Describe the military tactics used by both the USA and the Vietcong in the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

        The growing amounts of American ground troops forced the Vietcong to Guerrilla Warfare. This is where the Vietcong tried to overcome the American army by using their brain and knowledge of the area and landscape and not their military power.  The Vietcong would use Booby Traps and their knowledge of the landscape to be able to snoop around under the Americans noses without being noticed. This use of the Jungle terrain caused a lot of problems for the Americans as they were not used to fighting in the dense forest of the jungle. This use of the jungle by the Vietcong forced the Americans to a tactic called Defoliation, which took place between 1965-71. Defoliation is the use of chemicals to wipe-out large areas of jungle and the Vietcong who vanished into the undergrowth. They used Agent Orange an herbicide, Agent Blue an insecticide and Napalm to burn off vegetation. This use of Chemical warfare was not good for the Americans ongoing battle to win over the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese civilians because it caused large numbers of civilian casualties with very little death to the Vietcong. The Vietcong built large tunnel networks to shelter themselves from the dropping of chemical weapons. These tunnel networks caused yet more problems for the Americans because it meant their enemy could simply disappear.  

        As time went on the tension grew until during the ceasefire of the Tet Festival of 1968, the Vietcong used the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos and Cambodia to send supplies and men to South Vietnam. As the festivities of the Tet Festival began to end the largest ground attack performed by the Vietcong was launched with attacks on all major cities and military strongholds. This surprise ground attack was unorthodox for Vietcong but shocked the American army and the Americans back home causing great uproar against this impossible war The Americans fought back with Open Warfare but the amount of Americans against the war now rose and forced the Americans into a tactic called Vietnamisation.  This is where they replaced their ground troops with Vietnamese ARVN troops

         In conclusion the two army’s tactics were all influenced by one another, for example the use of chemical warfare caused the Vietcong to build large tunnel networks. The way one tactic influenced the other eventually to a deadlock making the American public believe they could not win this war.