"The USA lost the Second Indochina War because of its poor strategies".

How far do you agree with

this statement?

The Second Indochina War was initiated by the US after the 1964 during the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
During which the US ships were attacked by the by the Viet Minh patrol boats, causing the US to
retaliate against the North Vietnamese. This led to the US to allow troops to enter South Vietnam in
retaliation, starting with two hundred thousand in 1965. After many casualties in South Vietnam at
the hands of the North Vietnamese troops, the US called for troops to return from South Vietnam
after negotiations with North Vietnam, signing the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973. There were
many views of what cause the loss of the Second Indochina War by the US, one being the poor
strategies the US made use of during the war.

The US lost the Second Indochina War primarily due to the use of poor strategies during the war.
The American strategy focused on cutting of the North Vietnam forces from delivering resources to
the National Liberation Front (NFL) so as to do cause the NFL be weakened through the use of
bombing to reduce the hiding spots that could be used to store resources or people. Johnson had
been called multiple times to increase military involvement so as to defeat the Viet Minh as early as
possible. Johnson opted to gradually increase involvement, so as to avoid unnecessary casualties. As
such the North Vietnamese troops did not face a sizeable threat to warrant them to surrender in the
face of the US. Another miscalculation by the Americans was the length of tour for the draftees
which lasts for one year, just enough time for a recruit to gain combat knowledge. Hence there was
a problem that arisen from the improper planning in the aspects of recruitment and the duration of
their tours, this led to the Viet Minh not needing to face a large amount US soldiers that had
experience in the environment. The US also failed to account for the environment that they would
be fighting in. This led to them underestimating the guerrilla warfare by the North Vietnamese
soldiers, being able to get close to kill the US soldiers.

Despite the US having poor strategy being a factor that contributed to the US’s loss during the
Second Indochina War, the largest factor in contributing to the US’s loss was the primarily due to the
Sino-soviet split. After the Sino-soviet split in the 1960s, both USSR and the PRC looked for growing
communist country to compete for a dominance in as the main communist state. As such both
looked for North Vietnam as an ally, being that a success for Vietnam would lead to one being a
close ally to them. This is evident from 1965 to 1969 where the PRC had offered the Viet Minh many
military equipment and helping them with 100 projects. By 1968, the PRC had provided over 50% of
aid provided to North Vietnam. The USSR, in noticing the potential ally of North Vietnam, donated
resources totalling over 500 million dollars, training the troops to handle the US soldiers. The total
aid provided by both countries allowed the North Vietnamese troops to rival the US in terms of
military to drag out the war, preventing a loss. Hence the Sino-Soviet Split was paramount in helping
the North Vietnamese outlast the US until they lost the war.