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Question: U!.S!. History thesis help!?
For an argumentative essay!. It has to be 10-15 pages long and I'm stuck on trying to write my thesis!. I'm writing it about war tactics used in the Vietnam War!. Any ideas!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
thesis: US refusal to support a conventional invasion of North Vietnam meant that a communist victory was inevitable, as the Vietcong would never be defeated!.

mention the difficulties of fighting against a determined insurgency movement with strong grass roots support from the populace!. the north would be able to provide endless supplies with help from china and the soviet union, meaning that the war would continue until the south collapsed!. the vietcong could only be defeated if their supplies could be cut off, and the only way to do this would be to invade the north!. this would allow the huge conventional power of the us and south vietnamese to be brought to bear, though it would have come with the risk of bringing china into the war, as had happened in korea!. you can go specifically into the tactics used by saying that although us search and destroy operations were effective and killed a lot of vietcong, they would not win the war as the rate of attrition that could be sustained by the vietcong was huge compared to that of the usa!. mention how the strategic hamlets programmes caused greater support for the vietcong, and more opposition to the us, ditto for free fire zones near civilians, village burnings etc!. you could perhaps use a comparison with the british in malaya in the 1950's, saying that because the communist insurgents there did not have a land border over which they could get supplies and support like the vietcong, they could be defeated by concerted action!. therefore the only way the us could have won in vietnam would have been to remove the source of that support!. this could be achieved either by nuclear strikes against the north, or a massive conventional invasion and subsequent south vietnamese occupation with american support!.

hope this helpsWww@QuestionHome@Com

http://www!.learnhistory!.org!.uk/vietnam/v!.!.!.
http://www!.pbs!.org/battlefieldvietnam/gu!.!.!.
http://en!.allexperts!.com/q/Military-Hist!.!.!.
http://www!.vietnampix!.com/mach!.htm
http://www!.amazon!.com/Village-Bing-West/!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Sure, have you tried the idea of covert war to massive buildup to covert war again!? If you could find the contradictions on how best to conduct the war within the U!.S!. military itself, you may have an interesting argument!.Www@QuestionHome@Com