a) Were the armies finely balanced or was the balance strongly weighted to one side or the other?
The United States was much greater in size and power than the Viet Minh. The United States had new tech, money to support the troops, and the troops were trained for what they were going to do. The Viet Minh was small in size and had dated weapons.
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?
I think that the moral of the soldiers was the most important and how far the countrys were going to let this war go on. You can destroy an army, but you can never destroy an idea; I believe that the Viet Cong would keep fighting until they got what they wanted because each soldier was fighting for what they believed in. The U.S soldiers on the other hand wanted out, their moral was hurt from the Gurillia warfare, and they were not fighting for personal gain, they were there because their commanding officer told them to go.
a. The U.S. weaknesses were:
Their moral was hurt from theGureillia warfare. They didnt know how to win against them, becasue the armys blended in with the peasants. The U.S decided to use chemical weapons and bombs to find the Veir Cong, but this just upset the peaseants causing them to lean more to the communist side rather than with the U.S.
b. At the same time, the Communist strengths were:
The Communists were gaining "votes" from the people in the South becasue of the crule government of Diem, and what they saw the U.S doing to the civilians while looking for the Viet Cong. If the communists were to win in Vietnam then they could take over all of South East Asia.
c. The U.S. forces did have some successes. For example:
The U.S was able to put Diem in power, who was so anti communist that he was perfect for the position. The U.S was able to attack Communist forces in Vietnam after 1969. The bombings of Haiphong ( North Vietnams Captial) from 1970- 1972 allowed the US to bring negotiating up.
d. However, there were some major failures as well. Examples of these were:
In bombing raids the communists were only slowed down. The cost of the air raids were horrible Communists shot down about 14000 planes. The United States was also losing the support of the Vietnamese people becasue while looking for the Viet Cong they were destroying villages, and killing people with the bombs and chemical weapons.
e. The Viet Cong had some major successes, such as:
Making the U.S troops lose all their moral becasue of the Guriella warfare attacks on the camps at night. The Viet Cong also had the support of the peaseants/villagers. They helped them in the fields and were told to be curterous and respectful.
f. However, they also suffered defeats, for example:
The Viet Cong lost to the U.S becasue their supplies were heavly bombed, their weapons and numbers were far less than thoes of the U.S and the U.S was securing groung in Southern Vietnam to ensure that they would have land if the country went Communist.
g. If I had to identify one major American weakness, it would be [Lack of Tactic] because:
The U.S had everything it needed to win the war at the beginning. They had weapons, troops, support from the villagers etc. But because they didnt know how to adapt to the Guerilla Warfare they were being killed. They also needed to come up with a way to find the Viet Cong without risking the lives of villagers. This lost the U.S support from the villager and pushed them toward communism, it also wasted larger amounts of U.S money to support operations that were not succesful at all.
h. The key Viet Cong strength was [Gurilla Warfare and High Moral] because:
This tactic worked against the U.S forces it made them scared no matter where they were. The U.S also could not adapt to this method so the Viet Cong got a lot more out of it than they should have. The high Moral of the troops made it so they wanted to fight, and they would be willing to give their lives.
