Was the Vietnam War Winnable Essay

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Was the Vietnam War Winnable?
The war in Vietnam waged by America was unwinnable through the type of warfare that was used by the US . If they had concentrated on certain key aspects they may have prevented the spread of communism to South Vietnam and achieved their ultimate goal. Americas inability to obtain the “Hearts and Minds “of the Vietnamese led to a continual supply of fighters. The US was unable to fight against an ever-increasing civilian army. In Vietnam the US relied tremendously on their advanced and superior firepower to defeat the Vietcong and the ARVN. There technology and training was inadequate in the foreign Vietnamese terrain. The Vietnamese were allied to other communist nations, if their defeat was too humiliating …show more content…
The Viet Cong used a guerrilla warfare which did not allow the use of American artillery and bombs to kill them. The dense jungle fighting created low visibility from the air, which made it hard for the United States to utilize their far superior weapons.
America dropped seven million tons of bombs on North Vietnam and the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia United States air forces only dropped 2.2 million tons of ordnance in the largest war in history, WW2 . America dropped over ,three times more bombs, but it was still not effective enough to defeat North Vietnam.
The US strategy of destroying enemy troops and supplies faster than they can reproduce them was not a viable strategy. The Vietnamese who had been fighting for independence for hundreds of years and were not about to give up.

The US, at that time relied on their extremely advanced technology to combat the Vietnamese. This failed as the Vietnam is covered in dense jungle which rendered the Americans fighting style useless, they were accustomed to fighting in larger open areas instead of dense jungle and narrow city streets.
Vietnam not only had an almost infinite number of people but also was supplied by both the Soviets and the Chinese. The Chinese were essential in North Vietnams eventual unification of Vietnam. They provided military experts to advise generals in decision making large amounts of military equipment and eventually solders to aid their war efforts against the
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