Hello, and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merritt and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at the North Vietnamese strengths in the Vietnam War and by the end of the day's lesson, we'll be able to describe the strength of North Vietnam and how these strengths helped them to win the war.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms. And today's key terms are terrain, experience and support.

So the features of an area of land, for example, its hills or forests, are known as the terrain of that area.

Experience refers to the development of knowledge or skills in a particular activity due to sustained involvements.

And support means to provide assistance or encouragement in order to help someone succeed.

So now that we're happy with those key terms, let's get going.

Today's lesson is gonna be split into three different learning cycles and our first learning cycle is looking at the strength of the North.

So it would be dishonest to present the US's loss in Vietnam as purely due to their own failings.

The reality is that the strengths of the North Vietnamese in a large part in them winning the war.

And the first of these is that they were fighting in their own country.

And this brings the benefit of knowing the local terrain, which is especially useful when it's remembered that there are no jungles in the United States.

The US had little to no experience fighting in terrain that the North Vietnamese were entirely comfortable in.

The Vietnamese Communists were able to use this familiarity to great effects through such strategies as using jungle cover to hide the 12,000 miles of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The Vietnamese Communists were also arguably more motivated as they had more to fight for.

Many of them were supportive of Ho Chi Minh's government due to the land reforms the North had passed, which gave poor landless peasants their own land to work.

And they wished to see this extended into the South as well.

Many of the North Vietnamese Army, the NVA, were nationalists as well as communists.

They wanted to fight for a united Vietnam.

They were fighting for the unification and the freedom of their own country from their perspective.

And as well as that, the NVA had been fighting for this cause since the Second World War when they were the Viet Minh, they had resisted Japanese occupation, first of all.

And then once that had finished, they moved on to fight to try and remove the French.

So after the country was divided, the NVA fought once more, this time against the South Vietnamese Army, the ARVN, And then the introduction of US Forces was just the latest in a long line of enemies that the NVA had faced.

So they are a very experienced army.

The NVA as a force was very experienced, but the same can also be said of individuals within the NVA.

So unlike American troops who spent 12 or 13 months in Vietnam, NVA soldiers spent years fighting their enemies, which allowed them to develop a great deal of fighting experience.

US Soldiers on in the draughts were sent out for a year's deployment.

They were in Vietnam for about a year on average.

Then they came back home, and that's it.

Their military tour was done.

If they were professional soldiers, if they were there for the long haul, then they might be out in Vietnam for longer.

But if you were drafted, you were there for a year roughly, and then you're out again.

From the North Vietnamese perspective, once you're in the army, you were sent to South Vietnam and you were there for the long haul.

You could be there for years upon years, which obviously isn't great if what you wanna do is fight and then get back home to, you know, your friends and your family.

But if you are there 'cause you are fighting for the unification of Vietnam, then you are gaining experience, you're continuing to fight for something that you believe in.

So that made the individual soldiers of the NVA just far more experienced and arguably a better fighting force than their American counterparts.

The NVA were never as large as the ARVN or the US Troops.

For example, in the Spring Offensive of 1975, the NVA had 305,000 soldiers and 600 vehicles compared to the ARVN's one million soldiers and 1,300 tanks.

But they were consistently able to outfight them in large part due to their experience and their motivation.

So let's go for a quick check for understanding now then.

So what I'd like you to do is to complete the following sentence using the same keyword.

So it's the same keyword used twice.

Your job to work out what that keyword is.

So the Ho Chi Minh Trail went over challenging something such as over mountains and through forests.

Knowledge of this something was a key strength of the North.

So complete that sentence with the correct keyword.

Okay, if your chosen keyword was terrain, then congratulations, that is indeed correct.

So the Ho Chi Minh Trail went over challenging terrain such as over mountains and through forests.

Knowledge of this terrain was a key strength of the North.

So another check for understanding now.

True or false, despite being outnumbered three-to-one, the NVA defeated the ARVN in the Spring Offensive of 1975.

Is that true or is that false? Okay, if you chose true, then congratulations.

That is correct, but let's justify the answer now.

Is it true because the North were able to win partly due to their experience and motivation? Or is it true because the North were better supplied with modern weapons than the South? So choose your justification now.

All right, if you chose A, then that is correct.

