Vietnamese army's tank entered the Independence Palace to liberate the south of Vietnam

For Americans, the Vietnam war was major milestone in their history that changed the relationship between the American people and their government as well as the American view of the Cold War, which was cited as the main reason for the Americans to intervene in Vietnam

Americans divided by the war

Professor Ronald Spector has spent dozens of years researching and teaching US history at George Washington University. He says the US’s failure in the Vietnam War remains controversial in the US: “There are people who are in the US think that the US didn’t really lose the war and that the US, sort of, gave up. Because the public became impatient, the congress became impatient, President Nixon was under great pressures to pull out troops which he did. There are others who argued that the US lost the war because the south Vietnamese government fundamentally was not a government that had the support of any great part of the population. It was corrupt and inefficient. Even though there were many people in the south who wanted to fight against communists, nevertheless, they couldn’t really get their act together”.

Professor Spector participated in the Vietnam War before becoming a historian. Meeting people from the other side of the war gave him insights into the US failure: “I think many people in the government and in the media also expected that there would be, if not a quick success, that the North Vietnamese would back off. The American side underestimated the Vietnamese. There was a phrase that Secretary of Defense Mc Namara used. He said that once you demonstrate it to the other side that they can’t win and then they quit. I think that Le Duan and the politburo at that time had the idea that once the American see that we are determine to fight, they will get discouraged. And we did get discouraged”. 

Vietnam fought for national independence and freedom

The US soldiers who participated in the war in Vietnam understood the war and their opponents better than others. US Colonel Andres Sauvageot spent 9 years in Vietnam during the war working as an Advisor to the Republic of Vietnam’s administration. He was a regular military officer and obeyed orders to go to Vietnam: “I didn’t know about the history of Vietnam and that Vietnam had to be a victim of aggression from China, France and Japan and then France again and another states. Vietnam was fighting only for independence and freedom. And that was the truth”.

During the war, Andres traveled around Vietnam, and met Vietnamese people, many of whom were revolutionary soldiers thus learning a lot about the history, culture and tradition of Vietnam. Andres said this was a war that the Americans had no chance of winning: “Well, we lose this war for sure and I wished that President Nixon would get it out sooner than he did. The French and the United States were fighting a wrong way from home in another country. The Vietnamese was fighting in their country for their independence and freedom. It’s very different, especially when you have brave people who don’t want war, love the peace.  But when you invade them, whoever invades, China or French or United States, anybody, at the end, they lose and they leave. I felt that if I were born in Vietnam, I would then on the side of the revolution and never stood on the side of the occupier”.

The US could not win

The US withdrawal from Vietnam was hastened by foreign war correspondents, especially ones from the US. By accurately reflecting the war in their articles and photos, they helped Americans and the international community understand the nature of the war in Vietnam putting pressure on the US government to halt its escalation of the war. David Lamb was a war correspondent with the US’s UPI News Agency: “Frankly before coming here, I think basically supported the war, thinking of the suitable things that American should do- fighting the communism. After I been here for 2 years during the war, and slowly but slowly I did it completely verse. I realize that it is a war that we will never win it. We would have never gone to fight it”.

David Lamb covered battles across Vietnam from 1968 to 1970- the fiercest period of the war. He returned to Vietnam in April 1975 to cover the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam’s government. David said: “One of our greatest errors was not knowing who Vietnamese were, we didn’t understand their patience, their resilience, their nationalism, ability to fight, and we ignored of your culture, of your language and your history. We did fail in term of war ignorance. I wished the US would learn a lesson from Vietnam”.

Covering Americans’ views on the Vietnam War on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the southern liberation and Vietnam’s national reunification helps to clarify the meaning of this historic war.