U.S. Vietnam War Veteran Shares Perspective on the North Vietnamese

Caesar Smith was a career military officer who served two tours in Vietnam. In 1964, he was a U.S. advisor to South Vietnamese troops, returning as a soldier in 1968. In this segment from Iowa Experience: Vietnam, Smith shares his perspective on the motivation of North Vietnamese soldiers to fight. The panel discussion was recorded at Iowa PBS in Johnston, IA on September 10, 2017.

Caesar Smith: Well, one thing for sure I think Ho Chi Minh and the North Vietnamese felt they could win. They felt that from the beginning because they could outlast I think what we were doing. When you're in another world, another country fighting their war they don't have to worry about going home, they're already home. And I think they felt no matter how long or what it was going to take, for once and for all he was going to get everybody out of his country. That's a strong sentiment to feel and you're going to fight it a lot harder than an American coming in to help you get Communism out of your country, that's one thing. But we went in and knowing what our mission was we still did what we could do in terms of that mission. But 500,000 or 5 million are not going to run people out of their own country if they decided to stay. If they don't fight an all-out strong war they're going to go behind lines but continue to fight. That was obvious.