How effective were the US tactics of search and destroy and defoliation in the Vietnam War?

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How effective were the US tactics of “search and destroy” and “defoliation” in the Vietnam War?

Introduction -> In the Vietnam War the US army believed that if Vietnam would become communist countries like Cambodia, Thailand and Laos would follow proving their “Domino Theory” correct. Their main aim was to get the North Vietnamese people to surrender. They assisted the South fight the North, so their military had to come up with methods to defend themselves from the Viet Cong; who used their own guerilla tactics. Tactics such as defoliation and search and destroy were the most commonly used, and are the most famous today. The US military were being affected psychologically so badly by the Viet Cong’s tactics, that they had to come up with a way to overcome it.  

Search and Destroy -> US Commander General Westmoreland was the one who developed the Search and Destroy tactic as bombing could not defeat the Viet Cong. These raids would be launched from helicopters so they could then descend on villages and destroy any Viet Cong forces they found or were informed about. Even though this method would sometimes kill Viet Cong soldiers it was not always accurate and caused many unnecessary problems. They would send out inexperienced soldiers who would then fall into traps because they were not paying attention, innocent villagers and civilians were massacred and most of the time the raids were based on incorrect information. All of these mistakes lead the soldiers to be very unpopular with the people as they were killing innocent people whom they were also meant to be assisting.

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On March 16th 1968 three platoons full of US soldiers landed in the town of My Lai. They had been sent there because of information that the Viet Cong were there. They started to fire at the villagers, burnt home and crops; though it soon became clear that there were no Viet Cong troops they did not stop. Women were raped, children and elderly shot even thought they were all innocent. The final body count came to 300. As this was the first war the media and newspapers got involved in the public in the USA eventually became aware of this ...

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