Problems Faced by US Soldiers in Vietnam

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Problems Faced by US Soldiers in Vietnam

Source Based

Introduction

In this question I will be trying to answer possibilities and analyse

them about source A. I will decide whether or not I agree with the

interpretation of the situation faced by American soldiers in Vietnam.

The soldiers faced many problems and I will be trying to analyse them

to see if they are true or not. Also I will be trying to find out were

the facts came from and if they provide enough evidence, and are

reliable enough to work from.

In the source it says that an increasing number of new recruits scored

so low on their intelligence tests that if they were to apply to join

the peacetime army they wouldn't have got in. I don't know were this

fact came from and if there is evidence to support this, however it

had a shocking affect and makes the reader think that the Americans

rushed into the war. It shows that the Americans weren't too bothered

about the IQ scores of their recruits they just wanted as many

soldiers as they could get; instead of focusing on the quality of

soldiers they went for quantity. The source mentions about the one

year tour of duty, which after analysing other sources, I know that

this scheme was taking place. The soldiers would have been in Vietnam

for one year only, and after they began to gain experience they were

sent home this reduced the effectiveness of the American army. The

Americans were constantly throwing inexperienced rookies against

highly skilled guerrillas on their home turf! It says the soldiers

were most likely to die in the first moth of being in Vietnam. I'm not

too sure if this point is true because there is no hard evidence to

show it. I can understand when new recruits were thrown in they would

have been eager to fight but they would have also not known how to go

about things. When most of the soldiers had been fighting for six

months in a way, they sat back and let the new recruits do all of the

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