost because of a Guerilla war that they hadn't expected. American troops were mostly supposed to fight NVA (North Vietnamese Army) but finally they had to stay and defend against guerilla warfare which was much harder because the enemy knew the terrain better, while for them it was absolutely new. The main problem in this case was based on the fact that the USA army didn't exactly know who to shoot. Vietnamese soldiers didn't vary so much from civilians so it was nearly impossible to check who was really who. Because of that, lots of innocent people died and war from the American people's point of view started to look inappropriate and cruel which soon caused the American government to be very unpopular.
In fact the USA didn't even have a lot support from allies such as South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. The number of soldiers that were sent for help was ridiculously small. The number of Americans who were killed during the war was ten times bigger than the combined total of soldiers killed of all the contributing allies.
1. They underestimated the tenacity and organisation of the VC and NVA
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3. The North Vietnamese conducted conducted a ‘Peoples war’ in which everyone played a part (“If the truck is stuck, tear down the walls of your house”)
4. At first, most Americans supported the war. By 1970, the PEACE MOVEMENT had support from all sections of society and no government could ignore it
5. After 1969, there were deep questions about the efficiency of US troops. There was a serious drugs problem; desertion rates were high and morale low. Many troops were ‘time-servers’, i.e. counted the days until the tour was over.
6. The US never really understood the culture of the Vietnamese people. Coca Cola, chewing gum, Biros and Dayville’s ice cream could not buy off their ancient beliefs.
7. America was not prepared to keep losing high numbers of casualties for such limited progress in a difficult jungle war, for which they were not suited.
8. The strength and resourcefulness of the VC ,for example the high complex CU CHI tunnel system the US never shut down.