The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a war no one could win. It was made more difficult for the US, Australian and South Vietnamese soldiers to fight because the enemy had the same physical appearance as the South Vietnamese, and often even children were armed and fought as part of the militia. Not only did the enemy look the same but the soldiers had to battle impenetrable jungle, hot sticky conditions and torrential rain. Plus with years of oppression by many invaders there was no way the Vietnamese would let their country be taken from them again.
But even if anyone did “win” the Vietnam War the country would never be at peace, the North wanted communism and the South wanted capitalism so neither would be happy with the outcome. Perhaps the thing that made it hardest for the US, Australia and its allied forces to win the Vietnam War was the guerilla war fare of the Viet Cong. They dug tunnels underground to live in making it impossible to find them and never fought face to face with the Allied Forces. They would simply ambush the Australian and US soldiers catching them unaware therefore making them an easy target. They would also plant booby traps riddled with infectious substances so when the Allied soldiers got caught by them they would become infected and possibly die. The Viet Cong also dressed and looked just like civilians making it impossible to distinguish between an innocent villager and a Viet Cong fighter, they would even arm children to trick the opposition soldiers because they did not believe children would fire upon them.
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However making life very difficult for US, Australian and Southern Vietnamese forces was the vegetation and climate. Almost half of Vietnam was covered in wet rainforests; bamboo and brush land which made it an almost unlivable environment. With the torrential rain and many bugs and insects staying healthy was almost impossible without the Viet Cong planting infectious booby traps. The hot tropical climate did not help because it made infections fester and made conditions very uncomfortable for the soldiers plus the soldiers were not familiar with the conditions they were fighting in. Most Australian and US soldiers had never been in thick jungle forests like those in Vietnam, they did not know anything about the environment they were fighting in. Even if somebody did win the Vietnam War the people would never rest because with the country split into North and South there would always be fighting over what kind of political set up they wanted.
The North wanted to be a communist state but the South wanted to be capitalist so there would always be fighting and no one leader or political party could ever make all of Vietnam happy. Plus the US had already installed a “puppet” government in the South of Vietnam before the war, with Diem the leader but the Vietnamese had hated him before the war so they would always be skeptical about anyone the US put into power. After centuries of being invaded and suppressed by many other nations the people of Vietnam were sick of being controlled by other countries. They put all their emotions into fighting off the US and Australia because the wanted to be free, free to live the way they wanted and free to govern themselves. They were so passionate for their freedom they would do anything to become independent.
To them the US were just another country trying to rob them of their land and natural resources and there was no way they would be run by foreigners again, they had fought for so long to become free and they did not want to go back. The Vietnam War so difficult for the US and Australian forces because of the unfamiliar and unbearable conditions of the Vietnam jungles, the guerilla war fare of the Viet Cong and the Vietnamese people’s unwillingness to fall to another invader. But even if they had of been victorious there would always be political unrest in Vietnam, no one would ever be happy. But as we talk about winning a war, the question has to be asked, is it possible for anyone to ever win a war?
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Before the U.S. went to Vietnam, twelve years before the war started, the French were there, it was their colony. The French controlled the country. Northern Vietnam wanted to make their nation Communist as China was probably their influence. The people of southern Vietnam wanted the opposite. It was a typical tropical climate in Vietnam. South Vietnam urgently asked for immediate and extensive ...
