Tet Offensive Challenges

American soldiers faced many challenges in Vietnam, many of which could have easily been prevented by better management and insight by the higher ups in the government. One of the biggest challenges was no knowledge of the landscape and how to deal with it, while the Vietcong had lived there for their whole lives and knew how to succeed. In addition, the Vietcong were the defenders; they were able to use traps, replace dead soldiers faster, and, like I mentioned before, knew the land. Due to our soldiers having to aid a country in a civil war, it was very difficult to distinguish between normal Vietnamese citizens and secret Vietcong fighters. Many of these soldiers were conscripted and did not want to be there. The soldiers needed a way to cope with their struggles in Vietnam, resulting in many becoming addicted to easily accessible drugs. In regards to poor management and leadership, the main issue was America trying to fight this war in a conventional way. The problem with this is that the Vietcong were using guerilla warfare, which was great for countering our methods. Another way we tried to …show more content…
dealt many casualties and many realized the war was hopeless. The Tet Offensive played an important role in weakening American public support for the war. The NVA-Vietcong attacks were very effective and showed the U.S. and the South Vietnamese that the North Vietnamese were not as weak and untrained as they thought. Both sides would believe it was a victory for themselves, but in reality both sides lost. Military leaders believed the U.S. was now in a position to finally defeat the North, but Johnson did not think the same. He placed a limit on U.S. troops in Vietnam and reduced bombing. He could do no more before he decided against running for a second term, leaving responsibility for solving the many problems in Vietnam to