The U.S. struggles against the Communist in Vietnam

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?
The balance was strongly weighted to the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong's soldiers were fearless, compared to the US's troops that were living in fear of ambushes because of the guerilla tactics being used by the Viet Cong. The US had superior weaponry but the Viet Cong used the territory against them so that they were not able to utilize them. They would hide in the jungles and set booby traps.

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 Guerilla Tactics was the most important quality in determining who won the war. This is because the Guerilla Tactics were very effective against the US army. The supplies and weaponsy did not matter for the Viet Cong because they were able to use their territory and other things against the US, and make it so that their superior weapons were useless. The US had developed new technology like the agent orange and napalm which were toxic weapons. These did not work well against the Viet Cong and actually caused support of the US army to drop. There was also lots of media going around of the Viet Cong burning and it was not good for the US war effort. But the guns and better technology of the US were nullified by the Guerilla tactics of the Viet Cong.


2. Now write up your answer. Use this structure:

a. The weaknesses of the US were that their tactics of search and destroy, which caused them to lose much support from the vietnamese people, and their bomibng tactics did not do much damage to the communists, and the soldiers had become fearful of the Viet Cong's soldiers because of their use of Guerilla tactics and things such as land mines and booby traps, which made the soldiers live in constant fear. The search and destroy tactics were not effective because although they did kill some soldiers, they caused more trouble by inexperienced soldiers walking into booby traps and mines and they sometimes ended up killing innocent civilians. Because of the civilian losses the population rallied behind the Viet Cong instead of the US. The guerilla tactics of the Viet Cong were much more effective than the Search and Destroy tactics of the US because they didnt cause many problems. The bombing tactics done by the US did no real damage to the Communists at all, it only slowed them down. This was a waste of time, and the soldiers loosing their morale because of the Viet Congs tactics made them not fight as well as they could have and were trained to do, which caused the Us to loose the war.

b. The Communists strengths were that they were very motivated and their soldiers were committed to the cause. They refused to give in showing their strengths compared to those of the US army. They never gave up, even after the US's bombing raids on the Communists military and industry, they were still able to continue operating their supply lines. They were able to still launch raids after the many air raids on north vietnam as well.

c. The U.S. forces had some success. When the US launched bombing raids on the North Vietnamese targets they did manage to damage the Vietnamese's war effort and disrupt the supply lines, and it also enabled the USA to strike at Communist forces after it reduced the ground forces. Finally from 1970 to 1972 heavy bombing campaigns against Hanoi and the port of Haiphong forced the North Vietnamese to begin negotiating with the US.

d.There were major failures as well like the My Lai Massacre. In March of 1968 a unit of Young America soldiers started a search and destroy mission having been told that in the My Lai area there had been Viet Cong head quarters, and 200 Viet Cong guerrillas. The soldiers had been ordered to destroy all of the civilian structures being used by the Viet Cong. They were under the impression that they had been ordered to kill everyone in the villages. Between 300-400 civilians were killed, they were mostly women, children, and old men. In this search and destroy mission no viet cong were actually found or killed. Life Magazine published photographs of the massacre at My Lai. The revelations at My Lai shocked the American public and it was the clearest evidence that the war had gone wrong. The massacre at My Lai cost the US army much trouble with the public support for the war, as well as many innocent civilian lives.

e. The Viet Cong big successes were their guerrilla tactics because they gave the US army a tough resistance and increased their chances of winning the Vietnam War. They did not wear any uniform, they did not have any known headquarters or base camps, they were hard to tell apart from the innocent civilians in the villages, and when they would attack they would retreat back into the jungle which gave the us soldiers much trouble. They wore down the US's army and morale, and this was why it was a major success of the Viet Cong.

f. They also suffered from defeat like the Tet Offensive of 1968. The Viet Cong attacked over 100 cities and other military targets. The US forces had to fight to regain control room by room.The Viet Cong had hoped that the South Vietnam would step up and help them but they ended up not. The Viet Cong lost around 10,000 experienced fighters at this.

h. The key strength of the Viet Cong army was the Guerilla tactics because without them this war probably would had been a lot easier for the US army. The Guerilla Tactics made the soldiers of the US army very frustrated, which caused a lack of morale in the army. This weakened the soldiers as well. The guerrilla tactics caused so much frustration and it made the fighters of the Viet Cong very difficult to find, and therefore harder to kill. Another strength of the Viet Cong was their soldiers who refused to quit, and this was a major reason why they did not lose.

