From 1965 to 1973, the United States Army sent over 536,000 combat troops into the jungles, villages, and swamps of Vietnam. Of these 536,000, over 58,000 would never return. Despite air superiority, artillery, and the most technologically advanced military in the world, the United States collapsed and was defeated both at the hands of its enemy and at the hands of itself. Inevitably, the United States of America was defeated in Vietnam due to grave errors in political and military judgment, lack of popular support, and extreme unpreparedness to fight the Viet Cong and North Vietnam in a guerrilla war. On the ground, the United States sided with the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. The Viet Cong were primarily a southern rebel group, composed mostly of teenagers and young adults from villages in South Vietnam. Because they lived among civilians, it was often impossible to distinguish between VC and civilians. While many were motivated by idealism, they also faced pressure and threats to join the ranks. However, they had serious doubts about their ability to fight the heavily armed and well-trained Americans. Contrary to popular belief, the Viet Cong did not fight often compared to the North Vietnamese Army. The Vietnam People's Army, commonly known as the North Vietnamese Army or NVA, was the regular army of North Vietnam. They received massive support from the communist superpowers of the USSR and China, receiving training, weapons and supplies. Finally, the NVA was logistically superior to the United States. According to John M. Van Dyke's Strategy for the Survival of North Vietnam, the NVA was often armed with black market weapons and even captured US weapons such as the Thompson submarine...middle of paper...since the beginning of the Cold War. The United States was ultimately doomed to lose in Vietnam. Unable to gain sufficient public support, the war dragged on as anti-war ideas circulated and spread further into the homes, TVs, radios, and newspapers of the American public. The United States Army was unprepared to fight a guerrilla war against a highly nationalistic and motivated enemy. The huge arsenal of tanks and aircraft and the tactics developed to defeat the Soviets proved ineffective against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army and their advanced network of tunnels and explosive weapons. Inevitably, the United States of America was defeated in Vietnam due to grave errors in political and military judgment on the part of the US government, a lack of popular support from the US public, and a huge unpreparedness in preparations to fight the North Vietnamese..