The Reasons Behind United States' Withdrawal of Forces From Vietnam in 1973

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The Reasons Behind United States' Withdrawal of Forces From Vietnam in 1973 When Nixon was elected President, he promised that he would end the war. In, 1973, President Nixon and Henry Kissinger negotiated a cease-fire and all the American soldiers left Vietnam. I will be discussing why Nixon ended the war and explaining the tactics used by both sides and the protesting of the American people. The Vietcong were the Communists from the North. They used guerrilla tactics. This was very effective. The guerrillas attacked in small groups and then disappeared. They controlled the countryside which supplied them with food and shelter. They were given rules on how to treat the people and persuaded people to join them. Anyone who was suspected of spying on them was killed. The government controlled the towns and cities and when their troops had been worn down by the war, the guerrillas attacked and took over. The Vietcong did not wear uniform so the Americans couldn't tell who the enemy were. Also, a civilian could pretend to work for the Americans but work as a guerrilla at night. Guerrilla tactics had been effective against the Americans, the French and the Japanese who were all used to an open battle. Because of the tactics, it was almost impossible for the AVRN and the Americans to win the war. This gave the Americans less hope and helped lead to withdrawal. The Vietcong had over 150 miles of a network of tunnels. Some of them housed sleeping quarters, hospitals, storage for weapons and even lecture theatres. They were booby-trapped for the enemy and some of the tunnels even pas... ... middle of paper ... ...s and heard the truth about the American soldiers. This also led to further protesting. You could say that the media coverage of the My Lai Massacre had played a big part in ending the war. I think that all of these factors helped to persuade the government to withdraw its troops. I think the main factors were the horrific media coverage and the protest movements. The government saw that the American people weren't happy with the war and the terrible things that happened in Vietnam and saw that war wasn't a good idea. The Americans also lost support of the Southern Vietnamese people which pressured the Government because they were on their side. America had gone into the war because they were worried about the domino theory coming true. After the war ended, it didn't. Vietnam's neighbouring countries stayed Capitalist.

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