IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUTAION OF SOURCES

The focused question of this internal assessment will be “ To what extent was U.S. military strategy in Vietnam effective?” and will will analyze the extent of how useful military strategies used by the U.S. was in the rural country of Vietnam. The United States first arrived in Vietnam region during the mid 20th century with a main focus of stopping the spread of communism. The U.S.’s wish to stop communism stemmed from the fear that it may spread to their country where democratic values are held high. With the determination to stop communism, the U.S. immediately backed South Vietnam in the fight against the communist North Vietnam, which became the longest war in U.S. history until the Afghan War …show more content…
The source focuses on how the Viet Cong got around the military attacks of the U.S. and problems that the U.S. occurred in Vietnam leading to a defeat. This document is a secondary source written in 2014 by an author name Alan Rohn published on the website, thevietnamwar.info. The purpose of this source is to present a simple and general informing document about how US tactics were ineffective during the Vietnam War, resulting in a defeat for the U.S.. The value of this source is the direct reference to U.S. operations and presidential decisions surrounding the Vietnam War, presenting clear information historians can use to further evaluate how U.S. tactics failed specifically in military operations and politically. However information within the document is mainly negative surrounding the topic of why the U.S. failed militarily, thus rendering it hard for historians to evaluate what succeeded against North …show more content…
Ten years after the start of the Vietnam War, President Johnson approved Operation Rolling Thunder on the 13th of February under the intention of pressuring the North Vietnamese government to end their support for the fighting group called the “Viet Cong” which were a party of communist guerrilla fighters who acted against the South Vietnamese government with help from North Vietnam and their allies. The hundreds of thousands of tons of American bombs dropped into action to stop supplies from entering South Vietnam from the North Vietnamese government, which were used to strengthen the Viet Cong’s fight against the U.S.. Although Operation Rolling Thunder was helpful for the U.S. in theory, the North Vietnamese and it’s allied forces were able to cause more damage to the U.S. in destroyed bombs and aircraft than damage inflicted to North Vietnam. According to Alan Rohn, “Heavy bombing... were used to clear out thick jungle areas & destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail with little [effect because] Viet Cong[’s] use of underground tunnels & ambush tactics”, the use of underground tunnels rendered any type of bomb used by the U.S. useless. The U.S. spent millions of dollars on the bombs used in their