Very well done.

Let's go for another check for understanding.

So once again, true or false, soldiers in North Vietnam had experience of fighting other foreign countries before the USA, true or false? Okay, if you chose true, then very well done.

They did indeed.

But again, let's justify this answer now.

Is it true because North Vietnamese fighters had contact with the military power of China and the USSR? Or is it true because North Vietnamese fighters have faced the military forces of Japan and France? Choose one of those two now.

Okay, if you chose B, then well done.

That is indeed correct.

North Vietnamese were allied with China and the USSR.

They didn't fight them.

Right, let's go for our first task now then.

So what I'd like you to do is organise the groups that people from North Vietnam had fought since 1940 into chronological order.

So write a number in the box next to each group with one being the earliest and four being the latest.

So pause the video whilst you do that and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you did okay with that task.

Let's go through the answers now then though.

So the first one they fought were the Japanese during the Second World War.

After that, the North Vietnamese fought against the French occupies, their colonial masters at the time, who they managed to successfully remove from the French Indochina so that Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia would be separate independent countries.

Next, they were fighting the South Vietnamese in that civil war to try and unify the country.

And finally they fought the United States who came in as the ally of the South Vietnamese.

So hopefully you got all of those correct.

Let's move on now then to our second learning cycle for today, which is support from the South.

So a major reason for the defeat of the US was their lack of support amongst the people of South Vietnam.

A large number were either active members of the Viet Cong or supported the guerrillas in some way, so just by feeding them or or hiding them.

Prior to the Tet Offensive, the Viet Cong had approximately 300,000 soldiers and were spread across the whole of South Vietnam.

Many of the Viet Cong or their sympathisers resisted the US for similar reasons to the NVA.

They also wanted a united homeland.

They viewed the US as invaders preventing this from happening.

And many were also angered by the corruption of the South Vietnamese government.

NVA troops and Viet Cong guerrillas regularly worked alongside each other, particularly in the tunnel systems that are created to aid their guerrilla style warfare.

And the Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon, for instance, stretched for 250 kilometres.

This is probably the best known example of a tunnel system, partly because it still exists.

It's now used as a museum.

And you can see on the screen in front of you there that one of the tunnels for the Cu Chi system, again, is part of the museum.

You can go and visit yourself now.

At the tunnels themselves though were an example of incredible engineering, extremely well camouflaged openings led to a series of narrow tunnels filled with booby traps designed to injure or kill any hostiles who managed to find a way in.

And some of them were really quite ingenious, so they could use anything around them.

So in many cases, venomous snakes, which you can just find in the jungle.

They were kinda hidden with inside those tunnels.

And if you set off a little trip wire, then that snake would drop down.

And obviously if you are living or using that tunnel frequently, you know where that trip wire is.

And if you're a hostile, like a member of the ARVN, or a member of the US Troops, you don't know where that trip wire is and you go into that tunnel and then suddenly a snake falls down on you.

So it's really quite alarming, especially when you consider that the tunnels in some cases were incredibly narrow as well as the image on the screen gives some indication there.

As well as that though, in some cases, whole villages were created underground, complete with cooking and sleeping quarters, schools for children who were hiding from US airstrikes and also spaces for dance troops to entertain the soldiers.

So there were touring groups of entertainers who went around to the different tunnel systems to keep the communist forces in good spirits.

Thousands of communists spent literally months living underground in conditions that were often bad for their health.

I mean, these tunnels kept them alive to some extent, but they did not prolong their lives by any stretch of imagination in terms of the long-term effects of living in these tunnels.

The air was stagnant, the water was frequently bad, and those booby traps like I talked about with the venomous snakes and things like that, well, sometimes they just got into the tunnels by themselves and they could cause problems that way as well.

However, that doesn't take away from the ingenuity and dedication to the cause.

That was a major factor in the North's victory.

Okay, quick check for understanding now.

So how long were the Cu Chi tunnels used by the Viet Cong and NVA to launch attacks near Saigon? Were they 25 kilometres long, were they 250 kilometres long, or were they 2,500 kilometres long? Okay, if you chose B, then very well done.

They were 250 kilometres long.

Another check for understanding now.

