The U.S. struggles against the Communist in Vietnam

a) Were the armies finely balanced or was the balance strongly weighted to one side or the other?

In regards to the strengths of the armies, the US/South Vietnamise army had the advantage. They had better weapons and better trained troops. If the war had been foughttraditionally they would have won the war easily.

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 effective use of gurella tatics on behalf of the Viet Cong was the reason why US forces could not defeat them. This outweighed any advantages the US had, because they simply could not find a way to defend the unpradictible tatics used by the Viet Cong.

a. The U.S. weaknesses were:

1) Their inability to adapt to the gurella tatics used by Viet Cong
2) Their lack of support from the Vietnamese civilians
3) Their low moral due to the constant fear of attack from Viet Cong forces.

b. At the same time, the Communist strengths were:

1) Their effective use of gurella tatics
2) The support of the Vietnamese civilians
3) Their high morale due to their genuine belief in their cause and the fact that they were winning the war

c. The U.S. forces did have some successes. For example:

Their bomb raids were effective in slowing the transportation of arms to the South and slowd military movements.

d. However, there were some major failures as well. Examples of these were:

They were simply not able to figure out a successful way to combat the gurella tatics used by the Viet Cong forces. They continued to take heavy casualities in the day and night attacks by the gurella warriors. These continued blows not only hurt the US militarly but moraly as well. The continued loss of life killed the moral of the soldiers stationed in Vietnam and caused them to live in constant fear.

e. The Viet Cong had some major successes, such as:

They played every advantage they had to their fullest. They used their knowledge of the land to effectively use gurella tatics and basically win the war. They Took advantage of favor from the citizens and used them for help in whatever ways they could. They caused the US soldiers to fear them.

f. However, they also suffered defeats, for example:

The bombing raids by the Americans were successful in killing over 1 million Vite Cong soldiers. This was not considered unacceptable by the Communist leaders, however, because of the high numbers of Viet Cong soldiers.

g. If I had to identify one major American weakness, it would be [Insert weakness here] because:
Weakness : inability to adapt to gurella warfare

because.. This was the reason they lost. They could not adapt and it destroied them in every aspect of the war. They lost casualitys and morale because of the constant attacks they could not defend against.


h. The key Viet Cong strength was [Insert strength here] because:

Strenght: gurella warfare

because... It played off all of their advantages and won them the war (above mentioned reasons).