Vietnam War: What was the nature of the conflict in Vietnam? What misconceptions about the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong's military capabilities and willingness to fight?

Question

Question: What was the nature of the conflict in Vietnam? What misconceptions about the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong's military capabilities and willingness to fight?

Sources: 

https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3460

https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/9269475a-8ec3-44d5-abff-26123aad7a5e/jfk-confronts-communism-video-ken-burns-lynn-novick-the-vietnam-war/#.WpBnGajwaUk

Answer 1

As to misconceptions about the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong's military capabilities, you noted the main issue which was the Viet Cong's willingness to fight and the population's willingness to endure heavy bombing. There was a strategy of attrition in which Gen. Westmoreland believed that over time the enemy would lose the will to fight but also wouldn't be able to sustain the heavy losses they endured which at times were at a 10-1 clip. The Vietnamese were able to replace their heavy losses and a steady stream of supplies (often from China and the Soviet Union) continued to come down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This leads to a second major misconception about the effectiveness of large-scale bombing campaigns. Reports from North Vietnam showed the population incredibly resilient in the face of the bombings and a willingness to get right back to rebuilding a piece of infrastructure once it was destroyed. Bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail caused the North Vietnamese to become more adept at traveling at night (driving without headlights). Ultimately, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara came to the conclusion that the war of attrition would not prevent the Viet Cong from resupplying itself and that the massive bombing campaign had proven largely ineffective at breaking the will or ability of the Communists to fight.