Source A tells us of the problems faced by America during the Vietnam War. It says that troops were drafted into the US army and scored so low on the IQ tests that they should have been rejected from service.
We are told that the army being sent to Vietnam was on a tour of duty of about 1 year and had an average life expectancy of 6 months, which meant that, as the source puts it, "a rookie army was constantly throwing inexperienced men against experienced guerrillas on their home ground." The evidence for this is that in one week of war 552 Americans were killed.
There is evidence for his claims because the draft itself was unfair as rich families could send their children abroad to escape it and university students could opt to continue their studies. This led to most draftees being poor and uneducated. What we are not told is that some of the soldiers that were drafted would choose to stay in Vietnam for a second tour of duty because they felt they had nothing in America.
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United StatesMichael Bilton is writing about the massacre of My Lai and not the whole of the Vietnam War. The other reasons of America struggling through the Vietnam War, but which are not relevant to My Lai, are that the US commanders were unable to command in guerrilla warfare and America was using unsuitable technology for jungle Warfare.
I would agree with Source A by Michael Bilton because he has done extensive research by asking English, Americans and Vietnamese on their views, he has delved deeply into the Vietnam war, he is English, and we weren't involved and he is writing in 1992, which gives him the ability of hindsight. This lets him get a more...