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Why did the United States retreat in the Vietnam War instead of staying back to fight with South Vietnam? I feel like if the United States had...

There are several reasons the United States abandoned the war in South Vietnam in the 1970s, most of all due to growing opposition in the US, coupled with limited success in prosecuting the war.


North Vietnam and their Viet Cong allies in the South showed great resolve in the defense of their county in the face of massive American involvement in the way of troops, air and naval power, and military materiel. Vietnamese partisans had initiated opposition to their colonial overlords,...

There are several reasons the United States abandoned the war in South Vietnam in the 1970s, most of all due to growing opposition in the US, coupled with limited success in prosecuting the war.


North Vietnam and their Viet Cong allies in the South showed great resolve in the defense of their county in the face of massive American involvement in the way of troops, air and naval power, and military materiel. Vietnamese partisans had initiated opposition to their colonial overlords, the French, for years, and showed even greater resolve when the Americans began to replace French troops in the late 1950s.


Another reason America abandoned the war was due to international condemnation. After WWII, it became increasingly unpopular for major world powers to justify meddling in the affairs of other countries as blatantly as they had for decades (and at times, centuries). The post-war years saw the dismantling of many colonial holdings of the British, French, Dutch and others, as the call for universal freedom from colonial rule became overwhelmingly urgent.


As nations like India and nations throughout Africa either rebelled violently or achieved freedom from colonial oppression rather peacefully, the notion of a great power employing widespread violence, especially on such a large scale as was perpetrated in Vietnam, to suppress the national will of another nation, became morally unsupportable.

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