English Language · Reading Comprehension

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows. The Indochina Wars were a series of conflicts in Southeast Asia involving colonial and later ideological struggles between communist and anti-communist forces. The First Indochina War (1946–1954) emerged after World War II, when the Viet Minh, a communist-led nationalist movement, sought independence from French colonial rule. The French defeat led to the Geneva Accords, which temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with the north controlled by the communist government of Ho Chi Minh and the south led by a Western-backed administration. However, this division laid the groundwork for the Second Indochina War, widely known as the Vietnam War (1955–1975). The Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union intensified the conflict, as the U.S. intervened militarily to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. The war saw extensive guerilla warfare, massive U.S. bombing campaigns and deep political divisions both within Vietnam and internationally. Despite superior military technology, the U.S. struggled against the highly adaptive strategies of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. Widespread anti-war protests and declining public support in America contributed to the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops, and in 1975, North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon, unifying Vietnam under communist rule. The region faced devastating economic and human losses, with millions of casualties and long-term instability. These conflicts reshaped global geopolitics, influencing Cold War policies and international relations for decades. The failure of U.S. military intervention in Vietnam can be primarily attributed to: