I think it is crucial to understand the motivations and principles of the people involved, in order to shed more insight unto the matter.<p>Regardless of the political overhead, from my personal experience the vast majority of the Vietnamese people at the time, already being Spartan like in certain manners and living in times of turmoil, saw the &#x27;war of Resistance against America&#x27; (as the Vietnam War is called in VN)as the continuation of resistance against foreign superpowers, dating back thousands of years.<p>The US, after, Japan, France, the Mongols, China was seen as yet another invader in a long line, albeit arguably the one with the most overwhelming strength.<p>The average North Vietnamese person did not care about Communism, Capitalism, Political theories or world politics. 
They only cared about them in so far how they could help them achieve their goal: To be free! Sovereign in their own land.<p>This mindset coupled with the history of Vietnam is important to understand where the dermination of these units came from. Yes, the US military would &#x27;win&#x27;, as in being the last party to remain with living soldiers in an all out war until the very end no discussions, hands down. That is because, similar to the Japanese the morals of these Vietnamese guerilla peasants fighting would fight till the end.<p>In that regard, especially when seeing discussions here and mostly on reddit going back and forth about who &#x27;won&#x27; the war, people forget that they might talk with completely different defnitions of winning in mind. (Or they are just American kiddos that cannot accept their great US ever loosing ever.)<p>It is a great tragedy in the end, because in the end, absurdly in a certain way, both sides fought for the same thing: Freedom.<p>The US won the battle, but lost the war.