the Vietnam war

Question 1

why did the USA become increasingly involved with Vietnam

Answer 1

containment and domino theory
American politics

Question 2

what is the domino theory

Answer 2

the us goverment thought that china and the ussr were planning to spread communism. they thought that if one country fell to communism the others would fall like dominos

Question 3

why was American politics a reason for getting involved in the Vietnam war

Answer 3

if you were going to win the vote in America you had to talk tough about communism and not to look weak on it

Question 4

why could the USA not defeat the viet cong

Answer 4

tactics
quality of troops

Question 5

what were the viet congs tactics

Answer 5

guerilla warfare the US didn’t know how to combat guerilla warfare
the viet cong struck quickly and then disapeared into the jungle

Question 6

quality of troops

Answer 6

the US troops weren’t trained for the conditions in Vietnam the average age of soldiers was 19 so inexperienced

Question 7

why did attitudes to the war change in the USA

Answer 7

the my lai massacre
the media
the tet offensive

Question 8

what was the my lai massacre

Answer 8

in the village of my lai in march 1948 US forces killed between 300 and 400 civilians
the US commanding officer was initially praised for his actions

Question 9

what were the overall reasons for US withdrawal from Vietnam

Answer 9

military reason-successes of viet cong guerilla tactics
US public opinion- my lai massacre

Question 10

why was the media and the tet offensive a reason for the public opinion changing in the vietnam war

Answer 10

until the end of 1967 the general feeling was that the war was going well but on the tet new year holiday viet cong fighters attacked over 100 cities and other military targets. the ancient city of hue was virtually destroyed and 116,000 civilians lost their homes
the media brought this back to the USA which made the US public feel like they were losing the war and opinions changed