Why did the USA lose the Vietnam War?

Look back at your answers to your homework that was assigned on April 30, The U.S. struggles against the Communist in Vietnam.
Handout: Case Study 3: The Vietnam War

Why did the USA lose the Vietnam War?
The Americans did not lose purely for military reasons. There were other factors as well.
Write an explanation AND cite a source which shows the importance of the following six factors:

1. US military tactics in Vietnam (Source 36-Viet Cong tunnel complex)
The US military couldn't fight against the guerilla warfare style of the Veit Cong. The weren't used to how the Viet Cong didn't wear uniforms and made surprise attack. This was a big challenge for the US military because they usually fought in fields and didn't have to figure out who was a soldier and who was an innocent civilian (which led to many civilian deaths). Also, the US was drafting young, inexperienced soldiers who didn't know how to fight, especially against the Viet Cong.

2. The unpopularity of the South Vietnamese regime (Sources 41, 47)
Many Vietnamese people supported the communist Viet Cong just because they didn't want to support the Southern Vietnamese.

3. The experience of the Viet Cong and the inexperience of the American soldiers (source 37)
The American soldiers were drafted, young and inexperienced. Many of them didn't want to be fighting, and were not motivated at all. Some people in America were supporting the war because they believed in the Domino effect and that if Vietnam fell to communism, many other countries would. But the soldiers didn't necessarily believe this. Once soldiers became experienced (after a year), they were replaced with more inexperienced, drafted soldiers. The Viet Cong were very motivated because the Americans were invading their land and killing their people.

4. Domestic opposition to the war in the U.S. (Source 51)
Since this was the first televised war in the US, and the people were seeing exactly what was happening in Vietnam, they were against it. They saw that the effort to contain communism wasn't working, and they turned against it.

5. Chinese and Soviet support for the Viet Cong (Source 38)
China and the USSR were supplying the Viet Cong with weapons, which was a big advantage for them.

6. 'But did they really lose?' Summarize the argument put forward in Source 57, and your view on it.
Source 57 says that the Americans never really lost because they technically weren't defeated in a battle. The US was not present in Vietnam when the capital of South Vietnam fell to the Viet Cong. This was two years after the US military had left Vietnam. I agree with this source because the US didn't really fight and lose a war in Vietnam, they we're trying to stop the spread of communism and then decided it wasn't working so stopped fighting it.