So what made the Viet Cong valuable allies for the North in the Vietnam War? Was it their ability to carry out guerrilla warfare and blend into the local population? Was it their experience of supplying weapons and food from South Vietnam to the North along the Ho Chi Minh Trail? Or was it the support they got from Western countries and international organisations? Okay, if you chose A, then very well done.

That is indeed the reason there.

It's probably worth pointing out as well that the Viet Cong and the NVA, they worked together so well and so frequently that from the perspective of the generals in North Vietnam, the Viet Cong were basically just another division of the NVA.

They worked together so well.

They had the same goals.

They were using, in many cases, the same tunnel systems and the same weapons and ammunition that they were just thought of as another branch of the NVA.

Right, let's go for our second task now then.

So what I'd like you to do is look at the source on the screen there.

So this is Lam Thi Dep.

She was pictured here standing guard in the Mekong Delta in 1972.

So that's right down in the very far south of South Vietnam.

And she was a Viet Cong soldier.

When this picture was taken, she was 24 and she'd already been widowed twice.

So she'd been married twice and both of her husbands had died.

And she carries an American made M16 rifle.

There's a little bit of context for the source there.

What I'd like to do with this though is give two inferences from the source about the reasons why North Vietnam won the Vietnam War.

Just again, to give you a little bit more help, a few points to think about here.

That she is in civilian clothing.

She's not in a uniform.

The rifle once belonged to a US or potentially an ARVN soldier.

It is difficult terrain, you can see there, so therefore her local knowledge is incredibly valuable.

A she is experienced and a strongly motivated soldier.

The fact that she's lost two husbands in this war and yet she's continuing to fight just demonstrates her motivation.

So pause the video now, have a go at this task, and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got along fine with that task.

Let's go through the answer I've got on the screen in front of you now.

So I said the source shows a woman holding a rifle wearing civilian clothing.

I can infer from this at the Viet Cong who the woman pictured was a member of, were difficult for the US and ARVN to identify when they were not carrying weapons.

This would make them an effective ally for North Vietnam as Viet Cong members could attack from anywhere, which would be very demotivating for the US and ARVN.

The providence of the source states that the soldier has already been widowed twice, yet she is still willing to fight.

I can infer from this that the North and their ally, the Viet Cong, were extremely dedicated to their cause and unwilling to give up easily.

So hopefully you had a similar sort of answer to that.

Maybe you made some different inferences though.

I've made different points.

That's absolutely fine.

Right, let's go on to our third and final learning cycle for today, which is help from abroad.

So a key factor in the success of the North was the support they received from their fellow communist nations, the USSR and China.

As well as providing weapons and equipment, so for example, the USSR sent just free tanks.

These nations also helped limit US involvement.

In 1950, China had attacked US Forces when they came too close to the Chinese border during the Korean War.

And the fear of this happening again kept US Forces from conducting a ground invasion of North Vietnam.

Many of you may well have been wondering why didn't the US just invade North Vietnam? This is the reason why.

The fear that China would get involved as well.

China was a massive nation and America was shocked by, well, first of all, shocked by the attack that took place during the Korean War, but then they were shocked by just how effective the Chinese Army were.

So they did not want a repeat of that in Vietnam as well.

As well as that, the knowledge that the USSR and China possessed nuclear weapons prevented the new US from dropping their own nuclear bombs in fear that the communists would support their ally and retaliate.

So again, it's another big fear, they could, America, they had the capability of dropping nuclear bombs.

Why didn't they just do that? Well, they were afraid at this point that the Soviet Union, that the Chinese would just retaliate in kind.

And what America doesn't want is just all out nuclear war.

Support came from China in the form of equipment, training and towards the end, the back end of the wall, most importantly, engineers who built military infrastructure such as roads and airstrips.

And between 1965 and 1971, 320,000 Chinese troops were present in North Vietnam.

As I said, the majority of those, they were just building up North Vietnam, making them a more efficient nation for fighting.

By the late 1960s, more than 3/4 of the military and technical equipment supplied to North Vietnam came from the USSR.

So you can clearly see the division there between the support that North Vietnam's allies were providing them.

So from the USSR, they were getting machines, they were getting equipment for war, and from the Chinese, they were getting engineers, and military knowhow as well.

Regardless of where it's coming from, this support was absolutely essential to the North's victory.

