In order that the Vietcong became friends of the people they had to be trained in personal skills as well as military training. they were to gain the peasant’s confidence and this involved following Ho Chi Minh’s “12 Recommendations”. These were “Be fair and honest with people. Never take even a pin from them. When staying in a civilian house maintain it as if it is your own. Be polite with the people and love the people. Be respected and loved by the people.” By following these techniques support was gained and also the Vietcong increased in numbers.
The US also employed a tactic called the “Strategic Hamlets Policy” in order that it would counteract the Vietcong’s 12 Recommendations. This policy involved separating the Vietcong from the normal people, by leading the peasants into fortified areas where the Communists could not get to them. This caused unrest amongst the people, who felt imprisoned. Also the Vietcong managed to get in the “safe” areas and continue their work of subversion. Consequently by 1963 the NLF controlled 40% of the countryside and terrorised the urban areas by bombing campaigns. Hence by 1964 the Johnson administration was considering a change in strategy. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had one idea, to expand the air war and the Civil Advisers in the Pentagon had another. They wished to apply gradual pressure through limited and selective bombings.
Hence between 1965 and 1968 when Johnson was president the war escalated. This was initiated in February 1965 when the NLF attacked two US army installations in the south, and LBJ launched “Operation Rolling Thunder”. This involved heavy bombing of the DRV in an attempt to halt the Vietcong’s supply of men and munitions along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
The operation was supposed to be a quick kill and justified by saying: “I regret the demands of war which have made it necessary to bomb North Vietnam. We have carefully limited these raids. They have been directed at concrete and steel and not at human life. The bombing will bring the north to its knees in a few months.” Unfortunately for the US this plan failed. The cities were destroyed and the people moved into the villages and countryside. There these people set up small-scale munitions factories. Over 30,000 miles of tunnels were dug as air raid shelters against bombing. There were even full-time squads on hand to carry out repairs.
Ho Chi Minh had the opposite policy to the US’ quick kill, he believed in using a protracted war strategy: “In a war, there must be, of course, losses and sacrifice. Our people are determined to persevere in the fight, and to undergo sacrifices for ten or twenty years or a longer time, till final victory, because there is nothing more valuable than independence and freedom.” In March 1965, the first US combat troops arrived in Vietnam at Danang. The US aimed to fight a battle of attrition which would wear the Vietcong down. Although the Vietcong were determined to go on till victory. In 1967 critics saw this US strategy as an indication of the fact that the US was losing the initiative and it was not even a strategy in itself.
The US had never come up against guerrilla warfare on this scale before. The US troops found it hard to combat these guerrilla tactics of the Vietcong. The US no longer aimed to capture land but kill as many Vietcong as possible. Philip Caputo who volunteered to fight in Vietnam said: “The rare occasion when the VC chose to fight a set-piece battle provided the only excitement, but beyond adding a few more corpses to the body count, these encounters achieved nothing. Our mission was not to win terrain, but simply to kill. The pressure on unit commanders to produce enemy corpses was intense. It is not surprising that some men acquired a contempt for human life.”
It is clear from this the US had no clear objectives. Hence the Vietcong used this protracted war strategy so successfully. The US became more bogged down in the war, morale dropped as it became impossible to have a military victory. As the US morale decreased the Vietcong’s grew, their subsequent increased bravery and daring was a main reason for their success but also there was a strengthening by a flow of troops from the north. By 1967 this reached an estimated 55,000.
The ground troops of the US found it difficult to fight their invisible enemies. They used techniques such as “search and destroy” missions. These involved the destruction of villages suspected of aiding the Vietcong. Evidence was never questioned, all suspects were guilty. The worst example of this occurred in March 1968. The My Lai massacre involved the deaths of approximately 400 Vietnamese civilians. All of whom murdered in an orgy of mindless brutality. Another technique adopted was called “Free Fire Zones”, these areas between barbed-wire villages were used to drop spare bombs into. In these areas should anything move they would be shot or even napalmed.
An essential part of the guerrilla warfare involved using the lush canopy of the jungle as cover from all sides. The US used a chemical defoliant, Agent Orange on the countryside to make the guerrilla tactics less effective.
All these US tactics were all disasters because they turned all the Vietnamese against them and even the US people were against it.
The US also used large-scale operations to combat the Vietcong. One of these operations “Cedar Falls” in January 1967 used 300000 troops to clear out a Vietcong stronghold. This was a failure, only 700 VC were killed and it only took a matter of weeks for the VC to regain control of any lost land. Another of these operations was “Junction City” took place in February of the same year and was the biggest US-South Vietnamese operation of the war. It involved fierce fighting against veteran DRV forces north of Saigon.
The Vietcong’s confidence grew as more and more Russian military hardware flooded in, no longer did the US have such vastly superior weaponry. The VC received AK-47 rifles, ideal for guerrilla warfare. Along with heat seeking missiles to bring down giant US B-52s. The VC also got hand held missile launchers for use against US helicopters and planes.
Hence large-scale attacks such as Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive in January 1968 were made viable. At Khe Sanh the Vietnamese laid siege to the US marine base for 76 days until April 15th. The Tet Offensive involved a mass insurgence of the VC into the cities of the south. During this offensive the confident VC held the city of Hue for two months and even captured the US embassy in Saigon for a few hours.
These victories not only improved confidence but showed the US they would not be defeated and their plan of attrition was failing.
In March Johnson temporarily halted bombing the north and the escalating US forces in Vietnam slowed down. This led to a full bombing halt in October. A sign possibly LBJ was considering peace.
The astounding fact was between 1964 and 1969 South Vietnam was subjected to the heaviest ever bombing the world has ever seen. By 1969 an incredible 70tons of bombs for every square mile of Vietnam. This is equivalent to about 500lb for every person in the country. All of this emphasises how the US believed constant bombing would cause the VC to give up rather than driving them out militarily. This however was never possible due to the VCs superior ability to blend into the jungle which meant the US could not fight them as they could not fight what they could not see.
As the presidents changed and Nixon came into power the US strategy also changed. Nixon chose a policy of Vietnamisation, this would allow the US to leave but there would be no Communist victory.
Although Nixon expanded the war and US involvement by moving into Laos and Cambodia. In an attempt to destroy Communist sanctuaries there. Eventually by April 1971 US forces reach a peak of 543,000. Although from here on numbers fall rapidly. All are gone by March 1973. As the numbers fell the VC took advantage by launching attacks on ARVN forces near Hue, around Kantoum and Saigon. The US did send massive supplies to help but the ARVN had lost all will to fight, hence by 1975 Vietnam was all Communist.
The war was fought between both forces in very different ways. The US used their superior weaponry in conventional warfare and used a policy of attrition which was destined for failure against the guerrilla warfare tactics of the VC. The Vietcong chose not to fight the South Vietnamese people by angering and disrespecting them. The VC tried to be their friends. The US failed to do this and consequently they found no help from the people. The Vietcong were very good at this form of warfare and were very brave and committed. The US soldiers were attacked day and night and lost much sleep. Although the VC where aided by Russia in the form of military hardware. Without this the task would been far harder. Although it was the adaptability, perseverance and strength of mind that allowed the VC to defeat their foes so effectively. As well as US complacency and arrogance.