The U.S. struggles against the Communist in Vietnam

1a) Were the armies finely balanced or was the balance strongly weighted to one side or the other?
In size and technological advantage, the US army was heavily superior to that of the Vietcong. However, the Vietcong managed their army and resources much better than the US did, as well as using better tactics for the situation. Thus army wise the US was superior, but in reality they were either balanced, or even tipped in the favor of the Vietcong.
1b) 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 one feature that was the most important in determining who won the war was the strategy each side used. The only feature that could come close to having in itself won the war was the way the Vietcong managed to use guerilla tactics to negate the US's advantages in numbers and technology. They did this by evading US forces by retreting, hiding in the Jungle and using tunnel networks.
Stage 3: Explaining your conclusions
The failure of the U.S. army to beat the Communist in Vietnam was the result of its own weaknesses and Viet Cong strengths.

2. Now write up your answer. Use this structure:
a. The U.S. weaknesses were: the anti war movement, and the fact that it tried to fight guerilla tactics with either conventional or inhumane tactics.

b. At the same time, the Communist strengths were:
motivation, the use of good tactics, and the support of the peasants as well as not caring if they used inhumane means to an end.
c. The U.S. forces did have some successes. For example:
They repelled the Tet offensive, they destroyed many Vietcong supply routs, and they did destroy some of the Vietcong tunnels.
d. However, there were some major failures as well. Examples of these were:
Their strategy was terrible, they lost the war in the end, they caused many civilian casualties, and the loss to gain ratio many times was not worth it.
e. The Viet Cong had some major successes, such as:
They were able to fend off the US with significantly less troops, they did not allow the US to gain any North Vietnam land and they did eventually conquer the South.
f. However, they also suffered defeats, for example:
The Tet offensive failed causing a major loss of troops and supplies as well as not gaining any ground, they also were not able to acutely drive the US out, the US chose to leave based on public opinion in the US.
g. If I had to identify one major American weakness, it would be the anti war movement because it demotivated US soldiers, who were mainly draftees that did not want to be there or to fight, caused public opinion in the US to go against the war, made the war seem evil, and caused many to refuse to be drafted, or resist once they were, or flee the country.

h. The key Viet Cong strength the use of guerilla tactics because: It allowed them to avoid direct contact with the superior US forces, and the use of tunnels (a guerilla tactic) allowed them to menuver troops without letting the US know and provided protection from bombing raids, and other assaults, as well as providing a place to retreat that the US could not follow them into.