Right, let's go for a check for understanding now.

So which two of these communist countries provided the most economic and military support for North Vietnam? So was it China, Cuba, North Korea, or the USSR? Choose two of those now.

Okay, if you chose China and the USSR, then very well done.

Let's go for another check for understanding though.

So true or false, the USA did not invade North Vietnam because it was worried how China and the USSR might respond.

Is that true or is that false? Okay, that is indeed true.

So well done if you correctly identified that.

Let's justify that answer now though.

Why is it true? Is it true because both the USSR and China had nuclear weapons, so invading North Vietnam risked a nuclear war or is it true because both China and the USSR had borders with Vietnam and might invade South Vietnam to make it communist? So choose one of those two justifications now.

All right, if you chose A, then congratulations.

That is indeed the correct answer.

So just a reminder now of some of the North Vietnamese strengths that we've discussed in this lesson.

So they were fighting in familiar terrain and it was terrain that was incredibly unfamiliar to the Americans that they were fighting against.

They were a dedicated and motivated fighting force.

They were a veteran, group of veteran troops with a lot of military experience.

So they've been fighting nonstop for many, many years.

They had support from the Viet Cong in the South.

They were fighting for unification and independence.

So that's a cause that many people can rally behind.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail provided support for troops, and they also had support from the USSR and China.

So those are your main reasons there why the North Vietnamese were able to win the Vietnam War.

Wasn't just because the US were lacking in some respects, to a great extent, it's because the North Vietnamese were a very, very good fighting force.

Right, let's go for our final task for today.

So I would like you to explain why the North was able to secure victory in the Vietnam War.

And I'd like to use the following in your answer.

So I'd like to discuss the NVA, the North Vietnamese Army, and I'd also like to discuss support from other communist countries.

You'll also wanna try and use knowledge from this lesson in this answer as well.

So things that I haven't pointed out there, I'd like you to try and discuss those as well.

So try and get as many points as you can to make it a really strong answer.

Pause the video now, and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got along fine with that answer.

Let's go through my answer that I got on the screen now though, and hopefully yours is somewhat similar to mine in some regards.

So I said North Vietnam was able to secure victory in the Vietnam War for a number of reasons.

The experience and ability of the NVA was a major factor in the North's victory.

The NVA as a force have been fighting almost nonstop since the early 1940s.

And individuals within the Army served for years at a time, meaning that the troops were experienced fighters and extremely capable.

This was crucial as the NVA was severely outnumbered by the ARVM and US Troops.

So in order to stand a chance, their troops needed to be as strong or stronger than their enemies.

The North was also able to secure victory thanks to the support they received from their communist allies, China and the USSR.

China provided a great number of engineers who developed the country to better prepare it for war by building such things as roads and airstrips.

The Soviet Union provided a huge amount of equipment such as tanks and offered them free of charge.

This limited the US.

It did not want to trigger a nuclear war with the USSR and it could not invade North Vietnam in case China joined the war.

Without communist ally support, it is possible that the US would've invaded and defeated North Vietnam.

Cong who worked alongside the NVA created elaborate tunnels, like the 250 kilometre long Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon, in which both forces could hide and assault the ARVN and US Forces before disappearing again.

This allowed the communist forces to put pressure on their enemies without losing too many soldiers even when they were outnumbered by ARVN and US troops.

And a final reason why North Vietnam won the Vietnam War is the support they received from sympathisers in the South.

Roughly 300,000 people joined the Viet Cong and many more supported the NVA by offering food and hiding places.

The South Vietnamese people supported the NVA because, like North Vietnam, they wanted to unite the whole of Vietnam and remove the presence of the Americans.

Without the support of South Vietnamese sympathisers, it would've been much harder for the North to secure victory in the war.

So hopefully your answer runs along a similar sort of vein to mine.

We've got a variety of different points which we've discussed in detail and used specific examples to support the points that you are making.

Let's summarise the lesson now though.

So North Vietnam had a great many strengths that enabled it to win the war.

The North Vietnamese Army was highly experienced and fought to unify and liberate their country.

North Vietnam received a great deal of support from sympathisers in the South and North Vietnam also received a great deal of support from the powerful communist countries of China and the USSR.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself.

Hope you've learned something.

And hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Buh-Bye.