Why Did the Americans Withdraw from South Vietnam in 1973?

Vietnam was split into North Vietnam, communist and South Vietnam, capitalist and used to be part of French Indo-China, occupied by the French. The leader of the Vietnamese communist was Ho Chi Minh who set up the league for the independence of Vietnam, this was named the Vietminh. The Vietminh set up guerrilla operations to defend against Japan and France in Northern Vietnam; they defended with success and later beat the French again with the clever guerrilla Warfare at Dien Bien Phu.

The lead to the Vietnam War was because of America’s fear of the domino theory coming into effect. This theory was that, due to neighbouring countries like China and North Korea falling into communism, then North Vietnam, South Vietnam would be next and this was definitely not what the USA wanted to see happen. Subsequently, this drive in fear lead America to take action against the Ho Chi Minh policies and his anti-capitalist ideas. US troops fought in South Vietnam and worked alongside the ARVN when the Vietcong assassinated South Vietnamese officials between 1959 and 1961. This in turn kick-started the War between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, along with America.

The US set up numerous tactics to help them defeat the Vietcong in South Vietnam but all of these failed as the Vietcong knew their own country inside out through their dense jungles, unlike the US troops. One of many tactics was ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’ this was a plan to destroy North Vietnam’s supply routes to the NLF in the South Vietnam. This was to ensure the Vietcong would soon run out of weapons and equipment. However the Vietcong, unaware by the Americans and President Johnson, got their supplies from China and USSR, because of their allies and the Soviet Union on their side. President Johnson also believed that bombing North Vietnamese areas would convince the Vietcong that America wouldn’t give up, hoping to persuade a compromisation between them and North Vietnam.   This failed as there were...