Question

How did Vietnam war differ from previous wars

Answer 1

i think First of all, Vietnam was doomed for failure it was fought by the French for something like 10 years and French President De Gaulle warned US leaders not to get too involved in the conflict. The North Vietnamese as you stated used guerilla tactics but they also trapped the US forces into very compromising positions by allowing whole divisions into an area then encircling and picking them off one by one. The Bombing by the US was also futile because of the lay of the land as the Viet Cong forces would go underground or take refuge in foliage that wasn't attacked.

The US military command had no experience or concept of Guerilla warfare and thus used conventional methods from WWII as the basis for their operations which failed. It's true the North never actually had huge victories in the conventional sense but they did enough damage over time that US public sentiment turned against the war. The Tet Offensive is a great example of this as the offensive worked early on but by and large it was a failure but Americans seeing the bloodshed and horror of American troops getting killed on top of Walter Cronkite telling the nation how horrible the situation was sealed the US military command's fate insofar as it concerned public sentiment.

Answer 2

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