Because of the way the Americans fought this war, the Vietnamese had different perceptions or misperceptions of the United
States. All of the assigned readings make this point valid. Many of the Vietnamese
civilians saw the American soldiers as instruments for America's leaders wanting their war machine to defeat the North Vietnamese, not to help Vietnam, but just to win. American leaders were making their decisions by listening to certain people "who didn't really know what they were dealing with." This paper explains how the Americans misunderstood the Vietnamese and what went wrong when they tried to take over the fight between North and South Vietnam.