The U.S. Enters the Vietnam War

1. Many neutral observers in Vietnam were critical of US policy. Explain why.
Lots of people were critical of US policy because their tactic of opposing the communist North Vietnamis was to provide support to anti-communist governments in South Vietnam, and these governments were corrupt and treated the people wrongly. Also, the US did not allow the people of Vietnam to hold free elections.

2. Explain how US politicians would have defended their policies.
The US politicians would have defended their policies by saying that they just made them in order to stop communism from spreading, and they would say that if Vietnam fell to communism that others would start to fall as well.

3. The following events are not listed in correct date order. Place them in the correct chronological order.

(1954) U.S. stops elections in Vietnam: political involvement.
The US refused to let them have free elections because we feared they would vote for communism.
(1955) Formation of South Vietnam: political involvement and financial support.
The US needed to support South Vietnam to have any chance of containing communism. This meant that the US supported all of the governments in South Vietnam.
(1960) Viet Cong formed: No direct involvement.
This forced the US to send military aid to the South in order to help fight the guerrila force of the viet cong.
(1961) Viet Cong attacks on U.S. and South Vietnam bases: military involvement
This forced the US to respond with immediate military involvement so as to defend the U.S's world standing and its troops that were stationed in Vietnam.
(1962) JFK sends military advisers: military involvement.
The military advisers were sent to help train the military in South Vietnam. This dragged the US farther and farther into the conflict as it became a target because were were helping the south vietnamis and had to continue because we had already started.
(1962) Number of 'advisers' reaches over 11,500: military involvement.
This caused more tension because the amount of people was less like advisors and more like a small military force.
(1963) U.S. supports South Vietnam government after army overthrow Diem: financial aid.
This caused the US to have to support another corrupt government.
(1963) Assassination of JFK - Johnson becomes president: no direct involvement
US policy towards Vietnam under Johnson became very aggressive and he was looking for an excuse to enter a war in Vietnam.
(1964) Gulf of Tonkin Incident: Military involvement
This was why the US sent a force of 3500 marines to Vietnam.
(1965) U.S. Marines land at Da Nang: military involvement.
The US was now involved in a war in Vietnam.

4. Choose two events that you think were critical in getting the U.S. involved in a war in Vietnam. Explain
your choice.
Two events that were critical in getting the U.S involved in the war in Vietnam were the U.S support of South Vietnamis governments and the assassination of JFK. The US support of the South Vietnamis governments caused us the enter the war because the support for the governments grew when we supported them. Also, the assasination of JFK made us enter the war because Johnson that took his place was much more agressive against the North Vietnamis.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

1. Kennedy described Wednesday, Oct. 24 and Saturday, Oct. 27 as the darkest days of the crisis. Use the information on page 350 to explain why.

Kennedy described these days as the darkest days of the crisis because on the 24th there was a very big chance that a war would happen, because if the Soviet ships had attacked the blockade, we would have had to answer their attack and a war would have developed. The 27th made it seem like there was no way that the problem could be solved diplomatically because Kennedy was not going to agree with the terms that he was given.

2. Do you think that nuclear war was ever a possibility in this crisis?
I think that nuclear war was a possibility during the crisis. If one of the countries would have attacked then the nuclear weapons would have been used because they were in the countries arsenal.

3. Is Source 26 a Soviet or an American cartoon? Explain your answer by referring to the details in the cartoon.

I think source six is American cartoon. It seems to blame both of the leaders for wanting nuclear war, and the society of communists in the USSR i don't think would have allowed this. Also the bombs have an h on them, and h is an american letter showing that they are our bombs and not the russians.

4. Using Source 27 list any evidence you can find for and against each of the explanations.
To bargain with the US
-Removal of missiles in Turkey
-not much effort put into the deals


To test US
-thought Kennedy was a weak president
-this was not good because there was the threat of a nuclear war

To trap US
-very close in proximity to the US
-not necessary

To get the upper hand in the arms race

- it balanced US installments in Europe and Turkey
- there was still a chance of a retaliation.

To defend Cuba
-no reason that they would want to have a nuclear war
-close to the US

5. Choose the explanation(s) that you think best fit what you have found out about the crisis. Explain your choice.
I think that best explanation would be that Kruschev was trying to gain an upper hand in the arms race. At the time the US and its allies nations had missiles a lot closer to the USSR than The USSR had to the US. Also, short to medium range missiles that were kept in Cuba could be used to bomb Washington D.C and New York.