Why did the United states withdraw its troops from Vietnam in 1973?
Vietnam was a bit different than the current situation in Iraq. At that time, the men required to fight the war were drafted into the army – no choice except to run to Canada. There was a great deal of social and political unrest. Young people understandably didn’t see why they should have to go die in a war in a jungle thousands of miles away. We were afraid of the Communists, you see and we were supposed to be stopping them from taking over all of Southeast Asia. The North Vietnamese had an unending supply line from China and the Soviets. (Comparable to the insurgencies we now see in Iraq) To win would have cost an even more terrible expense of life on all sides than had already been made and our country was not willing to make that sacrifice. The 1972 presidential election was all about ending the draft and getting out of Southeast Asia. No candidate could have won without committing to both.
By the early 1970’s the US lacked the political will to continue the war and withdrew it’s troops, leaving corrupt South Vietnam to its own. The war was a result of a series of political failures. Contrary to the wishes of Roosevelt after WW2 France refused Independence for her former colonies Vietnam being one. The United States failed to force France to agree to allow autonomy for the former French colonies, but sided with France rather than the Vietnamese people. The Vietnamese people did not help the allies drive out the Japanese in WW2 to become a French Colony. The Vietnamese found an alliance first with the USSR and then with China. The French blunder the war and lacked the economical might to fully prosecute the war and withdrew cede the northern part to the communist and the southern part to a somewhat democracy. Then the US enters when North Vietnam invades south Vietnam. Not want to risk war with China or the USSR the US tries to fight the war by defending South Vietnam. The
Because the U.S. had lost the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people and its own citizens. The Vietnam war was entirely winnable, but because the enemy was elusive the U.S. adopted tactics that simply alienated the people they went in to ‘save’ As American casualties mounted, and opposition to the war at home increased the U.S. wanted the South Vietnamese Army (SVA) to take over the bulk of the fighting with the help of U.S. advisers. By 1973 this had failed spectacularly and it soon became clear that the SVA were no match for the communist North Vietnamese Army (NVA) in the field and soon folded. Its simple, you do not win wars by napalming villages full of children. Sadly it seems the U.S. is still to learn this lesson.
