The goal of US in the
Vietnam War was to prevent the Communist North Vietnamese, backed by the USSR
and the PRC, from bring down the government of South Vietnam.
The U.S. failed because
many Vietnamese in South Vietnam resented the existence of a foreign force in
their country. They would rather have their government fall than succeed due to
foreign involvement. Further, the North Vietnamese were particularly persistent,
absolutely refusing to give up, and not even a nuclear attack was going to be
able to defeat them. Thirdly, many troops (U.S. troops) had morale problems due
to questioning the validation of the war and the knowledge that the Vietnamese
had apparently never heard of the Geneva Convention concerning dealing of
captured enemy soldiers, plus the reality that an approaching child might be a
suicide bomber which creates a further moral dilemma. Shoot a child or possibly
not shoot, and the child blow up and so do you.
