The Americans in Vietnam

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The Americans in Vietnam (a) What was the Tet Offensive? The Tet offensive occurred on January 30th 1968. The Viet Cong launched this and the Viet Cong attacked 100 cities in South Vietnam, mainly Saigon. It was a failure military wise for the Communists. Although the Americans managed to win it was a turning point for the Americans, that they could not win this war. (b) Explain why the methods used by the Americans to try and defeat the Viet Cong were unsuccessful Many unique tactics approached the Americans by the Viet Cong guerrillas during the war, which unfortunately for them killed 11% of their men. The Viet Cong had many tactics such as putting explosives under the ground so the Americans would blow up, they also camouflaged into the Vietnamese peasants by wearing no uniform and they also camouflaged into the environment and launched many surprise fights which would therefore keep the Americans up all the time not enabling them to get any rest for energy to fight. The Americans were completely naïve to all theses guerrilla tactics and their tactics, which were more successful on an open field battle, where no one could hide or place booby traps or camouflage because everyone wore uniform’s and the Americans had great experience fighting in these conditions, however they were useless in the middle of a Jungle. Their ‘search and destroy’ method did not win the South Vietnamese peasants over either because many times the Americans got information wrong and would end up killing civilians and events such as the My Lai massacre occurred. However this mistake did not happen to the Viet Cong army for they helped and protected villagers so in return the villagers helped them. The following were equally important reasons for America withdrawing from Vietnam: I public opinion in America ii guerrilla warfare How far do you agree with this
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