The US could not use the same tactics that they had in previous wars because there was no front line. This was a problem for the US because they couldn’t ‘advance’ into Vietcong territory because they were randomly positioned in small groups. Therefore the US decided not to use large formations of ground troops. Instead they moved around in small groups of about 20 soldiers searching for Vietcong. This was called ‘Search and Destroy.’ To rate the level of success during an operation, General Westmoreland introduced ‘Body count’. This was counting the number of Vietcong dead after a skirmish. However this morale-raising tactic ultimately failed due to the ability of the Vietcong to replace troops faster than the US could kill them. The Vietcong had the advantage because of the awkward terrain that the US troops were not used to and the fact that the Vietcong knew the area very well compared to the US troops.
Vietnam has an extensive system of rivers and waterways that are used to irrigate farmland. US troops exploited this to move around by boat. To overcome the problem of the jungle terrain, helicopters were used to ship troops in and out of otherwise inaccessible areas. Helicopters were also used to supply US troops with artillery and other necessities, to evacuate casualties, and were armed for use directly in conflict. The helicopter was so important in the Vietnam war that it came to symbolise it.
The US found the Vietcong very awkward to find because they didn’t wear any uniform and looked like ordinary Vietnamese citizens, so the US troops went about burning any villages that could have been sheltering the Vietcong.
US troops didn’t speak any Vietnamese so their methods of finding the Vietcong were not very effective. Any reasonably young Vietnamese men were immediately suspected of being Vietcong. Because of the US’s futile attempts at finding all Vietcong, the US had to resort to more expensive alternatives. Because there was dense jungle sheltering and hiding the Vietcong, the US needed a way to expose them. They used three methods of clearance. Agent orange, a defoliant used to destroy vegetation, Napalm, jellied petroleum used to clear areas by burning them away, and finally blanket bombing, dropping hundreds of bombs over an extensive area all at once. All of these were very destructive, not only of vegetation and Vietcong soldiers, but also of innocent civilians and their villages.
Access to North Vietnam was only possible by air so the military operation, Rolling Thunder, was conceived. This was the saturation bombing of areas in southern North Vietnam. The Americans were reluctant to bomb further north because of the fear of Chinese intervention which had occurred previously in the course of the Korean war. The Chinese in fact did support North Vietnam by entering the war in 1966. The purpose of Operation Rolling Thunder, which was slowly escalated, was to put pressure on the North Vietnamese Government based in Hanoi. The attacks by the US intended to lower morale but it merely raised it. The Vietcong had very well defended areas against air attack. This included anti-aircraft guns, ground to air missiles, and Mig fighter planes armed with machine guns and air to air missiles. Another morale raising tactic of the Vietcong was to post the numbers of US aircraft that had been shot down that day on boards in public places.
To cater for the huge amount of ammunition, artillery and other necessary things needed in a war, the US General in charge of the war in Vietnam, General Westmoreland, decided to set up Supply bases linked to the sea (so that the bases could be supplied from America.) Some of the biggest bases were in Pleiku, Danang and Kesanh. Westmoreland also set up smaller supply bases closer to North Vietnam from which US troops would leave for missions and then return to afterward. The US therefore had to spend a lot on all this, compared to the Vietcong, who were supplied with everything they needed by North Vietnam, Russia and China who also later sent troops to help them. Trained North Vietnamese soldiers infiltrated South Vietnam by well established routes, mainly through Laos. Once in South Vietnam local guides would lead the soldiers half way from the previous supply base to half way past the next one. Consequently the guides from one supply base only needed to know the location of that particular one, thus guarding against giving away important information in the event of their capture by US troops.
To summarise, the US and Vietcong fought using very different tactics, related to their knowlege, resources and capabilities.
Daniel Allan
11GS
