The U.S. struggles against the Communist in Vietnam

Step 3: in each row of column 3, draw some scales to show which way the balance falls for this quality. Did the USA or the Viet Cong have the advantage?

1. Now think about the overall picture - how the strengths and weaknesses work together.

a) Were the armies finely balanced or was the balance strongly weighted to one side or the other?
Looking at the data and seeing the scales from one side to the other, the balance was even. Both sides were very strong and both had advantages and disadvantages.

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?
Good soldiers really helped them because most soldiers died because of inexperience and then either side didn't have strong soldiers. Also, effective statics helped them win the war because the bombs really helped but i do not believe that there was one feature that was so important that being ahead in the area meant that it was a advantage. Both had really good come backs and knew how to fix what had happened.

Stage 3: Explaining your conclusions
The failure of the U.S. army to beat the Communist in Vietnam was the result of its own weaknesses and Viet Cong strengths.

2. Now write up your answer. Use this structure:
a. The U.S. weaknesses were:The Search and Destroy tactics. This was their weakness because the US and Vietnamese Population had hatred. the bombing tactics did little to no damage to the communists. The soldiers for the US were walking into booby traps and were fearful. The US did kill some viet cong fighters but there were more problems that the US was doing. The fighters walking into booby traps, them killing Innocent people, destroy towns.

b. At the same time, the Communist strengths were: Their motivation to keep fighting and not giving up. After the US had bombed them they did not give or did they show that they wanted too.

c. The U.S. forces did have some successes. For example: The united states had good supplies and equipment. They had air crafts, bombs and very good soldiers. "Agent Orange", which is a spray that burns many things, got rid of alot of guerrilla fighters. This was good for the US because it was getting ride of them and the Viet Cong didn't have much of anything like it.

d. However, there were some major failures as well. Examples of these were: The My Lai Massacre. This was in March 1968 and a few young American soldiers called "charlie Company" started a search mission. They had been told that in My Lai there had been viet cong head quarters and 200 guerrillas. The solders were ordered to destroy House, dwellings, and live stock. They were under the impression that they were to kill everyone in the villages. Between 300-400 people were killed mostly women, children, and old men. There were no viet cong found.

e. The Viet Cong had some major successes, such as: The war being more of a "media war" fell in the favor of the Viet Cong. There had been horrible pictures and videos and it fell in their favor because many Americans were turning against the war and this was just making their minds more clear about the war being bad.

f. However, they also suffered defeats, for example: They did not have any support from other soldiers. the viet cong didn't have support from 10000 other experiences soldiers which really hurt them in the long run because they needed them.

g. If I had to identify one major American weakness, it would be [My Lai Massacre] because: This really showed that America was so obsessed with trying to find the viet cong and communists and they put all this effort in to just hurt innocent people. This really hurt them because they were doing very well and then the inexperience of other soldiers really showed that the US was a bit weak.

h. The key Viet Cong strength was [The Soldiers] because: These soldiers did not give up one bit. They were determined to try and fight the US and they were being slaughtered down but they did not give up. They were bombed, there families were killed and much other things and they had the courage to not let the US beat them down.