How did public opinion in the United States influence the escalation of the Vietnam War, particularly regarding the strategic importance of the Ho Chi Minh Trail?

Early in the war most Americans supported sending troops, but as casualty numbers climbed and the war’s purpose seemed unclear, public opinion shifted toward opposition. Politicians, worried that a loss of public support would undermine their legitimacy, increased troop deployments and bombing campaigns to show decisive action. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, the North Vietnamese supply artery, became a strategic target because cutting it could cripple enemy logistics, and the government believed that a hard‑baked bombing campaign would force the enemy to abandon it. However, the intensified bombing of the trail in 1969, driven by the need to appease an increasingly anti‑war electorate, actually galvanized North Vietnamese resistance and further eroded public confidence. For instance, after the Tet Offensive in 1968, the surge in anti‑war protests forced U.